Priest-Prostitute Liaison Set Up For TV -- Station Paid For Man's Travel, Expenses In Sex-For-Money Encounter

ST. LOUIS - On the morning of March 26, a male prostitute left his home in a Kansas City suburb, flew to St. Louis and went to a room in a downtown luxury hotel.

He phoned a Roman Catholic priest with whom he previously discussed a possible money-for-sex liaison. Later that day, he met the priest in the hotel room, where the priest paid the prostitute for sex.

What makes this situation particularly unusual is the role played by St. Louis television station KMOV. The station paid for the prostitute's air fare, rental car in St. Louis, hotel room, parking, a room-service meal, an in-room movie - even the phone call to the priest.

"During the course of pursuing this story, it appears that there may have been some errors of judgment," said KMOV general manager Allan Cohen.

"While we regret this, we are grateful that, in the final judgment, our system of checks and balances worked because the story never aired."

From a vantage at 1 Memorial Drive where it has its office, the station aimed a camera at the window of a hotel room a block away. It also installed hidden cameras and tape recorders in the hotel room.

The prostitute knew about the recording equipment; the priest did not. Station technicians removed their equipment when the priest and the prostitute briefly left the room after the exchange of money.

In a telephone interview, Cohen said the prostitute had been told on numerous occasions that "under no circumstances was any type of sexual activity to take place."

Rather, the station's reporters expected the prostitute to get the priest to reveal details of sexual activities of other priests in the Diocese of Belleville, Ill. As it turned out, Cohen acknowledged, "I think we needed better controls in this story."

Station reporters Jeff Rainford and Jim Bolen worked on the story under news director Gary Whitaker's supervision. Whitaker, in turn, consulted with Cohen.

"I told him all the questions and concerns I had and wanted him to run it all past the attorneys," Cohen said, adding that Whitaker followed the legal advice and OK'd the project.

The station's reporters and news director declined to be interviewed.

The station's actions may meet the legal definition of promotion of prostitution, a class D felony under Missouri law, says Dee Joyce-Hayes, St. Louis circuit attorney. State laws define prostitution as "an agreement, a simple agreement, that money will be exchanged or something of value will be exchanged for a sex act," the circuit attorney said.

Cohen said he was confident his staff had stayed within the law and that the station had not brought the prostitute to St. Louis to have sex with the priest but rather to get an interview.

"The meeting between that individual and the priest," Cohen said, "was going to take place regardless of whether we were involved."

The station agreed to pay the prostitute's expenses, Cohen said, because "this individual would not receive his normal fee from the priest.

"The news department felt that since we were insisting that no sex take place it would be acceptable to pay for his out-of-pocket expenses only . . . In hindsight, the appearance may not have been what we wanted it to be."

The station's investigation began after allegations surfaced of sexual abuse of children by some priests in the Belleville diocese. Bolen, Rainford and Whitaker learned of a male prostitute who claimed personal knowledge of sexual activities by priests.