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Police say Colleen Kadderly (top), Marcelena DuPree (center) and Tara Nute made money from the illegal sex industry. If that's so, the women's attorneys say, so did the johns.
There are about 200 escort services advertised in the local Yellow Pages and in periodicals that cater to adult businesses. Often, the same people run several services, to attract a wider variety of customers by advertising under different names.
Brumfield estimates that an escort business can "easily" earn $100,000 per year.
Cops say that many escorts also work as street prostitutes.
Escorts aren't cheap. According to police, it costs about $180 to have an escort appear |
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Matt Weuker |
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Sex, Cops and Videotape BY MAUREEN O'HAGAN, mohagan@wweek.com Wanted: One stud for free-lance work. Mediocre pay, but guaranteed satisfaction. Must be able to perform on camera. No STDs, no attachments. Apply to Portland Police Bureau vice squad. The ad may be facetious, but the job it describes isn't. In its effort to topple the city's bustling escort industry--which cops say is nothing more than a haven for hookers--the Portland Police Bureau is paying men to have sex with alleged prostitutes. And capturing the illicit acts on videocameras hidden in motel rooms. The practice, occasionally used elsewhere in the country, has been part of the Portland Police Bureau's arsenal for about two years. So far, according to Sgt. Ed Brumfield, the vice unit has used this method to bring charges against about half a dozen businesses with little public attention. Recently, however, this kind of sex-on-the-public-dime has drawn fire from defense lawyers working on a pair of prostitution cases making their way through the Multnomah County criminal courts. The first case involves a single count of prostitution against Colleen Kadderly, who worked for an escort service called A Bit of Honey. The other case involves 12 counts of promoting prostitution against Tara Nute and Marcelena DuPree, who police say ran the business. Police say they focused on A Bit of Honey because it was little more than an expensive prostitution service during the past two years. As with all escort services, however, police had a tough time bringing charges. Under department rules, cops can pretend to be johns looking for sex, but they aren't permitted to touch the suspected prostitute or expose themselves. Prostitutes, of course, know this and can easily distinguish between the men who are looking for a good time and the ones who want them to do some time. That's where the agents come in. About two years ago, the police, after consulting with the DA's office, changed their policy to allow free-lance civilians to do the dirty work for them. The requirements, says Brumfield, are stiff. Compared to typical informants in a drug case, who often have lengthy rap sheets and nasty habits, these johns are practically choir boys. Brumfield says they must have a clean criminal record, be single, take a blood test to rule out STDs, and agree to be videotaped and testify in court. Brumfield won't say how many agents he's used, nor share details of their backgrounds, but he says it wasn't easy getting someone lined up for the Kadderly sting. "I had to talk long and hard to convince this person to help us out," he says. "These guys are not making a ton of money. For the embarrassment, it's not worth the money.... Believe me, it's not easy to find people that will do this." The job, however, does have its perks. According to court papers filed by defense lawyer Michael Rose (who represents Nute), the informants in the Bit of Honey cases were "provided by the police with a room in which to work and a wad of spending money...the women masturbated the informants to ejaculation which required toweling off and the ritual post-orgasmic cigarette. Informants appeared to be immensely enjoying their brief careers in law enforcement." The defense has been vigorous in disputing the police strategy. "The fundamental fairness requirement embodied in the due process clause of the federal Constitution says we need to be fair and we need to have clean hands in law enforcement," Rose says. "If the police agents are paying for sex with tax dollars, then there's something horribly unfair about the fact that [the female defendants] are being charged and the police agents are not, even though their conduct was exactly the same." The defense, says Brumfield, "would like for you to believe we're paying guys to get blow jobs all the time. That's not the case. We are extremely careful on how we use this authority. Most of the time, no actual sex act occurs." Because of some aggressive defense work, the state will be forced to show the truth of that claim to the court. At a recent hearing in front of District Court Judge Michael Marcus, defense lawyer Ed Jones, who represents Kadderly, demanded that the police release the informant's name, home address, rate of pay and other information regarding his role in the case. Marcus agreed and ordered the prosecution to turn over to defense lawyers several documents that are not normally available in cases with informants. Because of this ruling, the informant's name soon could be made public--something that bothers Brumfield. After three years on the vice detail, he has seen how prostitution ruins women's lives and says these agents are one of the best tools to fight it. "It's a brutal, demeaning life," he says. "The escort owners are the ones that are profiting off of another's misfortune." It's clear from the banter in the courtroom, however, that observers are quite willing to have fun at the informant's expense. Marcus, for example, took pity on the "unfortunate agent who had to submit himself to this," noting that with all the escort services in Portland, "this guy has a bright future ahead of him." |
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