|
Student pleads guilty in escort service case By DANI DODGE After getting caught in a Medford police sting, a 22-year-old Southern Oregon University student pleaded guilty to prostitution Monday. "I'm really trying to get my life together and I'm working two jobs and I'll never do anything to put myself in this position again," Patricia Ann LaFranchi told Jackson County Circuit Judge Patricia Crain before sentencing. LaFranchi spent a day and a half in jail after her Sept. 5 arrest. Crain sentenced the Ashland woman to 18 months' probation. She also had to forfeit her cell phone. "You need to talk to someone about how you ended up where you did," Crain told LaFranchi. "It's not only dangerous ... but can destroy your self-esteem." When LaFranchi pleaded guilty Monday, a prostitution charge from March was dismissed. Deputy District Attorney Rachel Bridges attributed the dismissal to a key officer in the case being called to active military duty, but LaFranchi's attorney, Herbert Putney, said it was because the case was weak. A suppression hearing would have been held today if the case had not been dismissed in the plea agreement. In the Sept. 5 case, LaFranchi was caught in a sting that netted arrests of six women and one man. Medford police contacted escort services listed in the classified advertisements and had the "escorts" meet an informant at a motel on Riverside Avenue. In LaFranchi's case, she agreed to a sexual act with a man for money. They began the act and she was arrested. The transaction was videotaped. In the March arrest, undercover officers saw LaFranchi meet a man and then go to a motel room with him. Putney said LaFranchi thought the escort services were legitimate when she originally went to work for them as a way to pay her way through school. But then in late spring, something happened she didn't expect. "She was doing that, and as is bound to happen, someone forced himself on her," Putney said. "She related to me, that after that she blocked things out ... and thereafter started engaging in this to some extent." Putney said that LaFranchi is now working as a waitress and continuing to take a full load of classes. "She feels that she has embarrassed and shamed and disgraced her family and friends and most of all herself," Putney said. "She is convinced this is not who she is." LaFranchi told the judge jail was horrifying and she's learned her lesson. "I never want to go back there again ever," she said. Reach reporter Dani Dodge at 776-4471, or e-mail ddodge@mailtribune.com |
|
Mail
Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc.
| Dow
Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy
| Contact
Us |
