TUSCALOOSA COUNTY, Ala. (WBRC) – Investigators with the West Alabama Human Trafficking Task Force charged five people, including a Tuscaloosa County middle school teacher, with soliciting prostitution.

Investigators said each of the suspects responded to commercial sex ads posted online and met a woman and paid for sex. The men were arrested after arriving at a hotel in Tuscaloosa County and giving money to an undercover cop.

The following people were accused of promoting prostitution:

• David Tillet, 49, of Tuscaloosa
• John William Godfrey III, 40, of Cottondale
• Christopher Shan Hinkle, 56, of Camp Hill
• Joshua Vasha Samuel, 29, of Tuscaloosa
• Lawrence Eric Stephens, 43, of Tuscaloosa

Tillet was arrested on Friday, November 1, while the other suspects were arrested on Saturday, November 2.

Investigators said the men were transported to the Tuscaloosa County Jail on $300 bail each.

Tuscaloosa Police said Stephens was a teacher at Duncanville Middle School. Tuscaloosa County school leaders released the following statement to families, staff and media:

Capt. Phil Simpson of the Tuscaloosa Police Department and the West Alabama Human Trafficking Task Force says the charges are misdemeanors, but added that the alleged ‘Johns’ didn’t realize the damage was much deeper for them and beyond what was legal.

“Then when you add in the venereal disease and all the things they unknowingly take home, it becomes a physical problem for the rest of the family. It also ‘impairs John’s ability to have a normal, loving relationship with another human being,'” Captain Simpson said.

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