Iowa man sentenced to probation in prostitution sting in A.L.
Published 9:04 pm Thursday, August 10, 2017
A Sheffield, Iowa, man who pleaded guilty in May in connection with a prostitution sting conducted in late December by the Albert Lea Police Department was placed on probation for two years on Thursday in Freeborn County District Court.
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Randall Richard Grilz
Randall Richard Grilz, 65, will be on supervised probation for one year and unsupervised probation for one year. He was sentenced to two days in jail and given credit for two days served. Sentencing came after he pleaded guilty to two counts of gross misdemeanor prostitution in a public place.
Grilz and Kurt Allen Roderick of Wixom, Michigan, were charged separately after Albert Lea officers set up an undercover sex trafficking operation in December at a hotel in Albert Lea.
Court documents state an online advertisement was set up with a phone number listed, which rang to a decoy phone answered by law enforcement. Grilz called the phone number listed in the ad, and he arrived at a hotel room.
Court documents state two decoys told Grilz that one of them was only 17 and her services would cost extra. He reportedly placed $300 in an envelope on a nightstand, undressed and laid down naked on a bed before he was arrested.
In a Mirandized statement following the incident, Grilz reportedly admitted he had seen the ad and made the agreement with the decoys, but he said the younger girl never told him how old she was, and he denied hearing she was 17.
Roderick is charged with one count of gross misdemeanor prostitution in a public place. A jury trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 26.