Federal investigators have seized about $500,000 in assets they say a California woman accrued while running a Washington-area escort service for nearly 14 years. Authorities say she recruited women through newspaper and Internet ads charged up to $300 for sexual acts while working for what business records describe as a “escort/fantasy business.”
Deborah J. Palfrey of Vallejo, Calif., ran Pamela Martin and Associates until August, according to court forfeiture documents. During that time, court records said, women who worked for Palfrey in Maryland, Virginia or Washington sent $1 million in money and postal orders to a California Post Office Box registered to Palfrey. According to court records, the women sent roughly 50 percent of the money they made during 90-minute sessions with male clients in hotels, residences and offices in the Washington area.
Palfrey, who referred to herself as “Julia” or “Miz Julia,” recruited the women in part through ads placed in the University of Maryland’s student newspaper, the (Diamondback), the Washington City Paper and the Internet looking for women at least 22 years old and who had some college education, court documents show. Once hired, court documents show, Palfrey scheduled appointments for the women and encouraged them to work at least three nights a week. Court records also excerpted portions of newsletters Palfrey wrote her women several times a year with instructions on how to conduct themselves during their meetings with clients.
“We, here at Pamela Martin, try ‘very hard’ to do things a step or two above that of our competitors,” Palfrey wrote in a late October 1994 newsletter quoted in court documents. “We want the client to always enjoy his appointment and to never feel rushed! Often, an hour is not quite enough time, but an hour and a half is for completing enjoyment.”
Palfrey also counseledher women to stay away from Alexandria because of frequent sting operations, court records said. IRS and U.S. Postal Services investigators began looking into Palfrey’s business dealings in June 2004. Appointment books, information on women workers and male clients and banking records were found during a search of her California home, according to court documents.
Palfrey previously served 18 months in prison after a 1991 conviction on operating an illegal prostitution business in California, court documents stated.
