I decided to sit in on a hearing for six gals from a massage place busted. While the owners face far more serious charges, all the gals have the same felony record risk.
I just returned from Court with six great young gals with lives ruined as lifetime felons even if take a plea deal for probation instead of jail.
One pled today for one of many counts with dismissal of most serious charges. She pled to an. attempted criminal enterprise related charge since she was seen by police opening and closing the door of a massage place.
She pled to a Class 4 felony designated which means it cannot be later reduced to a misdemeanor. She will be sentenced in mid-January. Under minimum mandatory sentencing, the guideline is 1 year in prison, with the minimum 6 months. It is up to the judge. She will probably get 6-12 months or probation depending on what the pre-sentence report shows. But she will be a felon for life.
This was just a working gal, not the owner who faces far more serious multiple counts.
I am doing an update for some of the about 30 active felony cases I am following with hundreds of gals and owners.
The point is if the agency or a massage owner goes down, so do all the workers. For example, 37 great women in the Phoenix Temple case that was in Court for almost 5-years. Everyone took pleas except founder Tracy, who was found guilty of 22 counts by a jury after a 48-day trial.
Tracy went to prison in May 2016 with a 4.5-year sentence less 305 days in jail awaiting trial, so about 3 years left. Tracy turned down a plea for time served and lost at trial. She has filed an appeal but she may have served most of her time before the Appeals case gets heard. There are about 60 transcripts not yet filed of the hundreds that had to be provided by the lower court. Most are now in 3rd extensions and case will not even get into the process until all the lower court records are filed with the Court of Appeals.
The only hope for in private consenting adults is the ESPLERP v Gascon case now at the 9th Circuit, challenging the prostitution law with in my view some excellent briefs including many "friend of the court" filings. In my view, all the legal points are well argued - including Lawrence v Texas but much more and later cases. This represents the best opportunity to challenge the law in perhaps the most liberal Circuit Court.