--WSOC-TV |
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The three people behind a high-end prostitution ring in Charlotte are finding out their sentences Tuesday.
Sallie Wamsley-Saxon, 58, who investigators called the mastermind behind the operation, was sentenced to two years in prison, which will begin Tuesday. She could have received up to four years in prison.
Her husband, Donald Saxon, 53, was sentenced to 21 months in prison, just short of the two years he could have received.
The couple each pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy to run a prostitution ring and money laundering. Both have been on house arrest with electronic monitoring anklets for several months.
Many of those in the courtroom when Wamsley-Saxon was sentenced were surprised that she was ordered to begin her sentence immediately instead of self-report. She gasped at the news and cried out, “Oh, no. Oh no, your honor!,” while her husband cried.
“I'm still broken hearted. I'm still bleeding,” he told Eyewitness News.
Although the prosecution had not asked for the prison term to begin at sentencing, the judge decided to send her directly to jail because she was charged with shoplifting while on house arrest. He said he wants to make sure Wamsley-Saxon knows how severe the conviction is.
Wamsley-Saxon will be kept in the Mecklenburg County jail for six weeks before being transported to a women’s prison.
Glen Fox, 58, who also pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in January, was sentenced along with the Saxons. He received 15 months in prison. Fox admitted to helping the couple run their prostitution ring from fall of 2002 to last fall. He took nearly 400 sexually explicit photographs of the prostitutes to be posted on the Saxons’ Web sites.
The prostitution ring, which catered to wealthy men, raked in about $3 million from 2001 to 2007. Prosecutors said in court Tuesday it was one of the largest and most successful in the country while it was operating and gave Charlotte a reputation as a destination for high-end prostitution.
Wamsley-Saxon told the courtroom she’s embarrassed and deeply sorry. She said she’s seeking forgiveness from the court, her family, her husband and the church. About half the courtroom was filled with her family and church members, who said they support her.
“I didn’t pay attention (to the case) until she came to church. I knew she had changed so I didn’t think about the past,” one woman said.
Wamsley-Saxon pleaded with the judge to go easy on her husband. She said she fell in love with him and married him, but used him. She told the judge she was ultimately to blame, but he didn’t ease Saxon’s sentence, surprising Saxon with the amount of prison time he’ll serve.
“I thought I might get probation with sanctions and that she might do some time,” Saxon said.
In a four-page letter to the judge, Wamsley-Saxon told her life story, explaining how she became a Madam, and wrote it is her fault that her husband lost everything he worked hard for in life.
She wrote how she started in this business as a prostitute in her late 20s, that she was approached by powerful Charlotte CEO to who wanted to pay her to entertain him and his associates. She accepted because she’d just left an abusive husband and was trying to raise two children, she said.
After being a prostitute for two years, she thought she’d be better as a Madam. She said she ran the business for a quarter of a century and became a sought after agency known for safety, privacy, extensive client screening, a 30 percent agency fee and no calls after 8 p.m.
Most Others Involved In Prostitution Ring Won’t Face Charges
Two men accused of being clients pleaded guilty to charges relating to the prostitution ring. A Charlotte businessman, Joseph Smith, pleaded guilty earlier this month to tax fraud for claiming on a tax form that payments to the prostitution ring were advertising expenses. Raleigh cardiologist Dr. Kenneth Friedman pleaded guilty in June to taking a prostitute from Charlotte to Las Vegas to engage in sex.
Federal investigators said they are looking into two more cases possibly involving clients of the prostitution ring, which they may decide to prosecute.
“Federal violations in this case would mean interstate travel -- knowingly taking someone out of the state to a different destination of some type, or tax or other offenses,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Cullen.
Federal prosecutors said because most of the Saxons’ clients met with prostitutes in and around Charlotte and didn’t cross state lines, they didn’t violate federal law.
That means the rest of the nearly 2,000 clients, and the hundreds of prostitutes, will not face federal charges – meaning their names will likely remain secret.
While clients of the ring are not completely in the clear yet because state investigators could decide to file charges, Mecklenburg County District Attorney Peter Gilchrist said its highly unlikely those cases will go to court .
Charlotte defense attorney George Laughrun, who’s already gotten calls from many men on the client list, said prosecuting hundreds of misdemeanor prostitution cases would be very difficult.
“There's no way in the world (the district attorney’s office) can commit the resources to do that,” he said. “I think a lot of those people are getting on their knees and thanking the good Lord that nothing's going to probably happen to them, legally.”
