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Courtroom Fireworks Predicted as DC Madam Trial Opens By Joe Palazzolo WASHINGTON - Deborah Jean Palfrey hasn't been your standard-issue defendant. The alleged D.C. madam -- she prefers "Washington Madam," thinking it more refined -- announced her own trial in a news release and has held raucous press conferences outside the federal courthouse and in Georgetown eateries. Since her indictment last March, she's cycled through four lawyers, depending on how you count, and two judges. After haggling with a federal judge, she got her company's phone records released and implicated customers, including a U.S. senator, a former State Department deputy, the defense strategist who coined the phrase "shock and awe," and a prominent lobbyist. Even an Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld secretary was dismissed last year for moonlighting as one of Palfrey's employees. If a hearing in federal court on Friday was any indication, the trial is bound to serve up heaps of make-you-blush moments. Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Butler asked Judge James Robertson if in opening statements he could mention that a witness had contracted a sexually transmitted disease (presumably, in the course of employment for Palfrey). After giving his approval, Robertson deadpanned: "By the time we get past a day or two of this [trial], STDs will be the least of our worries." At that same hearing, Henry Asbill of Dewey & LeBoeuf moved to quash a subpoena issued to his client by Palfrey's lawyer, Preston Burton of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. Robertson denied the request. The name of Asbill's client was not mentioned, but Asbill has represented Sen. David Vitter, R-La., in the case since the summer. Vitter hired Asbill after his name turned up in phone records Palfrey kept of her escort service, Pamela Martin & Associates. In July, Vitter apologized for committing "a very serious sin." Asbill said calling his client to testify would be "totally inappropriate" and accused Burton attempting to publicly embarrass him. Asbill's client is on standby to testify in the case. The pretrial hype may be great gossip page fodder, but Palfrey faces some very serious charges as she heads to trial Monday. She's been indicted on four counts of racketeering and one count of conspiracy money laundering. She faces up to 55 years in prison if convicted. Still, Palfrey seems to have a sense of humor about it all, and she's sharply tuned into the media's appetite for sex and the absurd. Her proposed jury questionnaire asks: "How closely, if at all, would you say you have followed the news reports of the following criminal investigations or trials: 1. Heidi Fleiss 2. Eliot Spitzer." At one point, she tried to subpoena Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to testify about political corruption in the Justice Department. The relevance of such testimony was never fully explained. Court filings also reveal a more typical strategy: For a time Palfrey's lawyers tried to choke the prosecution -- led by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Catherine Connelly, Daniel Butler and William Cowden -- with motions, more than 50 in about a year's time. While the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia declined to estimate the cost of the investigation and the anticipated three to four weeks of trial, it's clear that the $2 million and change Palfrey earned in 13 years as proprietor of Pamela Martin & Associates will seem a modest sum next to the government's tab. Burton, declined to comment, except to say that he's prepared for a trial. Palfrey did not return e-mails or phone calls for comment. 14 COOPERATORS Palfrey was indicted after a three-year joint investigation launched by the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Postal Service. What began as a tax case -- as it turns out, Palfrey is a diligent taxpayer -- turned into an investigation into an alleged criminal enterprise. Prosecutors say that Pamela Martin & Associates was a high-class prostitution ring in the D.C. area managed by Palfrey from her home in Vallejo, Calif., until August 2006. Prosecutors claim Palfrey's employees mailed her cut of the profits in money orders, which provided the foundation for two of the racketeering charges and the money laundering charge. Palfrey says she purveyed in erotic fantasies rather than prostitution, and that her employees, about 130 women mostly in their mid-twenties, were bound by contract to pleasure their clients only to the extent of the law. The only named government witness, thus far, is Detective Keith Haight, a 34-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department who has been involved in about 2,000 prostitution investigations. According