Ipso facto....
"Father-son pimps get partial acquittal" June 20, 2013
NEW YORK — A judge who heard prostitutes testify that a father-and-son pimp team made them feel like family cleared the two men of sex-trafficking charges Wednesday.
The men’s supporters in the courtroom cheered the verdict, but the gallery fell silent when Manhattan Judge Ruth Pickholtz announced convictions against Vincent George Sr., 56, and 35-year-old son Vincent George Jr. on charges they laundered millions through music recording and car service businesses....
Not too big to jail.
District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. called the outcome a victory. “The goal of the prosecution was to dismantle a criminal enterprise from top to bottom,” he said.
That's the guy who failed to prosecute Strauss-Kahn. Must have been too big to jail, even though he stayed in a cell a few nights.
Defense attorneys — who called the women working for their clients “happy hookers” — also claimed victory and plan to appeal the convictions.
The verdict “recognizes that people have free will and the right to make choices whether or not you like those choices,” David Epstein, the son’s attorney, said of the prostitutes.
Prosecutors had alleged the prostitutes made as much as $500,000 a year for the Georges but got only a few dollars a night themselves and had no bank accounts or property. They were threatened with beatings, according to wiretap conversations played at trial.
The women painted a different picture, saying they were treated to nice cars, vacations in Florida, and affection from their pimps....
So who do you believe, the whores or the government?
Not even a close call for me.
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