Jury finds ‘DC Madam’ guilty on four counts

Raw Story | April 15, 2008

A Washington jury has convicted Deborah Jean Palfrey, who became known as the DC Madam, on four counts including money laundering and racketeering in connection with a running a prostitution ring, according to news reports.

"When a man agrees to pay $250 for 90 minutes with a woman, what do most men expect in that time?" prosecutor Daniel Butler said during closing arguments Monday. "In that context, it’s pretty clear. Most men want sex."

Local affiliate NBC 4 reports:

Palfrey was accused of running an escort service in D.C. as a front for a high-priced prostitution ring. She was tried on federal charges including racketeering and money laundering.

Defense attorneys argued that Palfrey only sold appointments and had no control of her employees’ or clients’ actions.

Thirteen women who worked for Palfrey testified that she never discussed sex with them but that it was an implied part of the job. Three clients also testified in the trial. Palfrey’s lawyer, Preston Burton, rested his case Monday without calling Sen. David Vitter, R-La., as a witness. Vitter was on notice that he might have to appear during the prostitution trial.

It took less than eight hours for the jury to reach its verdict, according to the Washington Post.

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In closing arguments yesterday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Butler argued that the government’s evidence, including testimony from 13 former call girls, proved that sex-for-money was the real business of the $250-an-hour D.C. escort service that Palfrey ran by phone from her Northern California home. He rejected defense claims that Palfrey did not sanction illegal acts and that the business offered legal sexual game-playing and fantasy.

An IRS agent said the business generated about $2 million in revenue, which Palfrey and the escorts split about evenly.

Most of the 13 former escorts testified that Palfrey was careful not to talk about prostitution explicitly with them. The women said, however, that they discussed the subject many times with Palfrey in veiled terms and that they understood that she would not employ them unless they engaged in paid sex acts with clients.

Three former clients, a landscaper and two lawyers, also testified that Palfrey ran a call-girl service. Each said he had sex with escorts dozens of times.

According to local news radio WTOP, the case marked the first time that federal racketeering laws were used to go after a prostitution ring.

Palfrey’s prostitution ring operated as what she claimed was a legitimate sexual fantasy business in which sex was not exchanged. The prosecution called more than a dozen women formerly employed by the Palfrey’s Pamela Martin & Associates escort service. They said that Palfrey never discussed sex, but that their sleeping with clients was an implied part of the job.

Vitter was the most high-profile Washington client to admit an entanglement with the escort service, but he avoided having to explain his trysts in court. His lawyer told the judge in the case that Vitter would plead the fifth if called. The Louisiana senator was so wary to discuss his adventures with Palfrey’s gals that he even crashed his car trying to avoid a reporter’s questions about the incident.

Harlan Ullman, a military strategist who created the concept of "shock and awe" that the United States used to open hostilities against Iraq, also did not testify. Palfrey says Ullman was a regular client; Ullman has declined to discuss what he has called "outrageous allegations." Randall L. Tobias, who resigned as a deputy secretary of state after acknowledging to ABC News that he used Palfrey’s service for massages, also did not testify.

Defense attorney Preston Burton argued that what went on during appointments was between the client and the escort. He compared Palfrey to a taxi dispatcher, who shouldn’t be penalized for "the route the cab driver took."

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