Ex-Employee of Accused Madam Is Sentenced

Tanya Hall, a former employee of accused madam Jody Babydol Gibson, was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and ordered to pay $1,650 in fines after she pleaded no contest to prostitution, the Los Angeles city attorney’s office said Monday.

Hall, 37, of Studio City, entered her plea to one count of prostitution and was sentenced last week by Van Nuys Municipal Judge Anita Dymant, said Mike Qualls, a spokesman for the city attorney’s office.

Hall, who went by the alias Katya, was also placed on three years’ summary probation, which includes orders to undergo an AIDS education class and submit to an AIDS test. She was also banned from advertising an escort service on the Internet, as she had done in the past, Qualls said.

Detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Organized Crime and Vice Division were conducting a surveillance of Gibson when they saw Hall meet with her in January. However, it took police several months to build up their case against her.

Police traced Hall through the license number of the 1997 Lexus she was driving.

Investigators matched her photograph, on file with the Department of Motor Vehicles, with pictures of her posted on Gibson’s Web site and another Web site advertising escort services, Qualls said.

On March 16, an undercover detective paid $300 to Hall during a meeting in a room at the Hotel Nikko in Westchester, but he made an excuse to end the encounter and no arrest was made.

On June 15, the same undercover detective contacted Hall and made arrangements to meet with her a week later in a room at the Radisson Valley Center Hotel in Studio City.

After Hall arrived, she instructed the detective to place $400 on the dresser for sex, but detectives entered the room and arrested her. Hall’s purse contained several condoms and $2,128 in cash.