With franchises that extend coast to coast, Jody "Babydol" Gibson, the alleged Hollywood Madam may just be the Earl Schieb of outcall service. Or at least that's what a jury is going to try and determine. Yesterday, Gibson's jury heard secretly taped phone conversations between a woman identified as Gibson and an uncdercover cop, LAPD Det. Raz Kertenian, who was posing as a Middle Eastern businessman looking for some action. Gibson has been charged with pimping, pandering and procuring for prostitution and faces up to 17 years in state prison if convicted on all counts.
In the tapes, a woman calling herself "Sasha" [supposedly Gibson], outlined the inner workings of her escort service and boasted of a stable that included sophisticated women including television stars and a former beauty queen.
In their conversations, Kertenian told Gibson that he wasn't interested in porno-types but referred to pictures of certain girls on her website that filled the bill. Gibson in turn recommended an escort who could speak five languages but whose availability was limited due to her pressing television shooting schedule.
In a series of phone conversations over more than two months, Kertenian and "Sasha" referred to the girls by numbers corresponding to their photos on Gibson's California Dreamin' website. The cost for one girl, known as No. 14, aka "Lee" was $1,000 for 2 hours. Kertenian set up a meet with her in a hotel suite where they sat and talked for about 40 minutes. Lee asked Kertenian to take off his clothes. He complied, a move which defense contends is highly irregular for a cop. According to Kertenian, he had received special permission from LAPD to do so.
But, it was when Lee reached for his groin area and started unwrapping a condom, that Kertenian asked her to slow down and "save it" for their next date. According to Kertenian, Lee was so pleased that she offered to deal directly with him on future occasions rather than, according to her, pay Sasha a 40% percentage off the top.
Via the tapes, Sasha/Gibson was supposed to have told Kertenian that she had girls in Denver, Houston, Chicago and offices in New York which served Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut. At one point Kertenian in a conversation brought up the possibility of having girls sent to Kuwait. Sasha told him that it would cost in the neighborhood of $30,000 a week per girl to accommodate him. In a subsequent face-on meeting with Kertenian, Sasha/Gibson was arrested.
Her attorney Gerald Scotti has said that the state won't be able to make a case other than to prove that Gibson set up dance parties and porn video shoots.
