Lewisville coach, youth pastor among 46 arrested for prostitution

DALLAS – Dozens of local men, including some community leaders, were recently arrested in hotels in Frisco and Southlake as part of a multi-agency prostitution operation.

Among the 46 people were a volunteer firefighter, a youth pastor, a school teacher and coach, a semi-professional hockey player and the director of operations for a major hospital chain in North Texas, federal officials at the Dallas Homeland Security Investigation Branch said.

The Dallas Morning News reported that they were all arrested between January 12 and 13 at the Hyatt Regency near the Stonebriar Center in Frisco and at the Hilton Dallas in Southlake Town Square.

Allegedly, they arranged online meetings with people for sex in hotels in exchange for money. But these sex workers turned out to be undercover agents, the paper said.

The slain McKinney woman planned to “blackmail” her boyfriend after learning he was married, the affidavit says.

Although the names of the 46 suspects have not been released, the Lewisville Independent School District confirmed that Marcus High School teacher and football coach Tim Morrison was among them.

The county said Morrison was placed on administrative leave after his arrest and then resigned.

He and other suspects have now been charged with complicity in prostitution.

HIS officials in Dallas said the undercover operation coincided with the Department of Homeland Security Blue Trafficking Awareness Month campaign.

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Often, sex workers become victims of sex trafficking because they are either underage or forced to work in that role.

“By targeting those involved in this crime, we hope to disrupt this activity and help victims of human trafficking by connecting them to lawyers and the resources they need,” said Lester Hayes, HSI Special Agent in Dallas.

“Victims of these heinous crimes are being treated like a commodity that is being used to make as much money as possible as quickly as possible,” Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Wayborn added. “Those who are victims of human trafficking are the scourge of the earth, and we will continue to pursue those who are responsible for human trafficking and those who extort sex from them.”

Anyone who is a victim of or has information about other local cases of sex trafficking is strongly encouraged to call Help Desk at 1-866-DHS-2423.