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Hooker ads: Policing them is legal quagmire

Mike Thomas | COMMENTARY

February 17, 2008

Did MBI get caught with its pants down?

You may recall the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation busted the Orlando Weekly and three employees last year for selling ads to prostitutes.

The defendants have come up with a compelling argument against the felony charge of "deriving support from the proceeds" of prostitution -- thanks to a couple of surprise star witnesses: Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty and former MBI legal adviser Joe Cocchiarella.

This goes back to 1987. The MBI was having trouble busting people on felony pimping charges because the law required they prove the pimps were "living" off the earnings of prostitutes.

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So if a pimp had a daytime job, he might not be living entirely off prostitution, just supplementing his income with it.

At the time, Cocchiarella complained the MBI could not do "a financial analysis of their cash flow."

So the MBI turned to Rich Crotty, then a member of the Florida House, to help change the law so it could go after anyone who knowingly gained from the proceeds of prostitution.

But that raised a red flag at a House hearing where Crotty and Cocchiarella pressed for the change.

Here it is: Let's say a 7-Eleven sold condoms to a known prostitute. It would knowingly be deriving income from prostitution.

Expanding the old statute created a slippery slope for vendors that invariably may do business with prostitutes, be they convenience stores, bars, hotels or even lingerie shops.

I listened to the hearing tapes. Cocchiarella seemed to emphasize that the change was aimed at pimps and Crotty noted that, "We don't want to arrest 7-Eleven clerks . . . "

The change was worded specifically to accommodate that concern.

But 21 years later here comes MBI, busting a vendor and the equivalent of 7-Eleven clerks.

Mayor Crotty won't be called to testify. But you can bet a judge will hear the same tape I did when defense attorneys try to get the charges dismissed later this month.

This is yet another reason why prosecutors need to settle this case.

There are plenty of others.

The Weekly has lampooned the MBI for years, and this smacks of payback. The agency created a needless media circus when it busted the employees. While it claims this is only a minor case, the great Weekly caper headlines the agency's Web page.

Other media outlets regularly run ads from prostitutes. MBI Director Bill Lutz admits phone directories do it. But he offers the bizarre rationalization that the ads aren't as graphic and run under "entertainment" instead of "escort services," so would-be johns don't see them.

How can State Attorney Lawson Lamar complain his office is critically short-staffed and then waste resources on this?

All that said, the Weekly must have known it was running prostitution ads and did not stop when the MBI quietly asked last March.

So how do we resolve this?

Immediately drop all charges against the employees.

Drop all felony charges against the Weekly and ask the judge to withhold adjudication on misdemeanor charges of aiding and abetting prostitution. In exchange, the Weekly reimburses all costs and agrees in writing to stop taking ads from prostitutes and unlicensed massage parlors. That accomplishes what the MBI says are its goals.

Then the MBI and State Attorney's Office can direct their resources at more pressing problems.

Mike Thomas can be reached at 407-420-5525 or mthomas@orlandosentinel.com.

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Hooker ads: Policing them is legal quagmire

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