‘High Priestess’ Guilty of Prostitution

A Canyon Country woman and her husband were convicted of prostitution charges Friday by a jury that refused to believe the woman’s sex acts with hundreds of men were her duties as high priestess of an ancient Egyptian religion the couple says it practices.

The Los Angeles Municipal Court jury found Mary Ellen Tracy, 46, guilty of one charge of operating a house of prostitution and two charges of prostitution. Will Tracy, 51, was convicted of one count of operating a house of prostitution.

The Tracys admitted accepting money from men who joined their church and had sex with Mary Ellen Tracy at the West Los Angeles house they were using as a church headquarters. But Will Tracy said the men were faithful devotees of what the Tracys called the Church of the Most High Goddess, in which men are absolved through sex with the church’s priestess.

Will Tracy said that the religion dates back more than 5,000 years to ancient Egypt and that he revived it in 1984 after receiving a revelation from God.

Mary Ellen Tracy faces a maximum sentence of 18 months in jail and a $3,000 fine. Will Tracy faces a maximum of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.