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Playboy Mansion Masquerade
I attended the Playboy Mansion Masquerade last night and it was a blast. Ran into the beautiful Taylor Wane, Corey Feldman and Hef invited me into his private Cabana!!!
I took lots of great pictures and put them into a slide show for all to enjoy - just wanted to share my evening with everyone.
My boyfriend couldn't be there as he had to bodyguard Kendra for a show that is being filmed. He told me "Just send me the photos, and you know which ones!"
Whatever that means... <innocently she says>
xoxo,
Veronica
Website: http://www.slide.com/r/UAJ2t8sx3T96egRjf_rGHf
Police Want To Put David Elms Away For Life
(From Dave of Phoenix)
Phoenix PD wants David Elms put away for life
Seeks blackmailed for sex escorts - anonymous contact set up
If you or for guys or all gals, if you know an escort that has been blackmailed into sex for reviews to stay on TER etc please pass this on.
Yes, this is ironic, when the usual enemy (law enforcement) is on our side to get rid of a dangerous, abusive person in the industry (David Elms TER). This has nothing to do with the TER board, only the dangerous owner.
I had a long phone discussion with Detective Christina Bill (yes like mans first name) of the Phoenix Police Dept Vice unit. She welcome me getting this message out to escorts. The following are high points of the conversation:
She is trying to put together a case against David Elms that would put him behind bars permanently. She asks for our help to do so. She is very compassionate towards what is going on and understands that escorts CAN be victimized by people like Elms.
Det. Bill agrees with the attorney in LA who I have had many discussions with - that blackmailed sex is the same as criminal felony rape. He is the attorney who filed the recent Federal Civil case against Elms on behalf of “Jane Doe“ an escort, now the murder for hire victim in Phoenix
Phoenix PD wants to get Elms on more felony charges but needs escorts to come forward from anywhere in the U.S., not just Phoenix. Det Bill needs to speak with Escorts who have been Threatened / Harassed / Extorted by David Elms. Gals can contact her anonymously with the procedure discussed below.
Detective Bill could care less about misdemeanor prostitution offenses. She tells me she has already cleared it with the County Attorney´s office, not caring about being an escort if you come forward.
She seeks help from escorts that have been harassed in any way or have exchanged sex and or money for TER reviews not be taken down etc. She would like as many as possible in order to get a Grand Jury indictment BEFORE his arrest, with a prearranged agreed on large bail by the Court so he won´t just get small bail next time. The Prosecutor, County Attorney´s office and Phoenix major crimes unit were shocked at the low $150,000 bail by a judge that had no real background info on him when arrested a few weeks ago for conspiracy to commit murder, aggravated assault, weapons and various drug charges.
I have arranged with her a way for gals to come forward anonymously. She just wants the opportunity to talk to you.
To protect escorts confidentially they/you can call the Police Community Hotline at 602-426-1231.
Tell them you have info on the David Elms case for Detective Christina Bill.
You can leave any name. She told me you can call yourself “juicy“ for all she cares.
Just leave a phone number that she can call to talk with you.
This is a case similar to the 2005 case of “Rapist Who Choked Providers Till Passed Out , Raped and Robbed Them“ I report on at http://www.sexwork.com/Phoenix/rapist.html I worked with Scottsdale PD and got escorts to come forward who all said they were very comfortable working with both the police and the County Attorney´s office. A fast response, and an outstanding investigation got him arrested quickly. He is now serving a sentence of over 100 years in prison. Escorts could have gotten formal immunity but after working closely with the Country Attorney I don´t believe any escorts thought that was necessary.
As we know from the NY Times article that he was found raping a women at gunpoint in a hotel. But she was too scared to press charges. Apparently she reported this to police when she called 911 but the California authorities could only get him on weapons and drug charges which is why he is now on probation.
I realize the irony that some of the same police that busted Desert Diva´s, now want to befriend escort victims of David Elms because of what he has done to so many escorts and the risk he poses. As Christina told me “I am ready to get rid of this guy.“ She sounds to me both very compassionate for the plight and sensitivity of escorts but she is VERY determined to get more charges on Elms.
He is now out on bail. He is clearly in violation of his probation in CA. But he has beat a probation violation before and it was only on drugs and weapons charges. Phoenix PD will work with the California authorities on details of any Arizona new charges and his parole violation on priors in CA.
