A few months ago, I ran into an LE operation.  The gentleman had verifications, but no local provider references, since he claimed he was new to the area.  Since his work references checked out, I agreed to see him.
Upon our meeting, I walked into a dark room reeking of pot and the guy answered wearing his boxers.  I asked to use his restroom and thought, geesh, this could be interesting.  I came back out and there he was standing at the door, naked and jerking himself off.  He pulled me in and started kissing me hard and yanking at my hair.  Immediately, I sensed something wrong and thought that this wasn't going to work out and resisted and tried to pull back.  He kept with the kissing and harsh grabbing and yanking at me and pulled my skirt off and tried to pull my shirt up.  I decided, enough.  I'm going home.  At that point he started telling me how good I was doing and oh yeah that feels so good even though I wasn't doing anything.  AFter that he said he had to go take a piss before we started the fucking and went off and next thing I know, 5 LE come charging through the door.  When the guy comes out of the bathroom, he is fully clothed.  I asked them what is up and what did I do wrong and they said, come into the next room so we can ask you a few questions.  Again, I asked them what did I do wrong, and they said, we aren't here for you, we just want you to answer some questions for us and then we'll let you go.  After 2 hours of their interrogating and questions, they realized they weren't going to get anything out of me and start to get frustrated and yell and curse at me. Finally, one pulls me to the side and says, you are getting a lucky break, we are going to let you go, so go.  
6 weeks later, I get a letter in the mail from lawyers wanting to represent me on my upcoming court case.  First that I have heard anything about me having to go to court.  Still to this date, I have yet to recieve any official summons stating that I have to be in court.  I have contacted a lawyer and he is looking into this matter.  Here is the dilema:
The cops want a bargin, I plea guilty, and there will be a $200 fine (which I hear is quite low).  I feel like I haven't given them any evidence on making a case that I was definately there for sex for money, but I'm told most times that it's best to just get the misdemeanor and pay the fine as most will not take the time to listen to your case.  Yet, I feeled compelled to fight cause first off, I feel like who's the victim?  Second, I am available as a companion, not as a prostitute.  You hire me as you date for the evening.  You hope that your date puts out, but it's not to be expected.  I do fuck my clients occasionally, but that's out of my own choice and not something that is a paid for service. Third, they treated me so shitty that night and tried so hard to put words into my mouth and got frustrated because I was too smart and wouldn't give in. And forth, they lied so bad on that police report on what they said I did and said.  They even stated that they arrested me on the spot and stated my Miranda rights, which they didn't, they told me that they weren't after me, that they just wanted some information and that they were going to let me go, which they did.  It's more of a he said, she said case.  No real hardcore evidence.  Do I just be done with this and take the cheap way out, or fight it, knowing that most judges are going to frown on this case?
I want to fight it, but that's just me not liking people to dick with me like that.  I mean, if they are going to prosecute someone, they should do it for the right reasons with the right evidence and not lie and make up stuff.  Makes me lose respect for LE big time when I see stuff like this.  

By the way for those of you who are cautious, I too take every precaution to watch out for my clients.  I do not keep any paper trails or emails and often have my computer friends take care of wiping everything off my hardrive on a regular basis.  I will never accept a plea bargin if it meant exposing any of my clients as I feel the buck will stop here.  So for those of you wondering who I am and freaking out, it's ok.  

Interesting case and good example of LE wasting public funds.
You might get some more useful responses by identifying the county and the LE department or division that did this, as well as the apparent motivation. What led them to you? Internet? Reviews? Something or someone else?
Even a misdemeanor conviction is not something you want in the public records for the rest of your life.
They have no audio, no video, no hard evidence, so you have a bit of leverage. You might get the charges dropped by not suing them for violation of your own civil rights. A suit by you on this could certainly ruin cop #1 and make the squad look like a confused group of outlaw orangutangs (sp?).

I'm sorry to hear about your dilemma, and I wish you the best.  Not being the legal type, I am not in a position to advise you on what to do.  However, I can say from experience that even if this guy wasn't LE, he gave you some reasons to turn around and walk back out the door right from the get go.  

The fact that the room reeked of pot would have made the majority of escorts leave right away.  Why would any lady trust that she is in a safe environment if the first thing she senses on the date is drugs?? Yes, marijuana is usually considered harmless, but it is clearly illegal, and it compromises the lady's safety on more than one level. It has no place as part of a date with an escort. LE or not, that was very bad judgment on the client's part and you should have left.  

