Read more at Yahoo News…

PA. prostitution case tossed over gov’t-funded sex

An appeals court has ruled Pennsylvania State Police botched a prostitution investigation in which troopers gave an informant money to pay for sex four times at a massage parlor, along with a total of $180 for the man’s trouble.

The Superior Court opinion issued Thursday upheld a Lehigh County judge’s ruling that threw out prostitution charges on the grounds that the government had acted outrageously.

The appeals court ruling described how the man first approached state police to say he had been solicited for sex at the Shiatsu Spa. Troopers then supplied the unnamed man with government money and sent him back four times to engage in what the county judge called “a smorgasbord of sexual activity” during June and July 2006.

Lehigh County Judge Robert L. Steinberg said the man’s subsequent visits did not advance the police investigation. He was given $360 total to pay for the services, plus the extra $180 for his time.

“The outrageous nature is it went beyond what was necessary to prove the prostitution charge,” said the defendant’s Chon’s lawyer, Maureen Coggins.

CQ Airlines…Fly me!  Read the whole story at Aero-News…

Phony Airline Grounded In Prostitution Ring Bust
Allegedly Obtained FAA Funds To Start Service — Um, Air Service

Federal prosecutors have filed charges against a Pennsylvania man, his wife and an alleged co-conspirator as a result of a prostitution sting involving the Internet… and a non-existent airline.

The trio each face up to 35 years in prison, indicted last week in US District Court in Pennsylvania’s Middle District on charges of “transporting and causing the transportation in interstate commerce of an individual with the intent that the individual engage in prostitution, persuading and enticing an individual to engage in interstate travel for the purpose of prostitution, and conspiracy to commit those offenses.”

They’re also in hot water with the Federal Aviation Administration and two counties that gave them a total of $100,000 in grants to start an airline called “CQ Air,” supposedly providing service at the Harrisburg International Airport (MDT). The Albany Times-Union reports they received $75,000 in federal funds from the FAA and $12,500 from two unnamed counties.

Investigators cracked the prostitution ring wide open last month in a sting operation. Posing as customers, undercover deputies from the Albany County Sheriff’s Department responded to advertisements for an escort service called Diamond Escorts on the Craig’s List website, arranging to meet at a Hampton Inn in Latham. Several other women were also arrested on misdemeanor charges of prostitution.

Federal prosecutors say the airline was never intended to get off the ground, but was used in name only as a business front.