Escort-Service Operators Insist They Are Not Prostitution Fronts

PORTLAND - They can be found in the Yellow Pages, and most of them, police say, are fronts for prostitution.

Escort services are the fastest-growing segment of the thriving sex industry in the Portland area.

The metropolitan area's sex-for-hire trade is under renewed scrutiny after Gresham police Sgt. Jim Kalbasky, a 17-year veteran, was fired recently for having a brief fling with a prostitute he met through a personal ad in Willamette Week.

Portland police Cmdr. Mike Garvey, a member of Chief Charles Moose's inner circle, is on administrative leave because of allegations that he hired male prostitutes through local escort services.

Neither police nor escort owners have an estimate on the total number of services operating in the Portland area or the number of escorts working for them.

The local Yellow Pages offers a list of more than 80 escort services. But many are the same business advertising under multiple names.

Theresa Reed is editor of Exotic, a Portland magazine packed with ads for a melange of sex-oriented businesses. She estimates that 75 percent of escort services provide women, 10 percent feature gay men and 15 percent specialize in various sexual themes.

Police say they have all but eliminated illegal massage parlors, where sex-for-pay was common, but the void has been filled by beeper-dispatched prostitutes from the escort services.

"In the past seven years, we have never investigated an escort service that was not involved in prostitution," said Lt. Larry Kochever of the Portland Police Bureau's drug and vice division.

Unlike street prostitutes who self-advertise at the curbside, escorts are contacted discreetly by phone or beeper and ply their trade out of view, reducing their visibility and the public outcry.

State law also protects the industry, making a host of sex-related businesses legal because they stop just short of selling actual sex.

A landmark 1987 ruling by the Oregon Supreme Court held that virtually all forms of expression, including obscenity, are protected by the state constitution - a more expansive interpretation of free speech than that found in most states.

"We're one of the most liberal states in the nation," Kochever said. An 18-year-old can't legally enter a bar and order a drink in Oregon. But, Kochever notes, she can get a job at that bar "and take off her clothes and sit on your lap."

Local governments cannot regulate the location of sex-oriented businesses through zoning laws - but the issue is headed to the November ballot.

Those familiar with the industry - police, prosecutors, attorneys, escort owners and sex workers themselves - say escort customers run the gamut: businessmen and truckers passing through town, married men looking for a thrill, teenagers on a dare.

The escorts may be street prostitutes looking for a safer, more profitable way to meet customers. But police say many branch out from other sex-related businesses, such as peep-show parlors or strip clubs.

Club and parlor owners deny their businesses are conduits to prostitution. Many display prominent signs that warn: "No Touching!"

"We run a very clean operation, and our girls are family girls. Many are married and have children," said Dean Macbale, owner of The Dolphin. "We can't be held responsible for . . . what girls do outside here, in the parking lot or the grocery store."

Gary Meabe, a Multnomah County assistant district attorney, says police and prosecutors take any form of prostitution seriously. But he admits that other crimes carry a higher priority.