BELLEVUE, Wash. — Detectives from the Bellevue Police Department and King County Sheriff's Office set up a prostitution sting last summer and arrested 110 men on suspicion of patronizing prostitutes. Today, they announced 61 of those cases were dismissed after an error by Bellevue detectives.
According to officials with the Bellevue Police Department, detectives used surveillance cameras in the sting and accidentally recorded audio for more than half of the cases.
Washington state is a two-party consent state and audio cannot be recorded without the other party's consent.
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Legal experts say video is allowed as long as there isn’t a reasonable expectation of privacy.
The sting was set up in a Bellevue Condo in August and led to the arrests of the 110 suspects
"While this turn of events is disheartening, it is important to remain focused on the goal of operations such as this: to eradicate human trafficking and its related crimes wherever they exist," Bellevue Police Chief Steve Mylett said.
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