DOCUMENT: Celebrity

The Delusional Miss Palfrey

D.C. Madam once promised judge she'd never re-enter pimping business

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The Delusional Miss Palfrey

JULY 13--After pleading guilty to pimping out women, Deborah Palfrey, the so-called D.C. Madam, once promised a California judge that she would never re-enter the escort business, and claimed that she did not deserve a prison sentence because she was a caring mother hen to her hookers, lived by the 'Golden Rule,' and had already 'suffered enough.'

Following an early-90s felony conviction, the veteran pimp, now 51, filed a lengthy sentencing memorandum in San Diego Superior Court (a copy of the document can be found here). The memo provides an instructive glimpse into Palfrey's personal life and professional m.o.. It also leaves the reader with the impression that she is rather delusional and has a remarkably high opinion of herself.

As she sought a sentence of probation, Palfrey explained that greed did not drive her to open an escort service. Instead, 'The motivation was a drug-free, professional environment' from which her prostitutes could operate. After working herself as an escort, Palfrey started a company that eventually employed 12 women before the vice squad intervened.

A self-described 'cat person' who purportedly experienced 'Vietnam-like flashbacks' and suicidal thoughts as a result of her persecution by San Diego police, Palfrey explained that she was 'not a criminal' and 'not prison material.'

Though she 'knowingly understood' that her employees were having sex, Palfrey claimed that workers were 'free agents capable of doing as they choose.' This 'I-had-no-idea-what-those-nasty-whores-were-doing' defense, as it were, has been trotted out again by Palfrey, who is facing federal racketeering charges for her operation of Pamela Martin & Associates.

She launched the D.C. escort service shortly after serving out an 18-month prison sentence for her California pimping conviction. Her founding of the firm also came less than a year after her sentencing memo proclaimed, 'I will not re-enter the escort business.' Palfrey also stressed, 'I do not lie.' (30 pages)