I think Christina Bill will put you at ease and I am convinced she is absolutely sincere in having no interest in your profession. From reading many boards, it is obvious many guys and gals know of his blackmail for sex victims so please spread the word to anyone you think may have been blackmailed to provide sex to Elms
A post on the ladies only section of a LV board caused quite a stir. She says she was not directly on the LV board but an escort posted for her but it appeared to be her. The board owner confirmed she was real police (as I did also) and it was agreed she would be banned as soon as she posted the notice for LV gals to come forward. She realizes the sensitivity of the situation. The post clearly identified her as Phoenix Police. She is not trying to sting anyone, only put Elms away as he has proved himself very dangerous.
The AZ Grand Jury did not indict on the conspiracy to commit murder charge but has indicted him for felony aggravated assault and drug charges. Phoenix PD and the County Attorney want to get him for felony rape as we know he has been guilty of for many years with many gals in different states.
I have long history and details about this and prior cases at http://www.sexwork.com/terbad.html This is why he hired a hit man to come after me as well as the escort that filed the Federal civil charges. As someone pointed out, he better pray we both keep very healthy, since everyone knows who to look at if anything should happen to us. Yes, it shook me up when I was contacted by police by phone, and have now met with the “hit man“ and other major crimes officer. It is now in the hands of the police as the hit man fortunately was an undercover police officer in the major crimes unit and Phoenix PD and the County Attorney are very serious about getting more charges on him for everyone´s safety.
I was trying to work with the LA Attorney who filed the Federal Case wanting gals to come forward but we were unable to arrange a direct escort friendly LE contact in California. Now with the murder for hire etc arrest in Phoenix, Phoenix and County Attorney really want him on more felonies - felony rape for any escort who was blackmailed into sex with him.
The "Most Powerful Man In Prostitution" Arrested
By Keegan Hamilton in Follow That Story, News
Monday, Feb. 23 2009 @ 1:32PM
This juicy little item slipped through the cracks when it happened last week but it's worth mentioning now, if only to shed a little light on the life of a kingpin from the Internet's seedy underbelly.
David Elms, creator of the popular escort Web site The Erotic Review, was arrested last week in Phoenix on charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, sale of narcotics, possession of drug paraphernalia and illegal possession of a weapon.
In a story last year about Elms and his legal woes from another drug case, The New York Times called Elms the most powerful man in prostitution" and dubbed his site the Amazon.com of the online sex trade.
The Erotic Review (link definitely NSFW) allows escorts to post information (i.e. all the gooey details) about themselves and their services. Men then write reviews of their experience and rate each woman on a scale of 1 to 10.
I interviewed Elms for an RFT feature story about escort Web sites last year (OldestProfession 2.0). Here's what he had to say then:
The practice of posting online reviews of escorts dates back about ten years. David Elms, creator of The Erotic Review (www.theeroticreview.com), claims his Web site was one of the first to encourage men to provide feedback about their clandestine encounters. Reached by phone in his Southern California office, Elms explains that he got the idea after being ripped off by a call girl.
"It was a way that people could be held accountable for their actions in this industry," Elms says. "Now girls prefer that they find clients on The Erotic Review. It already tells a guy all the juicy details, so he doesn't have to ask stupid questions."
Elms says his Web site, created in 1999, now attracts more than 300,000 visitors a day, and that half of the site's users log on more than once a day. He collects information about each person who registers an account and says the average hobbyist is between 35 and 55 years old with a median income of $80,000.
Apparently Phoenix police were investigating another Internet prostitution ring called the "Desert Divas," when they found out Elms was plotting to commit murder for hire.
Elms' site is just one of dozens of mega-hubs for online hookers but it is one of the most well-known and widely used. According to the Times article, accusations that Elms demanded sex in exchange for positive reviews and access to his site have circulated for years. One escort agency even sued him, claiming that when he blackballed them from his site it violated federal anti-trust laws.
The blog for the Phoenix New Times, our sister paper in Arizona, has all the details about his latest arrest, including a press release from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department and a screen capture from Elms' site. They also point out that Elms' next online endeavor will probably have something to do with prison sex.
Lawyers & Hookers: Great Bedfellows
by Michael Estrin
The fact that lawyers frequent hookers isn’t a momentous revelation. What is newsworthy, however, is that most hookers consider attorneys to be “perfect customers.”
Since lawyers are frequently called whores—and since each month brings a new BigLaw-hooker scandal (yeah, we’re looking at you, anonymous Cravath partner)—we decided to investigate why lawyers and hookers make such terrific bedfellows.
Sex Life: The First Casualty Of BigLaw
Being among the highest-paid hourly workers, lawyers tend to have difficulty finding time for a personal life—especially compared to other professions, says “Jane,” a New York City escort who blogs at Debauchette.com. Jane explains that over-worked, under-sexed men are her best clients and that those men frequently tend to be lawyers at some of the world’s biggest firms.
