Donna Wilson said
her days in the
adult-entertainment business are over.
AUBURN – A 37-year-old woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to running an illegal sex-for-money operation out of her home in Poland.
Donna Wilson was fined $250 and released.
On her way out of Androscoggin County Superior Court, she declared that her days in the prostitution business were over.
“I’ve changed my point of view,” she said. “Nobody wants to sell themselves for money. A lot of women feel they have no choice, but they do.”
Wilson was charged with promoting prostitution on Sept. 26 after an undercover officer went to her house and paid $50 for an hour alone with one of Wilson’s four employees.
The undercover operation was arranged after police received a report that one of Wilson’s employees had been raped on the job.
At first, Wilson planned to fight the misdemeanor charge by taking it to a jury trial.
She claimed that it was her way of sticking up for herself and the women who worked for her. But, at some point between her first court appearance in November and Wednesday morning, she changed her mind.
“I talked to a bunch of friends with different opinions,” she said. “And I put things in perspective.”
Wilson got involved in the adult-entertainment business as a young teen. She claimed that after being sexually abused as a child, it was her way of having control over men.
She continued in the business, she said, because the money was too good to give up.
But Wilson acknowledged Wednesday that it was an awful way to make a living. She said she was raped on a few occasions, once by a group of men.
This most recent prostitution charge was Wilson’s second.
She and another woman were arrested in April 2001 after police raided her home at 37 Goff St. in Auburn.
That time, Wilson also pleaded guilty and paid a $250 fine. She eventually moved to Maine Street in Poland and restarted her business, running a simple advertisement in the Sun Journal that said, “Cute and Classy. New females,” to attract new and old customers.
Wilson recently moved again, from Maine Street to another home on Route 26 in Poland.
The reason for the move, however, wasn’t so she could start up her business again, she said. She claims to want a new start.
Her daughter is pregnant with her first grandchild, and she got a job as a clerk at a nearby gas station.
“I’m slowly trying to regain some pride back,” she said.
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