Fleiss Loses Legal Bid to Have Pandering Charges Dismissed

Reputed Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss lost her bid Friday to have pandering charges dismissed based on her contention that police targeted her and other women for felony charges and ignored their wealthy, male customers.

Superior Court Judge Judith L. Champagne rejected the argument of discriminatory prosecution and agreed with Deputy Dist. Atty. Alan Carter that Fleiss’ flamboyant behavior, and not her gender, brought her to the attention of police.

“I do not find that the evidence supports your suggestion that (the law) is applied with an evil eye or unequal hand,” Champagne told Fleiss’ attorney, Anthony Brooklier.

Brooklier contended that discrimination was shown by the fact that Fleiss was charged last year with pandering, but no charges have been filed against her alleged customers, even though a statute that could apply to them has been on the books for 101 years.

The statute was created to prevent the enslavement of women for prostitution and other purposes, but also prohibits paying someone for sex.

Some of Fleiss’ alleged clients paid prostitutes with bank checks, travelers checks and perhaps credit cards, Brooklier said, breaking the law. Documents from those transactions, along with the testimony prostitutes gave during a county grand jury session last year, could be the basis of prosecuting the men, he said.

But no such prosecution has taken place in all the years the law has been in place, Brooklier said.

Carter, however, told Champagne that Fleiss brought attention to herself by bragging about running a pricey Hollywood call girl ring. In addition, he said, men who run prostitution rings are prosecuted as often as women who do the same thing.

Accepting that argument, Champagne set a May 6 trial date for Fleiss on the pandering charges and a charge of possession of cocaine.