Fleiss Jury Hears Final Arguments : Courts: Deliberations in pandering case expected to begin today. Prosecutor likens her to shrewd saleswoman. Defense says police entrapped her.
In closing arguments spiced with emotion and hyperbole, a prosecutor Monday painted alleged Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss as a panderer who marketed beautiful women as shrewdly as a top-drawer saleswoman sells Lexus automobiles.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Alan Carter noted that Fleiss was recorded on videotapes as well as audiotapes during an undercover sting operation that resulted in her arrest last year.
“This is not a complicated case,” Carter said.
But defense attorney Anthony Brooklier countered that the police officers abused their power, orchestrated a victimless crime and entrapped the 28-year-old daughter of a prominent pediatrician in arresting her on charges of pandering and possession of cocaine for sale.
Superior Court Judge Judith Champagne is expected to send the case to the jury today.
Fleiss’ arrest catapulted her
into the national spotlight after rumors spread that her alleged clientele included entertainment industry executives--an issue that Brooklier emphasized briefly.
“How serious does the prosecution or the law really think this is when they never prosecute the male customer? This is hypocrisy at its best,” said Brooklier, who pointed out that prostitution is legal in Nevada “just 250 miles away.”
During his 70-minute closing argument, Brooklier sought to downplay the gravity of pandering, referring to it as “the most benign of crimes.”
“It’s a function of where you live as to whether or not this is illegal,” Brooklier said. “Yes, this is technically a crime. So is spitting on the sidewalk.”
Brooklier also maintained that the 20 police officers involved in Fleiss’ case could have been put to better use. “With all the problems we have today, law enforcement creates a task force, and my client is the bull’s-eye, the target,” he said, mockingly.
A bespectacled Fleiss, dressed in a conservative gray suit, sat with her hands folded on a table and watched with interest as Brooklier addressed the seven-man, five-woman jury. If convicted, Fleiss could be sentenced to 11 years in prison.
To prove entrapment, Brooklier must show that police tactics would induce a normal, law-abiding citizen to break the law.
Carter, the prosecutor, told the jury that Fleiss willingly engaged in negotiations to provide four women to undercover Beverly Hills Detective Sammy Lee, who posed as a Ferrari-driving businessman from Hawaii. Carter said that in various conversations to arrange two evening encounters with prostitutes, Fleiss told Lee: “No problem.”
“Would a law-abiding person react like this?” Carter asked.
Lee had asked Fleiss to provide him with one woman for one evening and with four women, as well as a small quantity of cocaine, for the next evening in June, 1993. Lee told Fleiss that the four women would be presents to Lee’s Japanese colleagues, also undercover police, to celebrate a business deal.
X “If Ms. Fleiss was on trial for a speeding ticket, the defense would say it’s the government’s fault because the government built the highway,” Carter said. “All Detective Lee did was open up the road; Ms. Fleiss . . . sped right down the road.”
Using a transcript of a conversation between Lee and Fleiss in the spring of 1993, Carter depicted Fleiss as a smooth saleswoman who boasted about her elite ring. Carter read portions of the transcript of Fleiss’ comments, noting that she said: “Of all the girls I select that are gonna work for me, maybe I meet a hundred girls in two weeks and I only pick one.”
Carter offered his interpretation of Fleiss’ remarks. “She’s telling (Lee), ‘I have quality merchandise,’ ” Carter said. “The Lexus dealer will tell you, ‘You don’t want to go across the street and buy an Oldsmobile.’ ”
The prosecutor also reminded the jury that a videotape, filmed with police surveillance cameras, showed four women in a Beverly Hills hotel suite accepting $1,500 apiece. After discussing what sex acts they would do, the women hummed, clapped and disrobed. About 20 officers stormed into the room after the women had taken off most of their clothes.
“Is there any doubt, Ms. Fleiss intended to provide women to have sex with Detective Lee’s business partners?” Carter asked the jury.
The notion that Fleiss was induced by police to break the law, Carter maintained, reflected a new phenomenon in the criminal justice system.
“Recently there’s been a new twist; it’s a bad twist: ‘I did it but it’s somebody else’s fault. Yeah, I arranged for those women but it’s Detective Lee’s fault,’ ” Carter told the jury. “If we travel down that road, you all better buckle up and lock up real tight. Now all of a sudden the defendant is no longer on trial, it’s the police officers who are on trial.”
