Brothel owner plans to find Ventura’s prostitute to fight back

Friday, Sept. 24, 1999 | 9:18 a.m.

The governor should "be a man" and call to talk about the use of his name in the brothel's ad instead of having his "weasel" lawyer send a letter, Moonlight Bunny Ranch owner Dennis Hof said in a phone interview Thursday.

"It's going to come out a lot worse for him. Does he want the world to know that he was paid to do an act of prostitution?" Hof said. "Jesse's going to be surprised when I find this girl and have her on all the talk shows."

On his promotional tour and in his autobiography, "I Ain't Got Time to Bleed," the governor bragged that he was "one of the only men standing on the Earth who can say he went to a Nevada ranch and was paid for it."

He said it all started when one of the women at the Moonlight Bunny Ranch admired his belt.

"I said, 'Make me an offer.' And she said, 'How about a trick and $10?"' he said, while retelling the story during his book tour. "I did it!"

Ventura's lawyer, David Bradley Olsen, sent the brothel a letter last week asking that the governor's name be removed from an ad.

Olsen objects to the use of the governor's name and a fabricated quote: "I had sex at the Moonlight." He also objects to the implication that Ventura endorses the ranch, which Olsen said Ventura does not.

"We consider the use of someone's name for advertising purposes without consent or permission as a violation of both state and federal law," Olsen said. "The fact that the quote attributed to the governor was not a true and correct quote just compounds the problem."

Hof said he will change the ad to more closely reflect what the governor said in his book, but he angrily noted that the governor often bragged about the ranch for his purposes.

"He's selling sensationalism. That's how he's selling his book," Hof said.

Last month, the brothel that Ventura patronized as a Navy SEAL renamed a bedroom suite from "Monica's Oral Office" to the "Jesse (The Body) Ventura Suite."

Hof now plans to call it "the Governor's Suite" and decorate it with memorabilia from feather boas to Ventura posters to Navy SEAL regalia.

Hof has been adept at getting publicity in the past. He once hired John Wayne Bobbitt to work at the brothel.