The Answering Service

The Defendant operated a telephone answering service in Los Angeles. In a Police investigation of call-girl activity, officers identified three of the Defendant's subscribers as active prostitutes who used his service to receive and relay client calls. The Defendant himself admitted during a Police undercover operation that he knew one subscriber, a woman named Terry, was a prostitute; he said he knew this because Police had previously investigated her and told him so. He told the undercover officer that he ran a business serving all callers and didn't ask how they made their living. The Prosecution argued that by continuing to provide telephone answering services to known prostitutes, knowing those services facilitated their criminal activity, the Defendant had entered into a conspiracy with them to commit prostitution. There was no evidence that the Defendant charged prostitutes higher rates than other customers, took a percentage of their earnings, or provided them any preferential treatment.