Legal Corner
Never say never
For a misd. charge, most likely not going to be an issue. But, a review could come into evidence if LE were successful in identifying the author and gaining direct testimony that the review was his writing and that it represented facts of an encounter.
This question has been on my mind for a bit. Let's say you are a provider and have 50 reviews on TER. You get busted and are under arrest. Can your reviews be used to establish that you committed the crime 50 times? As we all know LE can get access to the reviews so it is as easy as printing out all the explicit details. Sure, your attorney could agree that those are fictional encounters made up by 13 year old computer geeks who posted under aliases and LE would have a hard time getting those guys to testify even if they managed to subpoena TER's records... But is it possible that the reviews could be used against you?
rest easy, even with a hundred reviews, they cannot be admitted as evidence or used as evidence against you for the purposes of prostitution charges. You might search this topic, it has been discussed in great detail before. Sure some reviews are fantasy, but they make for confusion or may be good reading for some. Most are accurate from that reviewer's viewpoint although each guy's views are from his own viewpoint on that day at that time and are generally helpful when there are at least 8 or more favorable reviews with at least two or three within the last year.
For a misd. charge, most likely not going to be an issue. But, a review could come into evidence if LE were successful in identifying the author and gaining direct testimony that the review was his writing and that it represented facts of an encounter.
Take the prospect that a reviewer in the same jurisdiction has been brought in on some charge.
The police/DA recognizes him by his handle for this or some other time.
The overlap of the provider's review and the handle could it lead to the reviewer being granted immunity for some minor transgression in order to prosecute the provider?
so while I might agree with the answer you gave if she asked about "convictions," it is not correct as to whether she could be charged based on the reviews.
Remember that probable cause for an arrest warrant can be based on credible hearsay evidence and even inadmissible evidence such a lie detector result. So if an arresting officer could trace the reviews to the lady's real name, and trace the the reviews to the real name of the reviewers, and subpoena a TER record keeper, and if the reviews contained all the elements of the crime (which is rare), she most certainly could be charged based on the reviews.
So why are we not worried? Well, look at how many "ifs" I had to build up to reach this conclusion LOL. It's just not worth the cost/trouble for a prostitution beef. But oh yes in theory she certainly could be charged based on the reviews.
-- Modified on 8/22/2011 7:23:43 PM
Thanks everyone. I get the difference now. Probable cause, then being charged, then conviction IF all those circumstances work against me at the same time. I will just have to stay safe and hope for the best.
Someone may have noted this else where but I would also argue that the reviews are hearsay. To get them admitted LE would have to bring in the person who wrote them and get that person to admit that what the wrote was the truth. I think that would be very hard to do.
to take you over my knees and spank you once for each reveiw.
But seriously, LB is correct.
First of all, TER's servers are in The Netberlands (Holland) and aren't available to be subpeonaed. Even if they could, they would need to bring in the author of each review to testify against you.
No DA in their right mind is going to go through all this expense for a fourth rate misdeamenor.
And if they did, the publicity it would bring you would be like solid gold.
(still not a lawyer)
Great incentive... I better rack up some more reviews!
One of my friends got called for jury duty for a high profile prostitution case. During the selection process the judge asked him what he thought her punishment should be. He told the judge she deserved a good spanking. Needless to say he was promptly dismissed from the jury.
Let's say the IRS looks at bank accounts, cars, and a condo owned by a woman who has not filed her taxes for several years and a TER profile lists a phone number, email address, and a web page. They can assume she has income for which she has not filed taxes, for. The examiner says "it's best if you pay your back taxes with penalty and interest".
Yes, that is true but the IRS does not really care how you get your money as long as you pay taxes on it.
That sounds like a lot of trouble to go through for a simple, non felony crime. If you're just suzy sucksalot the neighborhood provider, you're not that important. Now if you have reached the status of Heidi Fleiss that's a different ball game.
Arguably, with all the schill and fake reviews that take place it makes it hard to distinguish between fact and fiction.
Unfortunately it looks like your attempt to purchase VIP membership has failed due to your card being declined. Good news is that we have several other payment options that you could try.
We thank you for your purchase!
Membership should be activated shortly. You'll receive notification!
