05-01-2008, 07:37 PM
Here's another one for you: DC Madam. What makes this article so special?
Suicide? Yeah right. You've got to be kidding me! Someone who has already been to jail for this stuff and knows the routine... I wonder if the judge who let her out of jail until her charges was paid off?
Quote:DC Madam Believed to Have Committed Suicide in Florida
ALLISON KLEIN AND CAROL D. LEONNIG
Washington Post Staff Writers
A woman who apparently committed suicide in Florida is believed to be Deborah Jeane Palfrey, convicted last month of running a high-end prostitution service in Washington, officials said.
Authorities were called at 11 a.m. today to a mobile home park in Tarpon Springs, Fla., where they found a body in a residence belonging to Palfrey's mother. Few other details were immediately provided.
Palfrey, 52, was free while awaiting sentencing June 25 on federal racketeering charges. A federal jury convicted her April 15 of running a Washington-area call-girl ring in the guise of "a high-end erotic fantasy service," rejecting her argument that she was unaware for 13 years that female escorts she employed were performing sex acts with clients for money.
Authorities said the body was found in a small storage shed on the west side of the home. They found handwritten suicide notes, they said, and there are no signs of foul play. Tarpon Springs police said they are working with the sheriff's and medical examiner's office to determine the cause of death.
"This is tragic news, and my heart goes out to her mother," said defense lawyer Preston Burton, who represented Palfrey during the trial.
Dubbed the "D.C. Madam" after her indictment created a swirl of publicity a year ago, Palfrey had said she hired socially polished, college-educated women to indulge her customers' fantasies through "quasi-sexual" game-playing only.
The jury in U.S. District Court sided with prosecutors, who said Palfrey knew her clients were paying $250 an hour for full-fledged sexual encounters. The panel made its decision after hearing from various call girls and clients in a week-long trial. Palfrey did not testify.
Palfrey's mother often accompanied her to court last month. An employee at the mobile home park said that Palfrey had been visiting there recently.
The U.S. attorney's office had said that under sentencing guidelines, Palfrey probably faced a prison term of four to six years.
Palfrey ran her business, Pamela Martin & Associates, by telephone from her California home, and authorities said she grossed about $2 million from 1993 to 2006, splitting the money about evenly with her escorts. They said she employed at least 132 women over the years, dispatching them nightly to clients in homes and hotel rooms in the Washington area
The recent conviction was not Palfrey's first dust-up with the law. She was convicted of running a prostitution ring in California 17 years ago and spent 18 months in jail.
Considering Palfrey's history, Assistant U.S. Attorney Catherine Connelly had asked Judge James Robertson last month to order her locked up until sentencing. But the judge declined, saying Palfrey is an "intelligent woman" who knows she would be punished if she tried to "flee the country."
Suicide? Yeah right. You've got to be kidding me! Someone who has already been to jail for this stuff and knows the routine... I wonder if the judge who let her out of jail until her charges was paid off?
"The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self." -Albert Einsetin