Three Newark motel rooms were converted into a brothel, police say

NEWARK — Police here raided a local motel, seizing evidence of human trafficking, after they identified it as the new location for a brothel that police had shut down back in April, court records show.

The June 19 raid of the EZ-8 Motel focused on three rooms that were allegedly rented out by operators of a prostitution ring. Police say they staked out the location for hours, watching various men enter and leave after half-hour durations, and that they identified the location after following up an online sex ad.

The online ad was identical to one connected to a brothel on Peralta Terrace, which police raided last April, seizing $5,000 in cash, ledgers documenting various sex workers’ gross income, sex toys, baby oil, and numerous condoms, according to court records. The April investigation started with a chilling plea for help from a woman, who texted a 911 dispatcher, “I need help now, I was forced into prostitution,” and that she was “hiding in the bathroom, can’t talk,” authorities said.

Police searched to the residence, and contacted several women there. The suspected brothel’s operators denied anything illegal was going on and claimed to be a Los Angeles resident, authorities said.

On June 19, police sent an undercover officer in the hotel, where he was greeted by a woman in a nightgown. They agreed to a $120 price, then uniformed officers moved in. The woman declined to speak with police and refused human trafficking victim services, authorities said.

The EZ-8 Motel is located on Cedar Avenue. In the 2010s, it was a notorious location, which a city planning commission considered forcing to close. City officials at the time described it as a hotbed for drug sales, prostitution, and other crime, including a 2012 incident where a 17-year-old Pleasanton girl was found dead there, along with a man in his 20s she ended up with after running away from home.

The motel’s operators didn’t immediately respond to multiple requests for comment.