A 28-year-old Little Falls man charged in a law enforcement sting pleaded guilty to a gross misdemeanor last week for soliciting prostitution in a public place.
Kevin Michael Desmet Groseclose, 28, was originally scheduled for a jury trial on April 25. Groseclose instead entered a guilty plea and was sentenced by Crow Wing County Judge Kristine R. DeMay. In May 2015, Groseclose responded to an online advertisement for escort services and then engaged in a conversation with an undercover police officer, when he solicited sex in exchange for money. He was detained after arriving at a Baxter hotel to complete the transaction in the first operation of its kind locally. Officers involved included those from the Baxter and Brainerd police departments and the Crow Wing County Sheriff's Office.
Groseclose was placed on two years of supervised probation and was ordered to complete an offenders prostitution program. The program is intended to hold buyers of illegal sex accountable while raising awareness among them on the impacts of sex trafficking. If Groseclose does not complete the program, he would be required to serve 30 days in jail.
Terms of his probation included random searches of his person, residence, vehicle, electronic devices and social network sites and prohibition of the use of websites promoting escort services or prostitution. Groseclose was fined $1,760, although the judge granted him the ability to do community service in lieu of paying the base fine.
A second man facing the same charge was scheduled for a jury trial April 25, but the trial was delayed. Tyler Clark Meech, 23, Baxter, was arrested as part of the second law enforcement sting conducted in June 2015. Meech's case is set to go to trial at 9 a.m. Aug. 15.
ADVERTISEMENT
Two others accused of solicitation-Brent Michael Seivert, 42, Breezy Point, and Kenneth Wayne Kirk, 49, formerly of Baxter and currently of Clarksville, Tenn.-are scheduled for jury trials July 18.
CHELSEY PERKINS may be reached at 218-855-5874 or chelsey.perkins@brainerddispatch.com . Follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/DispatchChelsey .