to declarations filed last month, he will be the government's expert on terms of art from the oldest profession -- for instance, "PSE" (porn star experience); "get comfortable" (translation: get naked); and "reckless eyeballing" (when a prostitute looks at another pimp). Robertson said on Friday that he would decide later in the trial whether to admit Haight as a witness. At Friday's hearing, Zuckerman Spaeder partner Steven Salky argued that the government shouldn't disclose his client, a man whose name is under seal. The client was granted immunity to testify during the grand jury probe, and Salky said prosecutors should grant him immunity again, if they want him to testify at trial. Robertson told Salky it appeared likely his client would be called to the stand. AUSA Butler confirmed the man's name would be on the witness list when it was presented to the jury this week. "If the government wants to go spreading the names around ... it's on their heads to do it," Robertson replied at the April 4 hearing. The indictment lists 14 former escorts who are cooperating with the government, all of whom are expected to testify. That could pose a tough challenge for Palfrey and Burton. "If these women have a rather colorful past, you can stand before the jury and say, 'They're not worthy of your belief,'" says Herald Price Fahringer, a longtime lawyer for the adult entertainment industry who famously represented Hustler publisher Larry Flynt before the Supreme Court. "But by the time they bring the 12th or 14th witness, it gets a little tough." Fahringer was Palfrey's criminal lawyer of choice. With her assets frozen as a result of the racketeering charges, Palfrey could not convince Senior U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler to free up $150,000 to pay for his representation. It's not clear yet if any of Palfrey's former clients will take the stand. Vitter is the most obvious candidate, but there's also State Department official Randall Tobias, who resigned as director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development in April 2007, after admitting to using Palfrey's services. Tobias said he used the service for massages. LAWYER SWAP Burton, who represented Monica Lewinsky in President Bill Clinton's impeachment hearings, returned to the case earlier this year. He was Palfrey's second court-appointed attorney from May to October. Palfrey traded him in -- citing "irreconcilable differences," as she did with her first counsel, Federal Public Defender A.J. Kramer -- for her civil lawyer and former confidant, Montgomery Blair Sibley. The case was transferred from Kessler to Judge James Robertson in November, without explanation. Palfrey fired Sibley in January, saying only that she had "lost faith" in him. Robertson put Burton back on the case, giving him about two months to prep for trial. Sibley, who declined to comment, is still Palfrey's lawyer in civil forfeiture proceedings and in a breach of contract suit she filed against a former employee -- one of the 14 cooperating with the government. The suit says the woman engaged clients in "illegal sexual activities" without Palfrey's consent. Prosecutors asked Robertson to allow them to introduce a past conviction at trial. The judge on Friday, however, ruled that it would be excluded from trial. But he raised the possibility that the government could use the conviction if Palfrey testified in her own defense. Palfrey was sentenced to 18 months in jail in 1992 for a felony pandering conviction in California. In her sentencing memorandum, Palfrey confided to the judge that her parents had threatened to disown her if "this sort of thing" ever happened again. "They, as well as I, could not bear a repeat performance," she wrote in her 31-page plea for probation. "Therefore, there is no intent on my part to re-enter the escort business and chance such an occurrence." DC Madam's Lawyer Sues Judges for "Judicial Treason" Tony Mauro In a recent filing with the Supreme Court, Sibley revealed that he earns $3,700 a month, for an annual total of $44,400, and drives a 2004 Mazda. Sibley offered the data to gain "pauper status" with the Court -- entitling him to skip the "insurmountable barrier" of paying the Court's $300 filing fee and the costs of printing 40 copies of his petition. Why was he knocking on the high court's door? It's complicated, but he was suing the justices for "judicial treason" because they participated in an earlier case in which he had sued them for not taking a still earlier case. Got that? The Court did. Seven justices recused on Oct. 29, creating an absence of a quorum. That means the lower court ruling, which was adverse to Sibley, stands. But he appeared undaunted. "It's been a six-year effort, and I still have three more petitions before them," says Sibley.
