The Poland woman insists she was only providing lonely men with female companionship.
By Lisa Chmelecki
Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Charged with running a prostitution business in her Poland home, Donna Wilson could have pleaded guilty Wednesday, paid a $400 fine and moved on.

The 37-year-old didn’t want to take the easy way out, though.

She plans to fight the misdemeanor charge by asking for a jury trial.

It is her way of sticking up for herself and the four women who were working for her when an undercover police officer showed up at her home in September and paid $50 for an hour with a woman known as Desiree.

Wilson was charged on Sept. 26 with promoting prostitution. Police say she was running an illegal sex-for-money operation out of her Main Street home.

They say she advertised by running a simple advertisement in the Sun Journal. It said, “Cute and classy. New females.” And it included a phone number.

Men who called the number were invited to come to the house, pay $50 at the door and get an hour alone with one of four employees.

‘Victimless crime’

The details of what took place between the women and the customers differ, depending on who is telling them.

Police say the women were performing sexual acts for tips. Wilson insists that wasn’t the case.

She described the service as female companionship. Some customers took the girls skiing or dancing. Others wanted massages. Some simply wanted someone to talk to or watch movies with.

Wilson acknowledged that she had no way of knowing about everything that went on behind the closed doors, but she trusted that her employees were telling her the truth when they promised they were not having sex with the men.

“I acknowledge that it was wrong to have a business and not pay taxes,” she said Wednesday, after pleading not guilty in 8th District Court. “But it was a victimless crime.”

Topless massage

Wilson was charged after the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office sent an undercover officer to her house.

According to Wilson, the officer paid $50 and chose a woman with the fake name of Desiree. That particular employee, Wilson said, is a single mom with three children who needed extra money to pay her way through college.

The officer took off his clothes and attempted to bring a bottle of booze into the room, Wilson said.

Wilson claims she told the officer that drinking was prohibited, and he left the bottle outside. Once behind closed doors, Wilson said, the officer asked for a topless massage.

The girl took off everything but her G-string. At that point, Wilson said, uniformed officers knocked on her door with a search warrant and charged her with promoting prostitution.

Among the items that police confiscated were six photographs of Wilson in lingerie. Wilson said they were photographs that she sent to her husband while he was in jail.

They also took a spiral notebook she used as an address book, two rolls of undeveloped film, her marriage license, miscellaneous mail and paperwork, seven condoms and $745.

Wilson claims $645 was taken from her wallet: $250 of it was payments from customers and $395 was from her Social Security check. The other $100 was found in one of the back bedrooms.

Second charge

It was the second time that Wilson was charged with running a prostitution business in her home.

She and another women were arrested in April 2001 after police raided their home at 37 Goff St. in Auburn.

That time, Wilson pleaded guilty and paid a $250 fine. She did so, she said, because she found out that some of the girls who worked for her were using their tips to buy drugs, and she thought that was wrong.

This time, she plans to fight the charge.

“The business was extremely discreet and confidential,” she said. “We were not hurting anybody.”

In fact, Wilson believes the business was doing just the opposite: “We were preventing rapes. We were providing companionship to lonely men.”

According to Wilson, the women all had buzzers that they could ring if a customer refused to cooperate or got violent. The buzzer would ring a bell in the living room, and Wilson or another girl would interfere.

Legal in Nevada

Wilson said she got involved in the adult-entertainment business as a young teen. After being sexually abused as a child, it was her way of having control over men, she said.

She continued in the business, she said, because the money was too good to give up. She declined to say how much money she made.

“Put it this way,” she said. “I paid my bills on time. I have a beautiful home in Poland with beautiful furniture.”

She claims that she has always been a strong supporter of legalizing prostitution.

“It’s legal in Nevada and in other countries,” she said. “If it was legal here, we could pay taxes and the state would be making a hell of a profit on it.”

lchmelecki@sunjournal.com