Source: Reuters
By: Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES, CA) — The lawyer for a woman accused of running a prostitution ring catering to the rich and famous said Tuesday he would name the men who allegedly paid for her services because prosecutors were refusing to.
Gerald Scotti, who represents accused madam Jody “Babydol” Gibson, vowed to expose those customers during her trial on nine counts of pimping and pandering because prosecutors were operating a double standard by keeping the names secret.
Prosecutors have not charged any of Gibson’s alleged customers and have no plans to call them as witnesses. Police have said they include Hollywood actors and producers, company CEOs and at least one professional athlete.
Scotti made his remarks outside the courthouse after the jury heard opening statements and first witnesses. If convicted, Gibson faces a possible 17 years in prison.
“There has to be a guy involved (in the act of prostitution),” Scotti told reporters. “These men also engaged in a criminal act, for which prosecutors chose to give them a free pass, and that’s a double standard.”
Scotti said that if prosecutors call any of Gibson’s alleged prostitutes to the witness stand he will grill them about the customers. “If they name these men a subpoena will be issued immediately” for them to testify in open court, Scotti said.
Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Richard Walmark said during his opening statement that he would call Gibson’s alleged prostitutes as witnesses, although he told the jury that not all of them could be expected to show up.
Prosecutors have said that Gibson — who police say is 41 but who insists she is in her early 30s — ran an elaborate, international prostitution service that flourished after ”Hollywood Madam” Heidi Fleiss was sent to prison.
Scotti said during his opening remarks that Gibson ran a variety of services, including casting women in “adult” films, and that if any of the women worked as prostitutes they did so on their own.
Scotti, himself a former undercover agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration, said he would show “misconduct” in the 10-month Los Angeles police sting investigation of Gibson that ended with her arrest at a posh Los Angeles hotel. He said that misconduct included an undercover officer “cavorting” naked with a prostitute in a hotel room for an hour, unsupervised.
Scotti said tapes of conversations Gibson had with an undercover LAPD officer posing as a prospective prostitute would also prove nothing against his client because the two women were not heard discussing criminal acts.
“They talked about food, they talked about clothes, they talked about … things that girls talk about,” he said.
