Lawyer: Warning sent to pimps

Kim Smith

Tuesday, Sept. 7, 1999 | 11:07 a.m.

Las Vegas pimps need to take note of what happened in U.S. District Court Friday, Assistant United States Attorney Tom O'Connell said.

One pimp was convicted of seven prostitution-related charges and another got almost three years in prison after admitting he brought one underage prostitute across state lines.

After seven hours of deliberations, a federal district jury rejected Andre Taylor's claims that he had retired from the pimp business and convicted him of forcing women and underage girls to travel across state lines to commit sex acts.

Taylor could face up to 10 years in federal prison when sentenced by U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben on Jan. 18.

Jurors deadlocked on an eighth charge and a new trial has been tentatively set for Dec. 13.

At the same time the jury was reaching its conclusions in the Taylor case, U.S. District Judge Philip Pro was sentencing Pierre Hudson to 33 months in prison on one count of transportation of a minor across state lines for the purposes of prostitution. He must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence.

Hudson pleaded guilty June 4 to bringing Sara Gruber, 16, to Las Vegas from California to work for him as a prostitute. Gruber was strangled to death by a john within a few months of her arrival in Las Vegas. Michael Hathaway, 30, is in a state prison for her death and must serve at least 20 years before he is eligible for parole.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Pam Greiman said Pro also sentenced Hudson to three years' supervised release once he gets out of prison. Pro gave Hudson the maximum sentence possible, she said.

Jurors in the Taylor case heard testimony from two of his former prostitutes, one of whom was 16 when she went to work for him. The women said they worked seven days a week and turned all of their profits over to Taylor, who lived in a $300,000 house and wore $4,100 Versace suits and a $90,000 Rolex watch.

Taylor's attorney, Michael Kennedy, claimed that Taylor had retired from the prostitution business and was pursuing a career as a rap music artist. Kennedy explained that Taylor often traveled during the making of the documentary film "American Pimp" because he was working as a technical consultant for the film's makers.

Kennedy said he intends to appeal Taylor's convictions, noting that there were appellate issues in "each and every one" of the cases. Moreover, he said, two of the charges should never have gotten to the jury.

Authorities chose to pursue federal charges against Hudson and Taylor as part of a federal violent crime initiative, O'Connell said. The federal system affords harsher sentences and offers greater resources for investigating cases that cross state lines.

"They won't be the last" of federal prosecutions of alleged pimps, O'Connell said.

Several other cases are being reviewed for federal prosecution, he said.

"The sum of the evidence in the Taylor case was certainly compelling," he said. "This was a good example of the type of investigation the IRS, FBI and Las Vegas Metro can do. This was an example of the kind of case we can put together when we work all together."