Las Vegas Criminal Defense Blog

A nineteen-year-old New Zealand woman auctioned off her virginity online for tens of thousands of dollars, which she intends to use to fund her university education. More than thirty thousand people viewed her website and over 1,200 people bid. The New Zealand police said that the auction hasn’t explicitly broken any laws since it was transacted through a licensed Nevada brothel.

Nevada Prostitution law prohibits the trade of sex for money except for in licensed brothels. Breaking Nevada prostitution law is charged as a misdemeanor, carrying up to six months in jail and/or up to $1,000 in fines. However, first-time offenders can usually get their case dismissed if they pay a fine and attend an AIDS class or “John School.”

If the defendant in a prostitution case was aware they had HIV, the judge will order stiffer penalties, including two to ten years in prison and a $10,000 fine. A defendant convicted of soliciting children also faces harsher punishments, including one to four years in prison and maybe a $5,000 fine. Typical defenses used to fight a prostitution charge include entrapment, lack of evidence and mistake.

A woman who falsely accused Vegas showman David Copperfield of sexual assault has now been charged with prostitution in Washington State. According to a police report, she solicited prostitution from a businessman in Bellevue, and when he refused to pay, she called the cops to report harassment. Their investigation resulted in the District Attorney bringing prostitution charges against her.

In Las Vegas, prostitution is defined as the exchange of sexual favors for a fee. It’s punished as a misdemeanor, which means that the maximum Las Vegas prostitution penalties a defendant can face is six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. When the defendant is just a first-time offender, however, Las Vegas prostitution penalties are usually much less harsh:

A first time offender in Nevada can typically have a prostitution charge dismissed in exchange for completing “john school” or an AIDS education course and paying a $250 fine (and not getting arrested again until the course is completed and the money is paid). If the alleged prostitute is aware that she/he is HIV-positive, however, Las Vegas prostitution penalties are greatly increased to include a high fine and several years of imprisonment.

In December, fifty-six year old Roger Lee Williams was discovered dead in his Las Vegas City Jail cell. His cause of death was unknown, but the Clark County Coroner’s Office then determined that he perished from natural causes. Specifically, he suffered from a dilated cardiomypathy.

Williams was arrested for allegedly soliciting a pedestrian on a roadway before being taken to Las Vegas City Jail on the first of December. Soliciting prostitution in Las Vegas is offering, or agreeing to accept an offer of, sexual favors for money. Soliciting is still considered criminal even if the sex never takes place.

Anyone arrested for soliciting prostitution within the municipal city bounds of Las Vegas will be taken to Las Vegas City Jail. Solicitation is punished the same as prostitution—they’re both misdemeanors, carrying up to six months in jail and/or up to a $1,000 fine. Defendants may also be ordered to attend “John School.”

Many Nevada judicial districts provide drug court programs that attempt to rehabilitate and educate drug offenders instead of simply punishing them with jail, which doesn't treat the root problem anyway. Similarly, Reno Municipal Court recently started a "solicitation court" to help women who've broken Nevada prostitution law by trying to get them off drugs. Chelsie Sutton, who's currently in Washoe County Jail, explained that, "There's a lot of them [prostitutes] that start doing it because they are addicted to drugs and that's the only reason that they are doing it in the first place."

Judge Jim Van Winkle explains that he got the idea for solicitation court from a similar court in Clark County, which has been successful in keeping people convicted of prostitution from becoming repeat offenders: “It was just something I felt it was needed to do something about so we could stop the revolving door problem." Defendants who choose solicitation court submit to frequent drug testing, counseling and court appearances instead of sentencing. The program is partnered with Scarlet Covering, a support group that helps stop women from breaking Nevada prostitution law.

Nevada prostitution law makes it a misdemeanor to offer sex in exchange for money or other property. Penalties include up to six months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine and usually John School. The only places prostitution is legal in Nevada are in licensed brothels.

Now that Nevada prostitution law allows counties to permit its licensed brothels to hire male sex workers, industry leaders are speaking out on both sides of the controversy. Shady Lady Ranch brothel owner Bobbi Davis supports the change and wrote to Nye County officials, “I personally feel, as do the many other women who have made contact with me since I started this, that this is a service whose time has come.” But George Flint, lobbyist for the Nevada Brothel Assn., argues that offering gay sex could potentially lead to the downfall of the entire brothel system.

David said she’s received over 100 applications from men hoping to work at her brothel as prostitutes. In an open meeting with Nye County officials, she downplayed any negative effects allowing male brothel prostitutes may have, saying, "It seems the biggest hoopla is a great fear in some people's minds that some kind of homosexual activity might go on. Why panic I don't understand . . . it's not my intent to encourage or promote or to turn my business into a 'gay property.'"

Unless it occurs in a licensed brothel, buying sexual favors for money (or other property) is a misdemeanor under Nevada prostitution law. Just offering to trade sex for money breaks Nevada prostitution law as well, even if the sex never happens. If convicted, defendants face up to six months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine as well as “john school.”

