Continued Part 2 of my long history
Since I am making this story very long, if anyone is still reading it, A local network affiliate TV station found my name referenced in the police report. A reporter confronted me with a camera and sound crew at my office.
I did not want any story about me as I may have conservative clients and do not want my name or ID in local media. After they assured me my last name would not be used, my face would be blurred out, and my voice distorted, I agreed to be interviewed.
The next day I got a frantic call from the reporter. She said, please don't give your story to any other station, and that the boyfriend of a station worker (from another TV station?) was in the editing room with my story on the storyboard table and was concerned he would leak it to the other station. I forgot who had the other station contact, but this station wanted to be exclusive.
It aired that night. The New York Post picked up on it, and a friendly editor contacted me. Again, I wasn't interested in media, but he agreed he would not use my last name. A few days later, they ran the story, and when I looked it up, it was still available through a Google search. They referred, as I recall, to sexwork.com with me as founder but did not use my last name as they promised.
To make a long story longer... Even though I had nothing directly to do with the case, I was on the trial's witness list. After some continuances, it just happened to be scheduled when I had a long-ago booked trip to Victoria, BC and flew in versus taking the beautiful ferry ride I had on prior trips. I contacted the DA, and they said to take your journey and they didn't need me at trial.
As unlucky would have it, I was pulled for secondary screening at the Victoria Airport for the first time ever. They kept thinking I was someone from Florida. When I was maybe 10, I was at Disney World in Fl, but I have not been since. They went through all my stuff and found papers related to the trial since I wanted to read the minute entries, as I have access to court records, etc. So I explained all that which got them interested/concerned about sexwork, i.e., "prostitution" and my involvement.....
I told them the story that the Sheriff of Saanich, where many escort agencies thrived, were warned they would crack down but would be welcome in the City of Victoria. One of the agencies moved with a big incall to the main drag of downtown Victoria.
I then suggested I only do outcalls, which is perfectly legal under the Canadian Criminal Code. This was before the Ontario Supreme Court in one of the longest opinions of the Court, declared the Charter of Rights under the safety of persons etc. provision made the law unconstitutional and in detail addressed why she ignored all the friends of the court briefs as irrelevant that argued how all sexworker are abused victims. No woman in her right mind would go into sexwork unless abused, etc... Then the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the ruling. But outcall was always legal, just not incalls and living of the avails. So, my outcall intentions were perfectly legal.
There was an older customs man and a younger one. Ironically, I have the Canadian Criminal Code on my computer but not the laptop I had. The older man went in the back, and I assume he had the Criminal Code back there.
In the meantime, the younger man looked through my laptop and noted the link to TER !!!!. He asked why the link wasn't open. I replied that I was not connected to the Internet. I explained a bit about the forum, including all the legal aspects.
The young man asked, if you actually talk to prostitutes on TER, what do you talk about? These are just ordinary things: reviews, warnings about bad clients, what they had for dinner, or usual stuff in life. He was intrigued, and I bet he got on TER for his interests later. Maybe he is reading this
The older man came back and, I assume, found out I was right, although I was concerned they could deny you entry even if you were doing nothing illegal. But he seemed impressed by my openness and knowledge and set me on my way to my hotel and enjoyment of Victoria escorts.
Due to BC ABC rules, there are no good strip clubs and no massage places of interest vs. Toronto, Vancouver (I at once but didn't like it as much), Montreal, Niagara Falls and Hamilton (back then).
By the way, I understand that the Victoria PD checks the agencies a few times a year. Still, their only concern was registering and paying a small annual fee to be sure they were not underage or illegally in Canada.
On FOSTA
Last I heard, there had been only 1 case brought by the FBI under FOSTA in an extreme child sex trafficking case. FOSTA was a big deal to satisfy pressure from conservative Christians and politicians but has never been actively enforced.
Under pre-FOSTA laws, a lengthy court battle of Backpage founders in Phoenix ended in August 2024 with a guilty verdict and prison terms.
My libchrist.com Phoenix Couples Group was once on the front page of their Phoenix New Times "What were you doing on Sunday Morning?" They had a long, hilarious, but mostly factual article about the couples group of a few hundred I hosted in my home. I think it is still findable by search but without the front-page funny graphics as I recall, and somewhere on my sexwork.com site.
I was concerned about all the legal issues in Phoenix, ground zero for going after sexwork. Agencies were charged with criminal enterprise felonies with "Donald Advisements" of like 100 years in prison if convicted, more than for murder. Every money transaction was a separate money laundering felony. So, the long sentences were if each count was considered separate. I reported extensively on the Phoenix Goddess Temple's long case in over 200 reports, attending most of the pre-trial conferences and trial. Once, after I had not been in Court for a while, at a break, the judge told me, "we have missed you."
Getting off topic but another in my story, which is not on any websites, I was long ago raided in my home by the FBI, breaking the door down (I was in bed sleeping) with SWAT's guns drawn. My security camera has the footage.
The issue was if a corrupt police officer was giving me information about upcoming raids and stings of sex workers since I had posted about another upcoming "take them to the Church" (long story) sting. No, my info was not specific as to the exact place etc, and it came from another escort telling me that she heard it from the University group anti-sex work led by a professor and Ms. McCain, wife of AZ Senator, that Trump trashed since he was a fool for being in the military and getting captured and held prisoner. "Heros don't get caught," Trump said.
The leads were two female FBI detectives backed by about 10 FBI SWAT agents who searched my home and took my computer (it took a long time to return; I had so much on it). I have never owned any guns.
I have police scanners as I have helped in various situations of traffic control, including once where someone was shooting cars going by and killed a cop in his car and a visitor to Phoenix riding a bike was shot dead. The police officer was able to hit the panic alarm in his squad before passing out. The police or ambulances could not get to the bike rider for a long time, even with swat. The big swat van was in for repairs, and eventually, they rode the side of a big dump truck to recover the bike rider (not knowing if still alive) to block from the shooter.
I was diverting traffic since no police were at an intersection that, if you turned left, would be in front of the house where the shooter was. Across the street, lots of cops with rifles, but no police were blocking that intersection until they finally came. I was a reserve officer long ago in MN and with a radio in my hand and looking like I knew what I was doing, got traffic to turn the other way. I am an amateur radio operator, FCC licensed (HAM), and when I was in Minnesota, only hams (which I was and am) were allowed to have police scanners vs citizens. But this was in Phoenix with no such restrictions. BTW, I attended a nice meeting of the Mississauga (Toronto) ham club a few years ago and briefly spoke.
The lead FBI woman was amiable, and we talked for hours (while others searched the house but were neat, not tearing things apart like on TV. We spoke about all my police activities, Private List warning about clients pretending to be cops to get free services, police interactions with the guy that almost killed 12 escorts, how I helped police when TER founder hired a hit man and many other things I did all legal. They even wanted to confirm the head of sex crimes I had contact with was legitimate. I showed her his official police report. I had a copy that named me but explicitly said that I was not involved in any illegal prostitution.
I did retain an attorney, but now, many years later, nothing more since nothing I did was illegal. But it was a shocking ordeal.
End of this chapter of my story