Police report paints bad picture of escort services

Diana Sahagun

Thursday, March 22, 2001 | 10:11 a.m.

The city of Las Vegas has delayed licensing its first escort service following a swarm of neighborhood protests and a scathing Metro Police report, although officials have opened the door to the possibility of the business eventually locating in the city.

The City Council Wednesday voted to strike an item by Blue Limited from the agenda, which will allow the company proposing the escort service to return to the council when a more agreeable location is found.

The delay, though, will cause two new ordinances regulating escort and outcall entertainment services to go into effect and will make it even tougher for the business to receive a license.

Although Blue partners Jeffery Schoor and Cynthia Steinman argue that they want to provide a legitimate "social engagement service" for singles looking for escorts for swanky parties or heavyweight fights, Metro painted a picture of a disingenuous industry.

Sgt. Brian Evans of Metro's vice squad said for the past 15 years he has been part of numerous investigations concerning escort and outcall entertainment businesses in Clark County. There are currently no such services in the city of Las Vegas, and an application for an escort service has not been made in the city for almost 30 years.

"Most or all of these are fronts for prostitution," Evans said of the services. "Nine out of 10 times, when these girls show up at the room, they will solicit acts of prostitution."

Metro finds that some men and women working for the services use "trick rolls," in which they rob their clients. Women associated with entertainment services are often victims of sexual assaults and even homicides, Evans said.

"There has never been a time where a girl has come to a room, has brought a stereo and has danced for an hour for entertainment and went (home)," Evans said. "There is always an overt act of prostitution."

The Blue partners maintain they need only a storefront to hang their business license. The office, to include nothing more than a desk and a phone, would be used only to schedule appointments.

The Blue partners say employees would neither be dispatched from the property nor sent to hotel rooms. Schoor and Steinman will meet with clients at a public place and subsequently screen the client. The escort -- a man or woman -- will ultimately meet the client at the requested location. Escorts are not supposed to go to any hotel rooms, the partners said.

Residents protested the proposed location at Rainbow and Oakey boulevards because of its proximity to a neighborhood, Bonanza High School, a park and a church.

Larry Miller, chief executive officer for Peccole Nevada Corp., said that, as a master-planned developer and a resident who attends church in the area, he believes escort services should not be allowed to locate in commercial areas.

"I do not want these types of businesses creeping into our neighborhoods," he said. "We know when it starts here it is going to start creeping into other areas."

City Councilman Michael McDonald, who was in court during the meeting, submitted a letter in which he stated his opposition to the escort service locating in his ward, saying it would be incompatible with the neighborhood.

Currently, the only law on the books would have required an escort service to obtain a home occupancy permit with no zoning restrictions. Last month Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald sponsored two new measures after Blue tried to locate in Summerlin.

The new ordinances, approved during the council meeting, will allow escort and outcall entertainment services to be located in commercial or industrial zones by way of a special use permit only. The businesses must be 500 feet from residential areas and 1,500 feet from churches, schools, parks and child care facilities.

The Blue partners ultimately agreed to work with the city to find a better location, possibly in an industrial zone.

"We have been hit consistently on the backlash of this 'prostitution, prostitution, prostitution,' " Schoor said. "Conceptually, we have something that we think is very viable."