Goodman proposes new rules for escort, outcall

Diana Sahagun

Tuesday, May 29, 2001 | 10:36 a.m.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman was in a taxicab in San Francisco when he learned of a game known as "catch the bug."

The cab driver told Goodman that prostitutes who have AIDS apparently knowingly infect sex partners with "the bug."

Officials with the San Francisco Department of Public Health refer to the game as nothing more than an urban myth. Goodman has taken the potential threat seriously.

Upon his return to Las Vegas, the mayor moved toward regulating businesses that Metro Police view as fronts for prostitution -- outcall businesses and escort bureaus.

Goodman has introduced a pair of proposals that would require anyone who works as an escort or outcall entertainer in Las Vegas to obtain a health card and undergo periodic medical examinations.

A medical exam performed by a licensed physician would be required before a card could be issued. Applicants would be tested for a variety of sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS, HIV, syphilis and gonorrhea.

"I'm trying to be prudent," Goodman said. "If, in fact, this kind of activity is taking place -- and I don't know if it is -- that's the least the city can do to make sure our residents aren't going be subjected to this kind of lethal activity."

Results of the examinations would be reported to the Clark County Health District, and a health card would not be granted if the applicant tests positive for a sexually transmitted disease.

What's more, the health cards of escorts or outcall entertainers who test positive for a sexually transmitted disease as a result of a periodic test would be revoked.

Goodman's proposals will be reviewed by a recommending committee this afternoon before going to the City Council for a vote June 6.

Although there are no licensed outcall businesses or escort services within the city limits, an application by Bleu Limited -- an escort service -- is pending.

The escort service originally planned to locate in City Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald's ward in Summerlin. This prompted the councilwoman to introduce a measure, which has since been approved, prohibiting escort services and outcall businesses from locating in residential neighborhoods.

Critics say Goodman's bills send a mixed message to residents of a city in which prostitution is illegal. Why require health cards if escorts and outcall entertainers are providing nothing more than platonic entertainment?

Lt. Terry Davis of the Metro Police vice squad said residents are being naive if they believe escorts and outcall entertainers are called to hotel rooms only to dance.

"When we go out and rent a room and pose as a tourist, the person that comes out to our room, greater than 90 percent of the time, will solicit an act of prostitution," Davis said.

In March Sgt. Brian Evans of the vice squad told the City Council that since 1996, 765 arrests involving charges of prostitution -- stemming from outcall services -- have been made.

Davis said that number continues to rise. Part of the problem, Davis said, is that tourists -- who are welcomed to the city by giant billboards and handbills advertising private adult entertainment -- assume prostitution is legal in Clark County.

"Sometimes, we as a community send a mixed message," Davis said.

Prostitution is legal in rural Nevada counties. It is illegal in Clark and Washoe counties, Lake Tahoe and Carson City.

Efforts by the state Health Division to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases by requiring all legal prostitutes who work in rural counties to obtain a health card and submit to regular medical tests have been successful, state health officials say.

Donald Cowne, disease control specialist for the state Health Division, said that since 1986 there have been no reported cases in which a prostitute working in a legal Nevada brothel tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Women at the brothels are tested weekly.

Since 1986, the year in which the state Health Department began requiring prostitutes to obtain health cards, 700 have secured the necessary documentation, and 27 were denied the cards after testing positive for a sexually transmitted disease during pre-employment examinations, Cowne said.

Allen Lichtenstein, a civil rights lawyer, said Goodman's proposals are unnecessary. Prostitution in Las Vegas, is, after all, illegal, he said.

What's more, he said Goodman is wrongly painting all escorts and outcall entertainers with the same brush. "Not all escorts are prostitutes," Lichtenstein said.

"To assume that because certain people are committing illegal actions (and) therefore everyone is, is like saying because some politicians take bribes, we will assume they all do," Lichtenstein said.

Nearly 100 licensed outcall services operate in Clark County, which in 1996 attempted to regulate the businesses. A lawsuit ensued.

In 1997 Sen. Mark James, R-Las Vegas, introduced a bill that would have made referral services illegal. The bill died in committee.

George Flint, a lobbyist who heads the Nevada Brothels Association, said Goodman should be commended for his efforts to address the problem, but there is a paradox.

"Once you start testing those girls for STDs, you are practically putting a good seal of approval on their activity," Flint said. "You're saying it's not legal, but we better check you anyway."

Flint said every year he speaks with legislators about the local problem, and he said that some agree the only solution is to legalize prostitution -- a decision that would have to be made in Carson City. State law prohibits legalized prostitution in counties with populations of more than 400,000.

"We talk about it every year, and some feel that at some point regulation is probably the only answer," Flint said. "But I don't think it's going to happen in my lifetime."