By Jennifer Brice. With people moving into Colorado and conventions making a home in Denver, we are seeing the hospitality industry boom. With that comes another industry: the sex trade.
It often finds a home within all types of hotels. CBS4's Jennifer Brice sat down with a former madam who now works to educate hospitality staff about what to spot. Ripley, a former Boulder-based madam, testified to a grand jury about providing prostitutes for University of Colorado Buffaloes football recruits during that timeframe.
Ripley worked in the sex trade for about 15 years. At times, she worked as an escort and ran her own service. Ripley says it is not usually the actual services that clients would pay for but rather the privacy. Ripley no longer works in the sex trade.
She runs a nonprofit, Red Light Resources International, an anti-human trafficking organization that specifically works to educate hospitality staff about sex and labor trafficking. LINK: rlri. She encourages hotel staff to not chastise but rather give them information when they see the sex trade going on inside their businesses.
He would give me a free room and in exchange I would use that room to visit clients. Ripley believes as more people move and visit Denver, even hold conventions here, it will only grow the oldest profession around. Jennifer Brice is a reporter with CBS4 focusing on crime and courts. Featured Local Savings. More from CBS News.
