The Washington Post has indicated that the Tarpon Springs authorities have ruled her death a suicide and released her suicide note. The Smoking Gun has included actual images of her suicide notes, and they’re heartbreaking. Particularly sad is a part WaPo didn’t comment on, a paragraph in the letter to her mother that says “There is a little surprise waiting for you in the BOA account. Please use the monies for final arrangement & various account settlement.” Before some cursory Googling I’d have wagered good money that there’s no way the people who prosecuted her for racketeering and money laundering will fail to seize those assets. Over at Justice League, however, blogger SP Biloxi has posted that the defense and has already filed motions to abate and the prosecution had no objection. After all that’s gone on, including the death of Brandy Britton, everything has just been wiped away like it never happened.
Unless you’re Randall L. Tobias, former AIDS czar, Senator David Vitter or think-tank guru Harlan K. Ullman, named as clients. Or Lt. Commander Rebecca C. Dickinson, identified as an employee of Palfrey’s and compelled to testify… and suspended by the Navy, despite the immunity the prosecution granted all the women called to the stand, preventing them from exercising their 5th amendment rights and staying silent. Or Rhona Reiss, 63, also publicly identified as a former escort. Or any of the other 11 women called to testify by the prosecution. The other 119 women identified in Palfrey’s records may be safe, since the judge ordered those portions of the records sealed, and thankfully we all know that information mandated as private never leaks out.
What a waste of money and life, all to prosecute a woman who paid all her taxes on the money she made connecting two consenting adults with each other.
If she’d been running a ItsJustLunch franchise and collecting thousands of dollars from both parties she was connecting up, she’d still be alive and doing business.
If she’d been Craigslist, connecting people who want to have sex. then the shitbags at rightwingpundits.com, who I will not dignify with a link and the search engine credibility that conveys, wouldn’t have a page up about one of the case’s identified escorts, along with a picture of her and details about her academic history and family life. Oh, and a swipe at how attractive she is.
But hey, she had it all coming and nobody to blame but herself, right? After all, if it’s illegal then it must be wrong, right Mrs. Loving?
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
Well I used to say something in my profile about not quite being a “tinker, tailor, soldier, or spy” but Tom stole that for our about us page, so I guess I’ll have to find another way to express that I am a man of many interests.
Hmm, guess I just did.
My tastes run the gamut from sophomoric to Shakespeare and in my “professional” life I’ve sold things, served beer, written software, and carried heavy objects… sometimes at the same place. It’s that range of loves and activities that makes it so easy for me to love DC – we’ve got it all.