“Lawyers have very little free time, and their relationships suffer for it,” Jane explains. “Sex is usually the first thing to go… [Lawyers] are pretty sex deprived. Which is great. I love being with a man who hasn’t been laid in a while. The sex is fantastic.”
A sentiment seconded by Veronica Franco, a Los Angles-based escort, who jokes that the best way to ruin her business would be to “bomb Century City.” According to Franco, lawyers account for the lion’s share of her clientele because they have little time to seek out a sexual release.
“You can’t just call up your girlfriend at 10 p.m. and say, ‘let’s [have sex]’ and then go back to work an hour later,” Franco says, adding that her clients choose to see escorts because it’s “one of the few ways a busy man can balance work and sex.”
It’s All About the Billables
Just like lawyers, escorts come in a variety of price ranges. For every ambulance chaser, there’s a nasty streetwalker. For every Big Firm partner, there’s a madam with a stable of elegant women. And for every associate, there’s a $300-per-hour escort.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to money. “You put your cash on the table, and you get what you want,” one anonymous attorney told Bitter Lawyer. “It’s just that easy. You take care of business, hand over some cash, then before you know it, you’re watching ESPN…”
Like most lawyers, escorts work on an hourly billing regime that puts exacting billing demands on its practitioners. In lawyers, escorts see likeminded creatures—each beholden to the demands of the outrageous billable hour.
Veronica Monet, a self-described courtesan from San Francisco, says she’s been with too many lawyers to count and gives the legal profession high marks for understanding the value of time.
“I love lawyers,” Monet says. “The main difference I’ve noticed between them and other professions is that lawyers tend to be less likely to take a superior attitude toward me. They pay in full, on time, without resentment or haggling. What’s not to like?”
Or, as Veronica Franco says, “A lot of men hear you say the price per hour, but when it comes down to it, many think they’re entitled to more. Lawyers don’t give you that kind of trouble—an hour is an hour.”
While individual experiences vary, the overwhelming sentiment from escorts was that lawyers generally made better clients than doctors, bankers or other professionals. Mainly because lawyers curiously got high marks for failing to live up to negative stereotypes associated with the profession. Where as doctors are generally deemed “arrogant” and bankers typically “jerks,” many escorts used kind words when regarding their lawyer clients. None referred to lawyers as egotistical, pompous or even (interestingly) hard bargainers.
Consider Jane’s (turgid) assessment of her lawyer clients:
“I’d say that lawyers come across as acutely intelligent and emotionally exhausted. They’re incredibly self-aware and sometimes neurotic, which I like. Sometimes they’re fraught with crushing existential angst, which I also like. I like lawyers as clients. I like how they think.”
BigStress
While men see escorts for a wide range of reasons, one common denominator is stress.
“Lawyers come in, and their bodies are so tense. You can just tell,” Franco says. “It’s a high-stress job—often boring, and there’s a lot of pressure. Everyone needs some kind of release for that. And for most men, it’s either sex or drinking.”
Veronica Franco, it turns out, is a keen observer, according to Jeff Schultz, an Arizona-based therapist who treats men with sexual disorders, including those who frequent prostitutes. While Schultz doesn’t agree that using escorts is part of a healthy sex life, he does say that high-stress jobs can be a trigger for many men.
“The root cause of this kind of behavior is always an early altering experience,” Schultz says. “I treat a lot of lawyers, and there are several reasons for that, but one critical factor is certainly the intensity of their jobs.”
According to Laraine Russo Harper, a former manager of a Nevada cathouse and author of the book Legal Tender: True Tales of a Brothel Madam, that stress and intensity is frequently channeled into an interest in sadomasochism.
“We got a lot of lawyers and judges,” Harper reports, adding that members of the bar were typically the most common denizens of the brothel’s S&M facilities. “I think they just wanted a time for themselves when they could just relax, let go, and not have to make any decisions. After an S&M session, you could just see on their faces that the weight of the world had been lifted from their shoulders.”
Jane agrees. In the good ol’ days, when she too offered S&M services, the vast majority of her clients were lawyers. In fact, one kinky associate still ranks as her favorite client.
“[He] liked coercive role-play fantasies,” Jane recounts. “I would play the role of a married woman who would beg for something—maybe for him to give my husband his job back. He’d agree, but only under the condition that I [perform a certain sex act]. So, I would play the role of the unwilling housewife, mortified by the idea of being reduced to whoredom.”
