O’side man pleads lesser charge after prostitution arrest

An Oceanside man who was caught in a 2013 anti-prostitution sting pleaded guilty to a lesser charge on Jan. 12.

Scott Manning, 47, was caught in then-District Attorney Kathleen Rice’s “Flush the Johns” sting operation of arresting men and charging them with patronizing a prostitute in April 2013. Rice, who is now the representative for New York’s 4th Congressional District, also released the names, ages and hometowns of the 104 men caught on the district attorney’s website in June 2013.

Manning withdrew his initial not-guilty plea on the charge, which is a misdemeanor, and pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of disorderly conduct, which is a noncriminal violation. At District Court in Hempstead, Judge Anthony Paradiso sentenced him to a conditional discharge, which includes 35 hours of community service.

Manning will have to attend “Johns school,” a two-hour class about the problems of human trafficking and its effects on its victims. He was the last of the “Johns” with an open case since the arrests more than two years ago.

Of the men arrested in “Flush the Johns,” more than 90 have pleaded guilty or were eligible to plead guilty to a noncriminal charge. Nearly all of those arrested were required to attend the “Johns school.” If they took the class, they could plead guilty to the disorderly conduct, a violation that would leave them without a criminal record.