Alleged madam of Florida-based escort service to discover fate in federal court today
The so-called madam of the Miami Companions escort service is due in federal court this afternoon to find out her punishment for running a massive prostitution agency that was busted in Metro Detroit last summer.
The government has requested a 12-month-plus-one-day prison sentence for Miami Companions co-owner Laurie Carr. But Carr's lawyer, Oscar Rodriguez, is asking for a lighter sentence, arguing in court documents that Carr's cooperation in the case provided the government with "serious leads," and that she needs to be free to raise her child and improve her life. He also argued that Carr learned her lesson.
"Ms. Carr became involved in the life of a prostitution as a result of a tumultuous family upbringing and the lack of foundation to make the right decision. She became involved in this undesirable business at a very young age," Rodriguez wrote in documents filed Monday. "At the suggestions of friends (she) moved to Miami and eventually met up with co-defendant Gregory Carr who involved her in the business and after a while she married him and then had a child ... Upon marrying the co-defendant, she stopped living the life of an escort and became a mother and housewife. She admits that she was wrongfully involved in assisting Mr. Carr in the managing of the company until 2005. After the birth of her child her duties lessened until she eventually became a stay at home housewife."
According to the court filing, Laurie Carr earns $2,600 a month working for a ticket broker called A Great Place to Sit, Inc. in South Florida. Gregory Carr, her ex-husband, stopped paying child support "long ago," leaving her as the sole provider for their son, Rodriguez wrote.
Laurie Carr is scheduled to be sentenced at 4 p.m. today before U.S. District Court Judge Arthur Tarnow.
Laurie and Gregory Carr were among five people indicted last summer on charges they ran what the government had dubbed one of the largest sex rings in the country, charging up to $500 an hour for sex to roughly 30,000 clients nationwide.
