http://www.mediainfo.com/editorandpu...ent_id=2025346

Sex Classifieds Tied to Crime
But Publishers Take the Money, Wolper Says

Kevin Montgomery, the classified ad manager for the New York Press, a free alternative weekly, spoke matter-of-factly of the pay-for-play ads that fill as many as 13 pages in his newspaper: "It's not a secret that most of the girls are prostitutes. We know the police use our publication to get information for raids on brothels. It happens all the time. It's common knowledge.

"It's disheartening to support that kind of activity directly or indirectly," Montgomery acknowledged in a telephone interview from his office. "But people have a right to advertise. So they do."

Welcome to The World of Classified, where women and transvestites, known as "She-males," offer to make "out calls" to the homes or hotels of their clients. It is illegal to blatantly sell sex, so the classifieds are filled with phrases that only hint at a hot night out. The come-ons promise to "blow your mind," or "provide the best time of your life," in settings that are "private" with partners who are "discreet."

What many eager readers don't know is that the sexed-up classifieds are law enforcement tip sheets. In some cities, undercover cops set up sting operations by buying space in the classifieds, according to police and publishing sources. Cops also pressure classified ad managers -- sometimes with subpoenas -- to divulge the names and addresses of the women in the ads or the agents who procure space for them, according to newspaper sources.

The messiest part of the classified scene is the suspicion that some of the young women in the ads are under 18 -- a proposition that pimps like to promote, even when it is not true. "They try to use phrases like 'barely 18' or 'young girls' as code words because young prostitutes are more desirable," said Montgomery.

Those not-so-subtle word-lures littered the Oct. 26 and Nov. 5 classified sections of both the New York Press and The Village Voice, a fierce competitor for sex classifieds in New York City. Neither David Schneiderman, CEO of Village Voice Media, nor Patricia Murphy, the Voice's classified ad manager, returned detailed messages left with their assistants or on their voice mail.

The nation's alternative papers, with their appeal to Young America, are the first choice of the sex placements, even though some mainstream newspapers have opened their pages to the adult personals, massage parlors, and escort services.

"I still like to run my ads in the alternatives, like the Village Voice and the New York Press," said Billy "Dollar Bill" Mersey, a one-time cab driver and freelance writer who has penned articles for The New York Times and the Voice. "Last week I placed 56 hooker ads in the Press, and 53 in the Village Voice."

Mersey started his placement profession when the Voice became uncomfortable about having alleged prostitutes line up at their offices on Wednesday afternoons to buy space. "It pays better than being a freelance writer," he chuckled.

But these days ad managers in mainstream venues like New York magazine and The Arizona Republic, a member of the Gannett newspaper chain, are lusting after the alleged sex-for-hire classifieds. In Phoenix, the vice enforcement unit of the organized crime bureau uses the classifieds of the Arizona Republic and the local New Times, part of the largest alternative chain in the country, as informants.

"We know that almost every one of those ads involve sex for money," said Sgt. Chris Bray of Phoenix vice. "We make about 10 arrests a month from the ads and get about eight convictions." Bray noted that many johns are being victimized in "cash and dash" episodes in which women, aided by male protectors, ask their customers to undress and then rob them.

New Times, whose Web site boasts of investigations into sex scandals in Arizona and the Air Force Academy, has yet to probe the police activity emanating from its own classifieds, according to newsroom sources. And they won't talk about it. Hardly unusual. It's useful to keep that sort of news quiet for fear of killing an important cash cow.

Tony Elliott, founder and chairman of Time Out publications in New York and London, says the classifieds are too raunchy for his readers. "They are clearly from hookers," Elliott said.

But L.A. Weekly, part of the Village Voice newspaper chain, believes its sex ads are performing a public service. "We are an alternative weekly," said Snookie Stoddard, the paper's classified advertising director. "We are free thinkers. We tell the truth. We are very graphic. We don't have to hide our bumps and warts."

I'll believe that when Stoddard tells investigative reporters on the paper about the complaints she receives from readers who say they have been hounded by cops.

Then the paper's readers would learn whether the people providing the sex services are AIDS-free, whether they are connected to loan sharks and drug dealers, and whether they are shilling for underage hookers.