Notorious
for Colorful Tactics and Style Emma Schwartz Montgomery Blair Sibley says he litigates "like a hurricane," and he certainly has left a lot of legal wreckage in his wake. If you cross him, he'll probably sue you. Just ask his ex-wife, Florida prosecutors or even Supreme Court justices, whom he sued for treason. Sibley, 50, now represents the infamous Deborah Jeane Palfrey, who is accused of running a high-end D.C. prostitution ring. Sibley was brought in to recover more than $1.5 million in assets seized as part of the government's criminal investigation. While Palfrey's court-appointed criminal defense attorney has avoided headlines, Sibley has basked in the limelight, threatening to sell Palfrey's 10,000-plus client list to pay her legal bills. Why Palfrey would tap Sibley as her civil forfeiture lawyer remains a mystery, given that he's lost more cases than some lawyers ever file. He has been sanctioned by multiple courts in Florida, where a state appeals court found that he was "an unending source of vexatious and meritless litigation." His most notable legal battle was highly personal: an acrimonious divorce case that once put him behind bars for 77 days when he failed to pay more than $275,000 in child support. And he still could face disciplinary action in Florida over two bar complaints. Sibley's tactics are simple: When he doesn't win, he sues. He'll sue the judges, the prosecutors, the witnesses and the courts. And he'll appeal again and again and again. "I litigate like the Miami Hurricanes play football," says Sibley, who calls himself a leader in forfeiture law. "I litigate like a hurricane." Storming the Courthouse In recent weeks, Sibley has swept through the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, triggering the ire of prosecutors and adverse rulings from the presiding judge in Palfrey's case. Palfrey, who lives in California, was indicted March 1 on five counts of racketeering and money laundering for an alleged prostitution ring of beautiful, college-educated women servicing wealthy clients. Palfrey, who was convicted on similar charges in the 1990s in California, says her D.C. business was only an escort service. Sibley's strategy has been unusual from the get-go. His work began in October, when the government froze Palfrey's bank accounts and seized her property, including two California houses. In his challenge, Sibley made several arguments claiming the seizure was illegal. One was that D.C.'s laws against prostitution are too vague. "The man knows how to write, but I think the issues he is raising are pretty far out," says David Smith, a lawyer who wrote a leading textbook on forfeiture law, after reviewing Sibley's motion. But Sibley didn't stop there. He sued two financial institutions holding Palfrey's funds, accusing them of violating wiretap laws by providing records to investigators. He also attacked prosecutors, who say Sibley threatened to write to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asking for a special prosecutor in the case, according to court documents. Even when the criminal indictment came down, Sibley asked the court to keep moving forward with the civil forfeiture case, despite concerns from Palfrey's court-appointed defense attorney, A.J. Kramer, head of the D.C. Office of the Federal Public Defender, who was wary of exposing Palfrey to depositions while she still faced criminal charges, court documents state. But probably Sibley's most bizarre move was when he vowed to sell his client's list of customers, which many speculated contained the names of prominent politicos. At a press conference on the courthouse steps after Palfrey's March 9 arraignment, Sibley touted his many offers. Government lawyers fired back, arguing that any proceeds could also be frozen. Ultimately, Judge Gladys Kessler barred Sibley from selling the list, but not before he gave it to an unnamed news organization, which has yet to publish any names. On March 9, Kessler stayed the forfeiture case while the criminal case proceeds. Undeterred, Sibley filed another suit on Palfrey's behalf the same day, this time accusing former Palfrey employee Pam Neble of breaching her employment contract by engaging in illicit sexual acts with customers. It was a trademark move. Last year, Sibley filed a similar suit against former employees of convicted Florida pimp Arthur "Big Pimpin' Pappy" Vanmoor, alleging they violated their contracts by engaging in sexual acts. On Vanmoor's behalf, Sibley also sued witnesses, as well as the financial institutions and prosecutors involved in the forfeiture of Vanmoor's accounts. All of the suits were dismissed, except two suits that remain pending. In Palfrey's case, government lawyers accused Sibley of "witness intimidation and harassment." On March 22, Kessler issued a temporary restraining order, halting the suit against Neble and barring any more lawsuits against Palfrey's former employees. Sibley scoffs at these allegations. "What difference does it make what I've done in other lawsuits to the determination of the facts in this lawsuit?" he says. "It's an ad hominem attack, the lowest form of attack known to man. It's not surprising that's the attack the U.S. attorneys use because they cannot succeed on their motions for reasons I will make painfully clear to them." Tracing His Roots Born to a family that traces its roots to George Mason, a Founding Father who helped shape the Bill of Rights, Sibley's family tree doesn't branch far from the establishment. His maternal great-great-great-grandfather was Montgomery Blair, postmaster general for President Lincoln and namesake of the Silver Spring, Md., high school. The Pennsylvania Avenue Blair House, where presidential guests stay, once belonged to Sibley's family. On his father's side, he traces his lineage to Hiram Sibley, founder of the Western Union Telegraph Co. His grandfather Harper headed the U.S. Chamber of Commerce during