And while stress can come with the territory for any profession, lawyers produce it in spades, which indubitably leads to increased demand for escorts.
“A lot of lawyers I see don’t come here for a [sex]fest,” Veronica Franco says. “They make all this money, but they have no life, and I feel sorry for them. They come to me to relax and to experience something sensual. I really enjoy helping them unwind.”
Hush Money
Whatever else can be said about lawyers, nearly all members of the profession take their duty of confidentiality seriously. Apparently, the same goes for escorts, all of whom were adamant about protecting their clients’ identities, including one dominatrix who declined to share even her clients’ anonymous requests.
“That’s inappropriate. Confidentiality, you know?” Mistress Matisse defends.
Since lawyers exist in an environment where loose lips mean risking professional sanctions and civil liability; for escorts, esquire clients are generally the least hazardous. With regard to discretion, those in the legal profession get high praise for their ritualistic devotion to secrecy, a critical part of the hooker-john relationship.
And while most escort arrangements are never discovered, when a lawyer is out-ed as a sex client—either by a spouse or, forbid, the press—a self-destructive streak is usually to blame, Jane explains.
“Some want to get caught, consciously or unconsciously, so they get sloppy and reckless,” Jane says. “[Yet] some seem to think they’re untouchable, or they have too much confidence in their ability to be discreet.”
Though according to Jane, lawyers who want to get caught are the exception. Without being told, most lawyers take basic security precautions like not using their work phone or email. And those who make security mistakes usually take kindly to instructions to beef up discretion, an anonymous Chicago-based escort reports.
After all, as a number of escorts pointed out, unlike bankers or other professionals, lawyers have an innate aversion to risk, a honed trait essential to keeping hookers in business.
Love Me Tender
At the end of the day, the perfect client is one who understands that what happened during the hour was merely a business transaction. But the emergence of a service known as The Girlfriend Experience (GFE) sometimes blurs that line.
The precise definition of GFE is murky, but according to the escorts, the term is a catchall for a more personal touch, including kissing and cuddling. The experience is meant to combine the punch of great sex with the emotional connection (albeit for a limited time) of a relationship.
“When I first heard the term GFE, I thought it was code for bad sex. Who would want to pay to have the kind of sex you could have with your girlfriend?” Veronica Franco jokes. “But I guess people are into trends, and being able to buy sex that’s a little more loving is just one of those trends now.”
For Franco, who charges an additional $100 per hour for the GFE, the trend is paying dividends. But like any powerful marketing tool, the GFE is also prone to creating false expectations among customers. Many of her GFE clients have invited her to dinner, shows and other date-like activities, all in an attempt to chip away at the escort-client relationship and build a real romance. According to Jodi Conway, a New Jersey-based psychotherapist, men frequently fall prey to an amorous delusion.
“Many men believe that they have a real relationship with an escort,” Conway says. “They believe that the escort really likes them. Like a girlfriend. They rationalize that they’re not paying for sex. They see themselves as special. But the moment the guy stops paying, it’s done.”
It’s that scenario that women like Veronica Franco seek to avoid. While Conway says one profession isn’t less susceptible than another when it comes to falling for escorts, Franco thinks lawyers handily beat the odd in this department.
“Lawyers get it,” Franco says. “They understand that my time is worth something. Time is money. Lawyers totally get what I do. That’s why I get along with them so well. If a guy is going to fall for me and start trying to take me out, odds are he’s not one of my lawyer clients.”
Does that mean lawyers have a monopoly on mental health? Far from it. Conway says men who see escorts are addicts with a serious problem that will—eventually—cause havoc in their personal (and possibly) professional lives. It’s that very threat of losing everything they’ve worked for that has prompted many lawyers to seek her help. In fact, Conway reports a spike in white-collar clientele in the wake of the Eliot Spitzer scandal.
But for every lawyer who seeks counseling, there are countless more who find it more pragmatic to continue seeing escorts.
“If you’re emotionally unavailable and you have [certain sexual] needs, what else are you going to do?” Veronica Franco asks.
Rather than a therapist, the typical outlet is a Google query that lands on sites like Eros-Guide.com or CityVibe.com where users can seek out local escorts by hair color, race, breast size, services menu and a host of other criteria. Discerning consumers can even register for user-generated sites like TheEroticReview.com, which is basically Yelp for the sex service industry.
Sadly, none of these sites—or any of the therapists Bitter Lawyer spoke with—offer an ABA discount.
Talk about a missed marketing opportunity.
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