Police bust attempt at prostitution

A Bloomington man has been arrested and jailed for promoting prostitution after an IU Police Department undercover sting found him soliciting teenage boys at a local shelter.\nMark C. Gillette, 44, of 465 N. Adams Street, was arrested Monday afternoon on two counts of promoting prostitution and also one count of attempted promotion of prostitution for trying to persuade an IU cadet, posing as an underage teen, to become a prostitute.\nGillette, who is unemployed, befriended the cadet and other boys at the Shalom Center, a downtown shelter where homeless and low-income people gather for a free meal and socialize off of the streets. Gillette was a soup kitchen volunteer.\nThe six-week sting operation began after a 16 year-old boy and his parents came forward March 20. IU police allege the teenager met a man whom he knew only as "Mark" at the Center, and was offered large amounts of money to become a prostitute. \nGillette allegedly took the teenager to a computer cluster in the HPER building and showed him sexually explicit Web sites, the parents said. Gillette told the young man he would, effectively, act as the teenager's pimp, arranging for him to meet with the men from the Web sites, with the men first paying Gillette for the sexual favors the teenager would perform.\nGillette claimed, however, he first needed to "interview" the young man, to ascertain if they were suitable sexual partners. \nIUPD Lt. Jerry Minger said there is no reason to believe that anyone was on Gillette's payroll yet. He believes Gillette was just "using this as a way to create a sexual relationship with young men."\nIU Tech Security found Gillette had obtained the name and password of a person on campus and was using the comprised e-mail account to log onto the computers, Minger said.\nThe day after police confiscated the computer used by Gillette and increased patrols in the HPER, Gillette was found in the same computer cluster with a 17-year-old man, going through the same routine he had used on the first teenager. \nThe 17-year-old said Gillette had met him at the Monroe County Library and had promised him $10 for a ride to the HPER building. While there, Gillette also said he would give him $500 to allow Gillette to "interview" him in the bathroom, where he performed oral sex on the teenager.\nThe 17-year-old also told police that March 20, Gillette had taken him and the 16-year-old to Ballantine Hall, and police reports on the incident said, "Gillette took time to convince the 16-year-old he needed to 'interview' him for the prostitution job" by allowing him to perform oral sex on the teenager.\nNo money was ever received by either teenager. To confirm the stories of the two young men, IU police initiated the undercover sting in an attempt to draw Gillette out.\nGillette was unable to post bail, and remains in the Monroe County Jail today. Minger asked that anyone who might have additional information regarding the case to call the IUPD at 855-4111.