‘Beverly Hills Madam’ to Be Tried : Courts: The woman is ordered to face charges despite questions over whether her role as a police informant protects her from prosecution.

A judge ruled Friday that “Beverly Hills madam” Elizabeth Adams must stand trial on charges of pandering, despite police testimony that she was a valued informant who helped put major criminals in jail.

The district attorney’s office and defense attorneys have presented conflicting arguments as to whether Adams operated her lavish call girl ring under an agreement with Los Angeles police protecting her from prosecution.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Bert Glennon acknowledged that there are “some very serious factual disagreements in the case.” Such disagreements, he said, should be resolved at a full trial, rather than at Friday’s proceeding, which was a pretrial hearing on a motion by Adams’ attorneys to dismiss the charges.

Glennon set a trial date of April 26.

Adams, who doesn’t dispute her reputation as one of the West Coast’s leading madams, was arrested three years ago after a policewoman, posing as a prospective prostitute, went to Adams’ lavishly decorated home in the Hollywood Hills. Officers said the undercover policewoman was told she could make “a minimum of $300 an hour.”

According to detectives, Adams had been operating a call girl operation that catered to an international clientele of oil sheiks, millionaire businessmen and others who could afford prices of up to $2,000 a day.

But at the same time, police and Adams say, she was providing them with valuable information about murder suspects, drug traffickers and fugitive financier Robert L. Vesco.

“She was the best informant I ever met,” veteran police Detective Daniel Lott testified last May. “The information gleaned from her far surpassed what she was doing (as a madam), in total benefit. It led to major, major criminals going to jail . . . You can’t get that type of information from a church person.”

Another officer, Detective Alan Vanderpool, testified that “as long as she provided information, she didn’t go to jail.”

However, sometime in the 1980s, Adams apparently dried up as a source, and a 1987 police report notes: “No contact. Inactive. Should go to jail.”

Adams’ attorneys said Friday that Adams had an informal “contract” with police that authorized her call girl operation because it served “their selfish purposes.”