‘High Priestess,’ Husband Sentenced for Prostitution

A Canyon Country woman who claims to be the high priestess of an ancient Egyptian religion that incorporates sex in its rituals was sentenced Friday on prostitution charges to 90 days in jail, fined $3,000 and ordered to undergo AIDS testing.

Her husband, who said God ordered him to re-establish the church, was sentenced to 180 days in jail and fined $1,000 for running a house of prostitution.

Will Tracy, 51, received the maximum sentence from Los Angeles Municipal Judge Marion L. Obera. She called him the mastermind behind a prostitution service that operated out of a house in West Los Angeles.

The judge ordered Mary Ellen Tracy, 47, to take an AIDS test and attend AIDS education classes at Sybil Brand Institute for Women. Tracy was convicted this month on two misdemeanor prostitution charges and one charge of running a house of ill fame. She could have received up to 180 days in jail for each conviction.

Her attorney, Deputy Public Defender Maureen J. Tchakalian, asked the judge to delay the jail sentence, noting that the couple’s eight children--ranging in age from 5 to 19--would be without parental guidance. Tchakalian also asked Obera to dismiss the jail sentence, adding that first-time offenders typically receive probation.

“There are first-time prostitutes and those who are convicted for the first time,” Obera replied. “And I feel Mrs. Tracy is in the latter category.”

The Tracys had tried to turn their trial into a debate over First Amendment rights, arguing that authorities were prosecuting them because they practiced an unorthodox religion, which they called the Church of the Most High Goddess.

In the church, women acted as priests who absolved the sins of male followers during rituals involving sex. Mary Ellen Tracy claimed to have had sex with more than 2,000 men in the name of religion.

She once told an interviewer: “Anything God wants from me, I will give him. If he wants me to be monogamous, I’ll be monogamous. If he says go have sex with 20,000 men, I’ll do it.”

During the trial, Mary Ellen Tracy told how she had been raised a Roman Catholic, flirted with agnosticism in college, converted to Mormonism and finally took the name Sabrina Aset when she assumed the role of high priestess five years ago at the urging of her husband.

The six-man, six-woman jury also heard Will Tracy, acting as his own attorney, tell how God ordered him to re-establish what he said was the world’s oldest religion. Will Tracy once compared himself to Jesus Christ and Mormon prophet Joseph Smith, saying they too were persecuted because of their religious beliefs.

But police said the church was a scam because the male followers had to make cash donations--the Tracys called them sacrifices--to partake in the sexual rites. Prosecutors also noted Mary Ellen Tracy’s unorthodox vestments: fishnet stockings, black spiked heels and a strapless dress studded with red sequins. In court Friday, she wore a simple white dress.