Solicitation for prostitution in Las Vegas traditionally occurs through yellow page ads and billboards touting escort services and massage parlors. But recently, Craigslist has become the new frontier for breaking Las Vegas solicitation law, and what's more, the law is barely being enforced. UNLV Criminal justice professor Alexis Kennedy observes, "It's this whole world of online brothels, but nobody is monitoring it anymore.”

Although Craigslist recently removed its “erotic services” section, prostitutes can still break Las Vegas solicitation law by posting paid ads under the “adult services” section. Kennedy, with the help of eight grad students, found that the vast majority of the “adult services” ads they analyzed appeared to be for escort agencies, included (702) phone number, and even specified prices for “services.” But as Lt. Karen Hughes, who heads the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's vice section, explains, "Policing those venues has become very difficult . . . There are just very, very few resources that are dedicated to those types of operations . . . It's an insurmountable problem."

Continue reading "Craigslist Making it Easier to Solicit in Las Vegas" »

The Nevada Revised Statutes don't prohibit licensed brothels from hiring male prostitutes, but state health codes outlining the procedures for the regular medical testing of brothel prostitutes have always pertained only to female sex workers, thereby implicitly barring men from the profession. But now, the language of the state health codes has been changed to include a urethral testing, thereby acknowledging that men as well as women may legally work as brothel prostitutes.

But even though state health codes now account for male sex workers, individual counties are still free to continue granting work cards only to females. Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo said Friday, “We're going to look at it. We have some concerns. We're going to have to deal with it at our other six brothels in Nye County if they want to offer the same service. We want to make sure we protect customers and make sure the industry is regulated with clarity and understanding." Ever since state health codes have been implemented over twenty-five years ago requiring that licensed brothel prostitutes be regularly tested, not one of them has contracted HIV.

Continue reading "Male Brothel Prostitutes Now Legal in Nevada" »

Last Thursday morning, a fifty-six year old male inmate was discovered deceased in his cell at Las Vegas City Jail. Officials did not give a cause of death but specified that it wasn’t suspicious. He was arrested earlier this month for allegedly breaking Las Vegas solicitation law.

Las Vegas solicitation law makes it a misdemeanor to engage in prostitution or solicitation of prostitution, defined as the exchange of sexual contact for a fee. So merely asking someone to trade money for sexual favors can get you arrested, even if the sex never occurs. Solicitation crimes in Las Vegas usually happen on the street, at casinos, or through “escort services” and massage parlors.

Las Vegas solicitation law mandates a maximum sixth month jail sentence and/or a $1,000 fine. Jail-time, however, is very rare for a first or second offense. Oftentimes, the sentence also includes several hours of community service and “john school,” which educates customers, usually men, about the health and safety dangers of prostitution.

On Tuesday, Bill Beeson, a former drama teacher from Virginia City High School, accepted a plea of guilty to solicitation of a minor to engage in acts constituting a crime against nature (NRS 201.195). In addition, he will register as a sex offender.

NRS 201.195 is a gross misdemeanor, so Beeson faces a $2,000 fine and up to one year in jail. He’s scheduled for sentencing on October 16 in Storey County Court.

In the spring of 2007, a student accused Beeson of inappropriately touching him, at which point he was placed on administrative leave. Meanwhile, other former students accused Beeson of sexual assault in Nevada, and Beeson was eventually arrested. In October 2008, Beeson pled to felony sexual assault in Nevada and gross misdemeanor unlawful contact with a child for the 2007 incident. The reason for this week’s plea was to stop prosecutors from charging Beeson with crimes stemming from other former students’ accusations.

Las Vegas, Nevada, has the second largest number of child prostitutes in the country (Atlanta, Georgia ranks first). In an effort to curb this growing problem, Governor Jim Gibbons signed Nevada Assembly Bill 380 just this morning, which makes Nevada’s prostitution laws regarding under-aged sex workers the harshest in the U.S.

Contrary to Sin City’s reputation, prostitution in Las Vegas, Nevada is actually illegal. ("Nevada does permit prostitution in twelve rural counties," explains Las Vegas prostitution defense lawyer Michael Becker, "but it must take place only in licensed brothels that follow strict health and safety regulations.") The new bill doesn’t affect the current penalties for prostitution and solicitation, which are just misdemeanors (NRS 201.354). But, starting October 1, 2009, Nevada will increase punishments for pandering (commonly referred to as “pimping”) as well as trafficking:

Prior to AB 380, the crime of pandering or trafficking a child under 18 years old carried a maximum of twenty years in prison and a $20,000 fine. Now, if the child is between ages 14 and 18, the fine is raised to $100,000. And if the child is under 14, the fine is now $500,000. In addition, the suspect’s assets may be frozen and forfeited without a hearing. By increasing the monetary penalties of child trafficking and pandering for prostitution, Nevada hopes to deter the practice altogether.