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South Bay Couple Plead Not Guilty to Running Call-Girl Ring From Home

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Times Staff Writer

Christopher Davis and Jill McGrath were looking to start a business in which she could stay at home with their two daughters and they could have a more traditional family life.

What they came up with was South Bay Models. They called it a dating referral service.

Redondo Beach police, however, called it something else. They accused the couple of running a call-girl ring from their yellow-and-white house near the beach.

In criminal charges filed last month, they claimed McGrath oversaw fellow moms daylighting as prostitutes, with Davis advertising their wares by posting salacious photos on the Internet.

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McGrath and Davis can barely assimilate this image with the humdrum reality of their lives. “We’re just normal people, trying to make a living,” Davis said.

On Friday, the couple pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Torrance to charges of pimping, pandering and drug possession. McGrath faces an additional charge of child endangerment connected to alleged drug possession. The drug charge triggered an investigation by the state Department of Children and Family Services.

If convicted, both face up to 10 years in prison.

This isn’t what they had envisioned when they came to Los Angeles as young adults -- McGrath from Massachusetts, Davis from Oklahoma -- and flirted with careers in acting.

McGrath ended up as a customer service representative at a West Hollywood firm. Davis found work as a still photographer and assistant cameraman on films.

After they had their first child, Davis no longer wanted to spend long stretches away on movie sets and McGrath wanted to be a full-time mother.

“I wanted to be able to stay at home with my kids,” she said. “I wanted to not send them off to day care.”

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Their first venture was a store that sold children’s clothes that they designed and made themselves. It failed, and they were saddled with big debt.

Their own experiences in dating convinced them that there was a market for a dating referral service. In creating SouthBay Models.com, they never called it an escort service, viewing that as a euphuism for prostitution.

Nevertheless, they were aware of how others might view their new venture. Davis built the website for South Bay Models in a locked office to ensure that his older daughter, now 7, would not see the images.

He loaded the site with sex-tinged tags in the html code to ensure that when online surfers punched “Los Angeles escort services” into a search engine, SouthBayModels.com would pop up. Among the other keywords and phrases that led customers to their door: Sensual massage, sex, sex guide, sex directory, body rub, fetish and dominatrix.

Davis and McGrath insist, however, that they never offered such services. They say they provided clients with nothing more than dates in exchange for a $300 to $600 per hour “referral fee.”

McGrath said she turned away anyone looking to pay for sex. “I’d say, ‘Take a drive on Sunset,’ ” she said. “There’s no reason for them to speak to me like that. There’s some rude, funky people out there.”

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McGrath and Davis say they told adult relatives what business they were in, but were less open with most neighbors on Havemeyer Lane.

The neighbors’ families are social, but they also prize the area’s safety and tranquillity, frowning upon people who so much as make noise after 7 p.m.

“We live in a conservative neighborhood,” McGrath said.

Even as McGrath and Davis kept their profile low at home, however, South Bay Models began attracting attention from area law enforcement. The business was traced back to their home.

“That’s the thing that made it a big deal,” said Redondo Beach Police Sgt. Jeff Hink. “It was a quality-of-life issue.”

Redondo Beach police set up a sting operation, arranging for a detective to meet a model at an area hotel. There was an offer and an exchange of money, Hink said. The woman has been charged with misdemeanor prostitution.

Police raided Davis and McGrath’s house on the night of Nov. 20. They waited for the couple to return home from dinner at Benihana with neighbors to arrest them.

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Hink said the papers and records police took from the couple’s house describe an operation far more sophisticated, lucrative and overtly sexual than Davis and McGrath allege. He said South Bay Models represented 25 to 30 women and had more than 1,000 clients. Several women who are cooperating with police said they were making as much as $10,000 per month.

McGrath and Davis collected a 30% to 50% cut of what their employees took in -- some delivered in cash and deposited in a locked mailbox attached to their house, Hink said.

Police found evidence that the couple administered a sexual questionnaire to potential escorts, asking them for what he described as “a laundry list of what they were prepared to do” with clients.

“Some [of the women] were married and had kids,” Hink said. “They were professional women, some of them in the entertainment industry. These women appeared to have it together, but they were controlled by McGrath.”

McGrath disputed this characterization, saying she knew of only one woman who had worked for South Bay Models who was married, and she had stopped going on dates arranged by the company a year ago. “I feel very strongly” about infidelity, McGrath said. “I’m old-fashioned when it comes to that.”

The couple also scoffed at the numbers thrown out by police. South Bay Models never represented more than eight escorts at a time, they said.

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It paid the bills, they said, but was hardly a gold mine. “We still drive junky cars. We still rent,” said Davis, who drives a VW Cabriolet.

Davis took responsibility for the sizable stash of cocaine, methamphetamine and Ecstasy police discovered during the raid. Davis acknowledged the drugs were his, calling himself a “recreational drug user.” Since his arrest, on the advice of his attorney, he has joined Narcotics Anonymous, Davis said.

“People are painting us as bad parents,” McGrath said.

It is, Davis said, “very difficult and very stressful.”

The couple have enrolled in court-endorsed parenting classes, hoping it will persuade authorities to leave their family intact. Citing confidentiality laws, Stuart Riskin, a spokesman for the county Department of Children and Family Services, did not release any information relating to McGrath and Davis.

For now South Bay Models has shut down -- mostly.

Its home page shows a photograph of a nude woman cloaked in shadow, her arms pinned behind her back in a pose that suggests handcuffs. Below the photo, a message announces the site will soon be accessible only to members, and that all materials related to the criminal case will be posted. It provides a link for instructions on how to donate money to the couple’s legal defense.

Davis and McGrath say the attention generated by their case has surprised and mortified them. The story about South Bay Models was picked up by newspapers and TV stations across the nation, many of which latched on to the idea that the escorts were “soccer moms.”

McGrath’s uncle called her from Massachusetts and said he had heard on local radio that 70 women had been arrested.

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Davis is convinced it was the soccer-mom connection that drew most of the rubber-necking. “That’s why people are so interested,” he said.

It also was the idea that the business was based in Redondo Beach, not Hollywood.

Some neighbors blamed Davis and McGrath for the unwanted attention. One complained about seeing suggestively dressed women around their house. A family with whom the couple had been close became standoffish. Their children no longer play together.

Other neighbors, however, support them. Some have written glowing letters to submit as part of their criminal defense.

Frank Luu Phung, who lives near McGrath and Davis, said he was fine with having a dating service so close by. “It’s like living next door to Chuck Woolery,” said Phung, referring to the “Love Connection” host.

Times staff writer Stephanie Chavez contributed to this report.

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