the New Deal era. (For the record, Sibley is not related to the namesake of Sibley Hospital.) Yet Sibley sees himself as a David fighting the Goliath he calls the judicial system, and he draws on the example of his ancestor Montgomery Blair, who was criticized for representing Dred Scott in the landmark 1857 Supreme Court case declaring that blacks could not be citizens. Sibley grew up in Rochester, N.Y., one of six siblings. "We're a big family, but nobody is crazier than Blair," says Harper Sibley Jr., Sibley's father and now a prominent South Florida developer. Sibley played rugby and several other sports with so much aggression that his father often picked him up from the hospital. Sibley's ambitions soon turned to the law. He graduated from the University of Miami and later from Albany Law School at Union University, returning to his hometown district attorney's office as a prosecutor for the next five years. After losing his bid for district attorney in 1987, Sibley headed to Miami. Sibley has also had trouble at home, including a bitter 1994 divorce from his first wife, Barbara, with whom he had three children. Their initial custody agreement put the children with Sibley during the week in Miami and with their mother on the weekends in Key Largo, court records state. But the divorce soon turned into an affair worthy of TV drama when, a few years later, Sibley decided to follow his second wife (with whom he'd had another son) to Washington. Sibley hoped to take his three other children, but Barbara objected. Whenever the family court ruled against Sibley (which it almost invariably did), he would appeal, vowing to fight down to his last dime. "If you want to attempt to squeeze me until I am dry, we will litigate until I am disbarred and bankrupt if necessary, for you leave me no other choice," Sibley wrote his wife, court records state. In total, Sibley filed more than 25 appeals with the family court. He also initiated at least a dozen suits in federal court against judges, the court system, and his former wife, according to one court opinion. He prevailed in one early appeal, but judges threw out the rest. His style has won him notoriety among those who faced him in his never-ending litigation. But even his opponents note Sibley has always been professional and cordial in court. Many seem more amused that he often wears kilts, which Sibley says show his Scottish roots. He owns seven in various colors. "He's a very unique lawyer," says Isidoro Rodriguez, an attorney who has worked with Sibley in the District. "He's unwilling to give up, which I admire." Sibley's divorce case came to a head in August 2002, when the family court judge, Maxine Cohen Lando, told Sibley he'd face jail time if he did not ante up his long-overdue child support. The court ordered him to pay Barbara more than $100,000 and another $175,000 for the children's private-school tuition, giving him a Jan. 1, 2003, deadline. According to Lando's opinion, Sibley had hidden his assets by transferring them to his second wife. (At the time, Sibley said they were estranged. They are now divorced.) And, Lando wrote, his income was far greater than he reported because his father subsidized his expenses. Unsurprisingly, Sibley objected, claiming his income was only $37,500. Seeing no progress, Lando held Sibley in contempt in November 2002 and sent him to jail in Miami-Dade County. "It was a way to brutalize me," says Sibley, who was imprisoned for more than two months. After his release, Lando gave Sibley two months to make good on his child support, but by April, Sibley still hadn't budged. Lando ordered him, once again, to jail. This time, Sibley's father bailed him out and paid $100,000 of his child support. But because the judge never rescinded her contempt order, Sibley took the strange move of filing a petition for unlawful imprisonment, even though he was free. That petition ultimately was dismissed. Sibley's fight was far from over. He still owed his ex-wife more than $33,000 from a separate judgment. In January 2004, a different judge held Sibley in contempt again and ordered that he be barred from filing any more documents with the court pro se. A Florida appeals court and the Florida Supreme Court concurred. But Sibley continued his challenges, moving up the pecking order of judges. In 2004, he sued three judges on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and all of the Supreme Court justices for violating his rights by denying cert and for committing treason. He sought $1 million in damages in Florida federal court. When that claim failed, Sibley tried again in D.C. federal court, seeking just $75,000. Last fall, that claim was dismissed. These challenges led the Florida Bar to investigate two complaints against Sibley for his litigiousness and for failing to pay child support. Those complaints are still pending, an attorney for the bar says. While Sibley says he expects to win on the ethics complaints, they already have caused him some headaches. After passing the bar exam in Maryland, where he has an office, he was denied admission until the Florida grievances are settled. (He already is a member in good standing of the bars in New York and the District.) Instead of waiting, Sibley filed suit in Maryland federal court, alleging the decision violated his constitutional rights. The case, like so many others, was dismissed. Despite his ongoing bar complaints, Sibley made a bid for president of the Florida Bar. He's also organizing a ballot initiative seeking to amend the Florida state constitution to allow legal challenges against judges. But as Palfrey's case runs its course, the question remains: Which Miami Hurricanes team will Sibley mirror -- the 2001 national champions, or the team last year that posted one of its worst seasons in recent history?
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A Feast
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