Suspect found at Garlic Farm Motel during compliance check
While trying to contact sex offenders to see if they were complying with the regulations of their convictions, police happened upon a possible prostitution deal, police said.
On Tuesday evening, plain-clothes detectives tried to contact a sex offender at the Garlic Farm Inn in south Gilroy – near the intersection of U.S. 101 and Monterey Road – police said. There, detectives observed a woman and a man – who was not the sex offender – in the midst of what they believed was the beginning of a prostitution deal.
The detectives then called in patrol cars and uniformed officers, who confronted the two people – one of whom is local and the from the Los Angeles area – police said. The people denied police allegations, but police gave them warnings. Police did not make any arrests.
“Based on some of the statements and lies that were told to police, it was surmised that a prostitution deal was interrupted before any deal had occurred,” Sgt. Jim Gillio said.
The Inn and the area around it has the highest concentration of registered sex offenders in Gilroy, according to the state-run Megan’s Law Web site, which tracks offenders. Seven sex offenders put 5530 Monterey Road – the address for the National 9 Motel – as their place of residence. Four additional offenders listed the Garlic Farm RV Park, 5978 Garlic Farm Drive, as their residence and one additional offender listed the Garlic Farm Inn, 5920 Travel Park Circle, as his residence.
“We experience a higher level of incidents there based on the transient nature of the residents,” Gillio said.
Police regularly conduct compliance checks to make sure sex offenders are conforming with what the law requires of them – including registering their address and living no closer than 2,000 feet of a school or park – according to the state Office of the Attorney General.
