Dave Zorn is a familiar voice in Coconino County. For more than a decade at the local KAFF News radio, he’s covered local sports and was a trusted voice, appearing on the air, online and in this video a city councilmember recorded of him in 2022.
He hosted student spelling bees and gave voice to the region’s most important news like last November’s elections, emergency fire evacuations and crime.
Last Thursday, police say he was arrested during an investigation into child sex trafficking in Arizona’s high country.
The case started six months ago, when law enforcement’s North Star Task Force opened a series of investigations in northern Arizona. Six men were arrested on felony child sex trafficking charges. Three others, including Zorn, were charged with luring a minor for sexual exploitation, a felony.
KAFF News said in a statement that Zorn was placed on leave as soon as the station was informed of his arrest.
Police say they won’t yet discuss specifics of the allegations. But the case is chilling in its intimacy. Zorn taught at Northern Arizona University up until his arrest and covered local high school teams in depth.
"There’s a misconception that a lot of this crime is coming from the outside and coming in, which is absolutely not true," said task force lead detective Bethany Hyde. "It’s people who have been embedded in our community for years. Some of them even born and raised in Flagstaff for 40-plus years."
Michelle Rucker is executive director of Northland Family Help Center’s human trafficking services, an area nonprofit that works with police. She said law enforcement long ago recognized the need to collaborate on human trafficking in northern Arizona.
"Human trafficking does not look anything like what you see in movies or television," she said.
And that's even more true in rural areas like Coconino County.
"It’s going to be indoors. In residential settings. It’s going to be in hotels and motels. It’s going to be underground," Rucker said.
Like Hyde, she stressed that many of those charged were local residents.
"That means that it’s our sons, our daughters, our nieces, our nephews who are being targeted by these perpetrators for sexual exploitation," Rucker said.
Hyde said she hopes this case brings awareness for parents of the type of threats children face.
"Finding that balance between letting your teens have freedom but also monitoring who they’re talking to and the types of conversations that they’re having," she said.
A judge ordered a $100,000 bond for Zorn, and Rakesh Dullbson was given a $250,000 bond.
"We've known for a while that there are folks in the community — sometimes hidden in plain sight that are perpetrating these crimes, and that was the purpose of the North Star Task Force was to collaborate better on these types of investigations," said Coconino County Attorney Ammon Barker.
"We assumed that we would find some folks during a sting like this. And we did."
Barker said law enforcement trainings have stressed that child exploitation cases are common across the country. "It's a sad commentary on the state of society and the way people are seeking for these things and creating this market that exploits children."
According to a release from the Flagstaff Police Department, "Amongst those arrested for felony charges were:"
- Max Berkman, child sex trafficking
- Rakesh Dullbson, luring a minor for sexual exploitation
- Michael E. Flores, luring a minor for sexual exploitation
- Christopher Hoffman, child sex trafficking
- Abel Ramos, child sex trafficking
- Thomas Jay Smith, child sex trafficking
- Brent William Smith, child sex trafficking
- Marcus Wimberley, child sex trafficking
- David Zorn, luring a minor for sexual exploitation
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story and headline have been updated to correct a transcription error in a quote by Michelle Rucker; and to clarify that the Flagstaff Police Department said the nine individuals arrested were "amongst those arrested for felony charges"; and to clarify that Rakesh Dullbson's bond amount was $250,000. Bond amounts for the seven people arrested besides Zorn and Dullbson were not immediately known. This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
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