(Did they just not see the police station across the street?)
Pimping Near Police Station a Bad Idea
MARTINEZ, Calif. - A married couple pleaded no contest to charges they ran a brothel across the street from a Concord police station, Contra Costa County authorities said. Debra Watts, 52, will serve one year of home detention after pleading to three felony counts of pimping and pandering, prosecutor Jose Marin said Monday.
Her husband, Ernest Watts, 63, pleaded to one misdemeanor count of maintaining a house of prostitution, Marin said.
Investigators said the couple ran the brothel for a year in an apartment located a few hundred feet from the Concord police station and used the Internet to solicit clients.
Police raided the apartment in January of 2005, six months after an informant tipped them off in exchange for leniency in a pending fraud case, according to a search warrant affidavit.
Surveillance of the apartment revealed a Monday-through-Friday operation in which women would arrive by 10 a.m. and leave by 7 p.m. Men would enter and leave throughout the day, staying for about 30 minutes at a time, according to the affidavit.
The women charged $160 for every half-hour and Debra Watts would take half, according to the affidavit.
A third defendant, Michelle Secrist, 22, of Vacaville, pleaded no contest to one misdemeanor count of prostitution.
The couple, who lived in Fairfield but recently moved to Las Vegas, will be prohibited from working in any business related to prostitution as part of their probation.
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Information from: Contra Costa Times
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