A 43-year-old woman awaiting trial in Baltimore County for charges related to prostitution was recently accused of operating a brothel in Montgomery County. Police say that they were led to the accused woman by a woman whom they met at the Red Roof Inn in Gaithersburg; the woman claimed to be working as a prostitute for someone named “Wendy.” Police photographed $1,260 that the alleged prostitute was going to give to “Wendy,” and they later took the 43-year-old into custody after she exited the other woman’s hotel room. Police say that she had on her possession the $1,260 that they photographed earlier.
In March 2013, the accused woman from Towson was arrested in Baltimore following a raid of her massage parlor. There is also a federal civil forfeiture case pending against four houses and an office building belonging to the woman and her co-owner that police say were purchased with prostitution money. A U.S. attorney working on the forfeiture case told the federal judge that “the plea agreement in the related Baltimore County criminal case has fallen apart.”
The accused woman’s attorney rejected the claim, saying that the charges the woman is now facing in Montgomery County do not affect the Baltimore County proceedings, noting that the state had not revoked its previous plea offer. The woman had been accused of human trafficking in the past, but prosecutors in those instances either decided to drop the proceedings or were unable to obtain anything more than a suspended sentence for the woman.
A person accused of a prostitution-related offense may be facing a substantial amount of time in prison. When a civil proceeding is also underway that relates to the criminal charges, it is even more imperative that an accused person present a good defense since a finding of guilt in criminal court may hurt the person’s chances of winning in civil court. Anyone accused of a sex crime may wish to consult a criminal defense attorney to discuss strategies for fighting the accusations and decide whether to consider a plea deal offered by the state.
Source: The Baltimore Sun, “Towson woman arrested on prostitution charges“, Jean Marbella, March 15, 2014
