KVTA News Briefs
Saturday November 16, 2024
Ventura County authorities have arrested a woman and shut down an alleged sex trafficking operation in Southern California including Ventura County.
They say it started with an investigation into allegations that Swan Spa in the 100 block of North Rancho Road in Thousand Oaks was allegedly operating as a brothel.
That led to the identity of an Orange County woman and that led to three other businesses they say she also owned and operated including the Star Spa in the 400 block of Ventu Park Road in Newbury Park and two other businesses in Lake Forest, California.
The authorities say they gathered evidence that while the businesses were disguised as legitimate skin treatment spas they were allegedly providing sex for money.
On November 13th law enforcement personnel from Ventura County and the FBI served search warrants at the businesses and also the woman’s home and arrested her for pimping, pandering, and money laundering.
45-year-old Amanda (Ruifen) Xia of Yorba Linda has pleaded not guilty to all charges and is in the Ventura County Jail with bail set at $100,000.
She is due back in court on November 26th.
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Ventura County’s unemployment rate in October was 4.9 percent.
That’s up slightly from the 4.8 percent in September and also up slightly from the 4.8 percent in October of last year.
It’s lower than the statewide average in California of 5.4 percent but a full point higher than the national average of 3.9 percent.
Meanwhile, as far as jobs are concerned in Ventura County, there were 3200 new jobs from September to October and 6200 new jobs year-to-year from October of last year to October of this year.
Looking month-to-month, most sectors showed gains or no change with agriculture and financial services showing declines.
Year-to-year, several sectors showed declines including mining, logging, construction, and manufacturing, plus, information and financial services.
Sectors that were consistently good both month-to-month and year-to-year included Trade, Transportation, and Utilities, plus Professional and Business Services, Private Education and Health Services, and government.
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Friday night Oxnard police stayed in one place and at the same time moved around looking for impaired drivers.
Both the DUI/DL Checkpoint at Wooley Road and “A” Street and the roving patrols ran from 7 PM to 2 AM.
In the end, and they did not provide a breakdown between the two efforts, four DUI arrests were made, two citations were issued for driving on a suspended license, and 14 people were cited for not even having a driver’s license.
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Deputies in Camarillo say a parolee they know all too well is back behind bars just three days after being released for another crime.
Around 8:30 Friday morning an 18-year-old female from Camarillo was sitting in her vehicle in the 2200 block of East Ventura Boulevard when a man walked up and tried to open the door.
Deputies say he made “inappropriate comments” to her, she confronted him, and he walked away.
She recorded the incident on her cell phone and called 9-1-1.
When deputies saw the video they knew exactly who they were looking for, 47-year-old Wesley Fenton of Camarillo.
Fenton was released from jail three days earlier after completing a sentence for indecent exposure and is on active probation for that plus active parole for a prior incident involving resisting arrest.
They say Fenton was located and taken into custody for vehicle tampering because of the incident at the vehicle plus violating his probation and parole.
He is now being held without bail.
