Owner of Escort Service Gets 4-Year Term : Judge Also Fines Defendant $1,000 in Pimping Case

Convicted Orange County pimp and escort-service owner Richard (Roman) Eshun was sentenced Friday to four years in state prison, a penalty the judge called “sufficient to get the message across.”

Superior Court Judge Robert A. Knox called Eshun’s Great Company Escorts a “highly sophisticated scheme,” adding that Eshun had a “fallacious belief” that what he was doing was legal.

In addition to the four-year sentence, Eshun was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine. He could have been sentenced to a maximum of 11 years in prison.

Eshun, 36, was found guilty by an Orange County jury two months ago of eight felony counts of pimping and pandering. Anaheim police had arrested him for running a prostitution ring in the guise of an escort service.

Prostitutes Testified

During his 10-day trial, prostitutes who worked for Eshun testified that they engaged in sex more than 90% of the time when they went out on “dates.” The dates, they said, were typically one hour long in a man’s Orange County hotel room or home. The fee was $150 in cash or $175 if an American Express card was used.

Two prostitutes, Susan Cuthbertson and Sandra Jones, also testified they had sex with Eshun as part of their job interviews. Jones, 20, testified that before engaging in sex with Eshun he told her, “something along the lines of ‘Well, let’s see how you are. I’ve got to know what I’m offering, you know, before I can put my name on the line with the clientele.’ ”

Eshun contended that he never discussed sex with customers and provided men with companionship only.

In a brief statement to the court on Friday, Eshun, who was dressed in a black leather jacket, blue jeans and sneakers, said, “If I had to do it again, I would never. It brought me here, which didn’t help me in the long run.”

When the 30-minute sentencing hearing was over and an Orange County marshal put handcuffs on Eshun’s wrists, an Anaheim detective grinned at him and waved goodby. Eshun’s eyes flashed angrily, and he was led away.

Outside the Orange County courtroom, Eshun’s attorney, Allan Stokke, said he was “relatively satisfied” with Knox’s decision since the judge could have given his client a much longer sentence.

College Education

“The question is what is necessary to make sure he never does this again,” said Stokke, who argued that Eshun, with a college education and computer skills, should have been awarded probation instead of prison.

“I don’t think it’s necessary to send him to state prison, but the state Legislature says that you have to do that.”

Stokke was referring to the passage of a 1984 state law that requires judges to impose a minimum three-year prison term for anyone convicted of pimping or pandering.

The net effect of prosecuting escort-service operators, Stokke added, exacerbates the county’s prostitution problem by forcing prostitutes out of the relative safety of a hotel room and back onto the streets.

Prosecutor Ken Chinn, who urged the judge to give Eshun a six-year sentence, said the four-year sentence was not unreasonable.

“Four years in state prison is something that would cause someone to pause before opening an escort business,” Chinn said.