Ruling hurts Web sex case

Owners of the bigdoggie.net site and four female ''escorts'' linked to it are off the hook.

By CHRISTOPHER GOFFARD, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 11, 2003

TAMPA -- Crippling a much-hyped case that took the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office two years to build, a judge on Friday threw out charges against the owners of a Web site accused of promoting prostitution.

Hillsborough Circuit Judge Debra Behnke said the statewide prosecutor's office failed to meet the legal deadline to bring Charles S. Kelly and Steve Lipson to trial on felony charges of conspiracy to commit racketeering in the bigdoggie.net case.

The judge also threw out racketeering charges against four female "escorts" linked to the Web site.

The delays that doomed those cases stemmed largely from the state's effort to conceal the identities of six witnesses, some of them married, well-known figures in Tampa Bay business and political communities who used the Web site.

While eight defendants still face charges ranging from racketeering to prostitution, Friday's ruling left the state's two biggest targets, Kelly of Hunter's Green, and Lipson of Boca Raton, off the hook.

The ruling also scuttled the case against Darcy Piotrowski, whom prosecutors call a ringleader in a prostitution operation linked to the site.

"We will file an appeal, and hopefully the appeal will go our way," said Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Christopher Brown.

Under the law, felony defendants have a right to trial within 175 days of their arrest. The cases that were dismissed Friday involved defendants who were arrested last June.

The cases were scheduled to go to trial in December, but Judge Behnke postponed them on the grounds that prosecutors had not fully complied with her order to reveal evidence to the defense.

The identity of the confidential informers was the sticking point. In seeking to keep their names secret, prosecutors said some had received threats.

One of the informers was Monte Belote, 43, a candidate for Tampa City Council who dropped out of the race when his involvement with bigdoggie.net was revealed.

Defense attorney Luke Lirot said the blame for the case's unraveling lay with the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office.

"I think law enforcement created this obstacle for the statewide prosecutor's office," Lirot said. "I think law enforcement promised informants confidentiality that they didn't have the ability to carry out."

Lirot said the Web site, where male clients called "hobbyists" traded stories of their adventures with hired escorts, dealt in constitutionally protected speech. Even if the contact between clients and escorts is illegal, he said, talking about it is not.

"It would be like saying, 'I smoked 5 pounds of killer Colombian weed,' " Lirot said. "It's illegal to possess it, but what you say is protected speech."

Darcy Piotrowski, an escort against whom charges were dropped, said she provided a much-needed service to lonely men but did not sell sex.

"An escort sells time for money," said Piotrowski, 38. "Do you know how many lonely guys there are in the world? Guys that are divorced, widowed, single, who want companionship with a beautiful woman?"

Piotrowski said she charged $1,000 to $1,500 to accompany a man for an evening.

Men greet her with flowers and candies, she said, and show her elegant evenings.

"I've been to the David Copperfield show," she said. "I've been to the Dali Museum for their annual dinner twice. I'm not a prostitute. I have never had sex for money. I go out with gentlemen. I am wined and dined."

Ed Suarez, her defense lawyer, said authorities seemed to target female escorts while giving male clients a free pass, even attempting to conceal their names.

Pointing to the Sheriff's Office announcement last summer of arrests in the case, Suarez said, "If you're going to have a press conference and stand on your high horse, you don't cover up for these guys."

With the exception of the Web site owners, "How come not a single man was prosecuted?" Suarez asked. "It was a sexist decision."

Defense attorney J. Kevin Hayslett, who represented one of the escorts cleared Friday, said authorities were guilty of catastrophic bungling.

"In a case of this magnitude, you better have your ducks in a row before you make an arrest," he said. The Sheriff's Office, which dubbed its two-year investigation Operation Flea Collar, declined to comment on the ruling.

-- Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report. Christopher Goffard can be reached at (813) 226-3337 or goffard@sptimes.com .

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