Self-described call girls and a male client yesterday testified in U.S. District Court about an escort service run by Deborah Jeane Palfrey.
Miss Palfrey, who became known as the “D.C. Madam” for running an upscale escort service in the region, is charged with financial racketeering, money laundering and using mail for illegal purposes. Court records say she earned $2 million from the service.
The call girls testified that they kept in constant communication with Miss Palfrey, known as “Julia” to many involved in the prostitution service, to obtain “appointment” assignments: the names of customers, places of meeting and directions to homes or hotels where they would meet with clientele in the D.C. area to exchange sex for money.
Some of the women testified that they learned about the so-called escort service, Pamela Martin and Associates, from ads in the yellow pages or in the Washington City Paper. The women involved contacted Miss Palfrey, 52, of Escondido, Calif., and sent a resume and pictures of themselves before their first appointment was scheduled.
Chi-Sheon “Paul” Huang, 44, a lawyer from Rockville, testified before the jury of six men and eight women that he first contacted Miss Palfrey in the mid-1990s. He said that dozens of times over a period of five to eight years, he paid the flat rate advertised, $250, for about one hour of service with call girls.
Each woman denied speaking over the phone with Miss Palfrey regarding explicitly sexual activities when Miss Palfrey’s attorney, Preston Burton, asked about the nature of the conversations with the defendant.
Virginia resident Andrea Detty agreed that she provided “full services” to customers in hotels and homes but said she did not speak specifically about sexual activity with Miss Palfrey.
Tracie Hoeffel, 44, of Maryland, worked two or three nights a week for Miss Palfrey for three or four months in 2001. At the time, Miss Hoeffel lived in the District and sent money orders to Miss Palfrey’s post office box in California.
Miss Hoeffel said she never discussed sexual activities with Miss Palfrey.
When Mr. Burton asked, “Did Miss Palfrey treat you fairly?” Miss Hoeffel answered, “Yes.”
Fauzia Mack, 46, said she worked for Miss Palfrey’s “social networking service” but stopped working after six appointments when she was asked an “inappropriate question” by an elderly client. Miss Mack testified that she never engaged in sexual activity with clients and decided along with Miss Palfrey that she would no longer work for Pamela Martin and Associates after the incident.
The case is expected to last up to three weeks.
Potential defense witnesses include Sen. David Vitter, Louisiana Republican, and Randall L. Tobias, who resigned as administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development after revelations that his telephone number was among 15,000 phone numbers of Miss Palfrey’s customers.
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