Prostitution petition filed

RENO - The man who staged his own disappearance outside a brothel east of Reno has filed a petition to ban prostitution in Nevada.

John Reese of Reno two months ago sent police on a wild goose chase after they found his abandoned car, complete with broken window and blood stains, outside the Old Bridge Ranch at Mustang in Storey County.

He later admitted his disappearance was staged to get attention for his battle against the brothels.

Reese has a long history of antics seeking to outlaw legalized prostitution in Nevada, including an abortive attempt to open a gay brothel in a move to incite outrage that would shut down traditional houses of prostitution.

The initiative petition seeks a public vote that would make it a misdemeanor for any person to engage in prostitution or solicitation for prostitution anywhere in Nevada.

Existing state law bans prostitution in Nevada's two largest counties, Washoe and Clark, but leaves it to local option in the other 15 counties. While several have banned the traditional brothels, several others have legalized and licensed them, collecting substantial amounts of tax revenue.

Those include Storey and Churchill counties.

Other counties have left their ordinances silent on the subject, tolerating brothels as long as they don't become a nuisance.

There are brothels operating either with licenses or in the absence of laws banning them in more than a half-dozen Nevada counties.

To qualify the issue for the November ballot, Reese must collect a total of 44,009 valid signatures of registered Nevada voters, meeting minimum percentages of last election's turnout in at least 13 counties.

The printed petition form instructs signers to return the document to the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage in Las Vegas.