Police Make Another Internet Prostitution Arrest

OCEAN CITY - An Easton woman was arrested on prostitution charges last week after arranging a meeting with an undercover OCPD detective, who discovered the services she was offering on the Internet.

Last Wednesday, Ocean City police arrested Jennifer Watson Ambrose, 35, of Easton, on charges of soliciting for prostitution after detectives discovered advertisements for her services on an Internet website. On the site, Ambrose agreed to meet interested parties who would pay for her services in Ocean City.

An OCPD detective contacted Ambrose through her website, and after corresponding over the phone and by email, the suspect agreed to meet the detective at a pre-arranged time and location in the area of 21^st Street and Baltimore Ave. The detective and the suspect later met at the pre-arranged date and time and agreed on services with a fee of $150 per hour.

Upon meeting with the detective, Ambrose was arrested and immediately charged with soliciting for prostitution, a misdemeanor with a possible fine of $500 and/or a year in jail. Ambrose was seen by an Ocean City District Court Commissioner and released on her own recognizance. A preliminary trial date is set for Aug. 25 in District Court in Ocean City.

Ambrose's arrest last week marks the third reported arrest for prostitution in the resort in the last year and her case follows a pattern similar to that of her predecessors. Last September 8, an OCPD undercover detective contacted a Pennsylvania woman advertising her services in Ocean City on an Internet website. The woman arranged to meet the detective at a pre-arranged location in the resort and advised him her services would cost $300 for one hour or $500 for two hours.

The Internet prostitute later told police she had been to Ocean City three times over the course of last summer and made no less than $5,000 each time. She later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor prostitution, was fined $500 and placed on probation for a year.

About a week after that incident, detectives made similar arrangements with another woman and that suspect has asked for a jury trial, forwarding her case to Circuit Court where she awaits a Sept. 18 trial date.