By: Stuart Morison, Staff Writer
Officer Ziifle was on a fixed post detail at the Best Western on Busbee Drive Sept. 8, when a maintenance worker flagged the officer down. The worker informed the officer that he believed a female in one of the rooms was engaging in some sort of criminal activity. He said a large number of male subjects were coming and going the female’s and staying only 20 to 30 minutes each. The officer was later approached by the hotel manager and a front desk manager who said that they suspected the female in the room was engaged in prostitution, drug dealing or both. The managers told the officer that the female does not have a vehicle and an older man rented the room where she was staying. The older man would occasionally come and pick up the woman and a young girl, take them off the property and then bring them back.
Officer Ziifle met with Detective Massengill the morning of Sept. 9 and informed her of what the officer had observed and what the managers had said. Detective Massengill, Officer Ziifle and other officers continued to watch the room and observed what the managers reported what they had seen. That evening, the officer’s vehicle broke down. He had to go to vehicle maintenance, secure the vehicle and check out a new one. While away, the officer received a text from the hotel office that a black passenger car parked in front of the rooms, and the driver went into the suspicious female’s room.
Upon arrival, the officer saw a black Nissan leave the hotel, and another officer was tasked with stopping the vehicle. While that stop was being conducted, Officer Ziifle saw a male exit an adjacent room. He approached the man and asked if he had seen or heard anything unusual. The man stated that he had, and that he had heard a child crying for about 30 minutes within the last hour. The officers that conducted the traffic stop advised they had cleared the
stop, and that the man in the vehicle had admitted to paying for sex with a black woman in the room the officers had been watching. Officers Centola, Culberson and Ziifle went to the room in question.
The officers were granted access after a few minutes, by a woman with a young girl. The woman initially gave officers a false name and date of birth. Later the officers got a warrant to search the room. Through the search officers found $7,929.48 in cash, and the woman admitted to being a prostitute. The Division of Family and Child Services was called and the mother was arrested. The DFCS worker arrived and took the child into her temporary custody because of the circumstances. The woman was taken to Cobb County Adult Detention Center.