The fact that he answered the door in his boxers would have given the majority of ladies pause.  It really shows a complete lack of respect for the escort.  It is also considered by most people to be a state of undress, and that is the last thing an escort should encounter prior to having a chance to formally meet, converse with, and find a comfort level with client.  Your acceptance of him coming to the door in his boxers doesn't look too good from the "I only accept money for my time" perspective.

Lastly, once the client began tearing at your clothing and not accepting your resistance to his advances, you should have started yelling RAPE and screaming at the top of your lungs for HELP, loud and clear.  If he wasn't LE, if could have saved your life.  Since he was LE, it certainly would have made for an interesting audio tape in court.  

what's plain as day is that you realized from the first moment that you faced people who were in the wrong, and because they were in the wrong were impotent. you kept your head, and that's beautiful.

i can't respond to your specific situation because i don't know the circumstances -- which police department, their track record with the d.a.'s office in court, the attitude of the courts, community values -- but don't do *anything* more until you talk with a lawyer.

i'd call the aclu or any office nationally of a sex worker legal advocacy group -- others here can probably provide referrals -- and lay out the case. hold no discussions over the phone, put everything in writing, and make sure an attorney is present at all future meetings.

personally, i would call their bluff, and threaten a suit for physical assault, physical assault with badge, and filing a false police report. i would call your local paper and local tv station and see if there is a crime beat reporter who finds this story interesting. the "information" they wanted to find out may not be information they want public. and they *didn't* just let you go, they want to start a file on you, and put your "crime" down as a fact. that reduces your future leverage.

in short: lawyer up (pro bono if possible), look at all your possible responses, and go from there.

You are one incredible individual for standing up to LE during their little scare session. They're not use to that, so no wonder they were frustrated.

The big question I have; "why is the fine for the plea so low?

Here's a couple of likely answers:

1) They've got nothing on you

2) What little they do have on you will not obtain a conviction and so they won't even take you to court

3) They think that the plea agreement is so attractive that you'll jump at it. The conviction will go on your record, making it easier for them to prosecute you in a later case.

Not being a lawyer, but having a couple of personal friends who are DA's, my gut feeling is that they don't even plan to take you to court. LE often tries to get these FREE convictions, that they don't have to work for, when they know they can't get them otherwise. Remember, LE doesn't prosecute, DA's do and they have very different rules.

1. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.  You might also want to post this on the TER "Legal Corner" discussion board.
http://theeroticreview.com/msgBoard/MsgListBody.asp?Messageid=&BoardID=25

2. In the future, if you want to add or change something, you can modify your posting instead of replying to yourself.  
Click on your original posting, and then since you are the author you will see a button at the bottom "Edit Message".  
(This only works within 24-hours of your original posting.)

3. If this ever happens again, or to other girls: Don't say anything to the officers.  Don't be intimidated.  Don't subject yourself to hours of interrogating and questioning... You have the right to remain silent!  and that's usually the best thing to do.

In your case, it seems to me that if they said you're free to go, and didn't have you sign an agreement to appear, there's nothing further they can do.  Did you sign anything??

Good luck and best wishes
link

-- Modified on 8/15/2002 9:24:52 AM

On these facts, the DA should decline to prosecute due to no reasonable likelihood of conviction on all charges.  Good luck.
Josolo, Esq.

I would say take the advice of your attorney. If you feel strong about the issue then GO TO COURT! What concerns me is what LE is going to make up regarding the events. Unless you have a good attorney in a Court of Law who's opinion do you think the Courts going to favor...LE or Escort ?

If you have no prior convictions in this matter I would say to fight the case and take it all the way.  Most likely when the case gets to the trial date the DA will sewttle out, or most likely it won't even make it that far.

If you have priors and you accept the plea be aware that they can violate you if you are on any form of informal probabtion.

Also if you accept a plea if you ever get caught again the punishment will be much greater, since you will now have a prior for the same offense.

Unfortunately it is their word against ours, but a good attorney should be able to get a charge like that dropped.

If you didn't say anything while they were interogating you and if you didn't sign anything then the case should be dropped anyhow.

Find out if they have audio tapes, or video tapes first.  I have heard of similar circumstances of busts in long beach and oc where the officers tend to make a party out of their work.  

If you have no priors I would say take it all the way!

I didn't sign anything nor had my Miranda rights read to me, even though in the police report they said that was the first thing they did to me before the questioning.