VAN NUYS : Woman Sentenced in ‘Mapping’ Violation

A Reseda woman was sentenced to 90 days in jail after committing her second violation in less than two months of the city’s new “mapping” law, which prohibits convicted prostitutes from soliciting motorists at night on certain streets, authorities said.

Ginger Marie Taylor, 33, was sentenced Tuesday and immediately began serving her term at the Sybil Brand Institute, said Deputy City Atty. Laura Van Eyk.

Under the law, convicted prostitutes are given maps showing where they may not engage motorists in conversation, solicit customers, accept rides or be in a parked car with a motorist between 5 p.m. and 6 a.m., Van Eyk said.

Van Nuys Municipal Judge Harold Crowder asked that Taylor not be given early release because “she re-violated (the restriction) so blatantly and quickly.”

Taylor was arrested and convicted of prostitution in October and was given three years probation. She also was ordered to follow mapping conditions that barred her from soliciting motorists on Geyser Avenue and Sherman Way, Van Eyk said.

Two weeks later, she was arrested in that area by LAPD vice detectives after they watched her flag down two male motorists and lean into their cars to talk with them, Van Eyk said.

Under the mapping law, “you are not allowed to converse with any lone motorist, period,” Van Eyk said.

Taylor was sentenced to 90 days in jail on Dec. 12 for that conviction, but was released after serving only 30 days due to overcrowding, said Van Eyk.

She was arrested a third time Jan. 19 in the same area after being released from jail for her first violation. West Valley Division vice officers took her into custody after she got into a car at the Geyser-Sherman Way intersection about 10:30 p.m., Van Eyk said.

The officers stopped the car and talked to the driver, who said he was a regular customer and had gone there to meet Taylor, Van Eyk said.

“Even though she had already served time for violating her mapping conditions, she was right back on the street doing exactly the same thing,” Van Eyk said.