Accused Prostitution Ringleader Sentenced

Awoman accused of running a prostitution ring from her Granada Hills home by placing advertisements for escort services in telephone yellow pages was sentenced Wednesday to six months in County Jail and three years’ probation.

The woman, Lisa Melody Andrade, 28, also was ordered to pay $150 to the state victim’s restitution fund for her guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to commit prostitution.

Andrade originally pleaded guilty to one count of pimping, but Deputy Dist. Atty. Myron Jenkins Wednesday changed the charge after he discovered that state law requires a prison term for the pimping conviction. Andrade had agreed to plead guilty on the condition she be sentenced to serve time only in County Jail, he said.

Andrade was arrested in August after a three-month investigation by vice officers concluded that her businesses--Regency International Escorts, Scandia’s and Misfits--were fronts for prostitution, according to court records. Advertisements in the yellow pages touted Regency as “the ultimate in body massage.”

In an affidavit for a search warrant, officers said two Regency escorts called to hotel rooms by undercover agents offered to perform acts of prostitution for $100 an hour.

In a written statement to the court, Andrade, who has earlier prostitution convictions, said she “ran what I though to be an honest and legal escort service and never permitted any operators to engage in any illegal activity.”

She included a copy of a consent form she said the escorts were required to sign, promising they would not “engage in any sexual or illicit acts.”

“I feel very bad and I am extremely remorseful I ever got into this business,” Andrade wrote.