Oxnard Man Gets 6 Years in Pimping, Pandering Case : Courts: Prosecutors say Henry Hardy Jr. ran the largest prostitution ring in the county.

An Oxnard man was sentenced to six years in prison Wednesday for operating what prosecutors described as the biggest prostitution ring in Ventura County.

Henry Hardy Jr., 36, was convicted Sept. 4 of three counts of pimping and eight counts of pandering stemming from his management of the Stardust Modeling Agency on Saviers Road.

“His operation was the biggest in the county,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael K. Frawley said. “He was a big wheel. He was not just working one or two girls, but 10 or 12. It was quite an operation and quite sophisticated.”

Frawley said Hardy raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars during the three years that he operated the agency. Frawley asked Ventura County Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch to sentence Hardy to 12 years in prison.

Hardy’s attorney, Steven Powell, discounted the seriousness of the charges and said Hardy deserved probation. But since the law requires a prison sentence, Powell asked for the minimum term of three years “as a matter of justice.”

Storch, however, said he found nothing mitigating about Hardy’s conduct, and refused to “get into a philosophical discussion about pimping and pandering. That’s not my function.”

He settled on a term of six years in prison on all of the charges. Under state parole guidelines, Hardy will be eligible for parole after serving three years.

Hardy employed up to 15 women during the three years that he operated the agency, according to a probation investigator’s report. Investigators found ledger books indicating that Hardy’s employees performed at 463 sessions between Dec. 5, 1990, and Feb. 20, when the business was shut down.

In three private rooms, the women would dance and undress for customers for a charge of $100 per half an hour. Of that amount, Hardy took $70 while the performer received $30 plus tips.

But the dancers also performed sex acts for additional money, according to witnesses who included a customer, former dancers and undercover officers. They testified that the agency provided condoms and towels to facilitate the sex acts.

Susan Wallis, who performed under the name “Mistress Omega,” testified that she used whips and other props in a bondage act for which her customers would disrobe.

Hardy insisted that he knew nothing of any sex acts and said he took pains to make sure that his employees did not turn tricks. But several witnesses testified about conversations in which Hardy made reference to sex going on at his business.

When Oxnard police raided the agency on Feb. 20, they said they found one of the performance rooms wired for sound so Hardy, sitting in his office, could monitor activities in the room.

“His actions were the ultimate degradation of women,” the probation investigator wrote. “Some were previously prostitutes, but others were enticed into it.”

Storch allowed Hardy to remain free on $50,000 bail until Jan. 3 so he can attend a civil trial where the district attorney’s office will attempt to seize Hardy’s home in Oxnard. Frawley said the state is entitled to seize the home because the $60,000 cash that Hardy put down to buy it came from illicit operations.

Outside court, surrounded by his mother, wife, sister, nephew and children, Hardy maintained his innocence and said his prosecution was racially motivated.

“I think the fact that I am black was the reason they did this to me,” he said. “They want my home because I’m the only black in a white neighborhood.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Frawley said. He said Hardy was investigated because he ran the biggest prostitution operation in the county and employed the most women.

“You rarely get a case where the evidence is so incredibly overwhelming,” Frawley said.

Hardy questioned why many other modeling agencies remain open, judging by the personal ads in local newspapers.

Frawley agreed that prostitution is probably going on at some of the agencies.

“It’s an incredibly hard crime to investigate,” he said. “So few people report it.”