Prostitution/Patronizing a Prostitute

Our criminal defense lawyers are sensitive to the fact that prostitution charges are embarrassing and carry a stigma to friends and family. We recognize that everyone does something they regret on occasion and will work with you privately to make these charges go away to the best of our abilities.

Mr. McMillan is a former Westchester County prosecutor who has successfully defended clients charged with prostitution and/or patronizing a prostitute or escort in jurisdictions such as White Plains, Rye, Port Chester, New Rochelle, Mamaroneck, Manhattan, Bronx, Rockland, Stamford and Bridgeport.

Charges in prostitution cases run the gambit. If the johns are the target, the typical charges are patronizing a prostitute. Where the sex workers are targeted, they are typically charged with prostitution. Where a hotel or a service provider benefits financially the typical charge would be promoting prostitution. Finally, where people transport workers for sex, they would be charged with sex trafficking.

In the last few years there have been several highly publicized raids on Westchester County massage parlors and escort services. Many Westchester County stings arise from online ads such as Craigslist or Backpage. These ads offer sex services at locales like the Rye Town Hilton, Marriot, Crown Plaza Hotel or other posh Westchester or Manhattan hotels. In these stings, undercover female officers typically pose as escorts or prostitutes and numerous johns are rounded up and arrested as soon as money is offered for sexual favors.

The crime of patronizing a prostitute in the third degree under NYS PL 230.04 is completed when a person solicits or pays another to engage in sexual conduct for money. No money must actually change hands. The crime is complete once an offer of sex for money is made.

Patronizing a prostitute in the third degree is a Class B misdemeanor (the lowest subdivision of a crime in New York State). While most other Class B misdemeanors can easily be pled down to a non criminal violation, it is not easy with sex related crimes. This is true because district attorneys in counties like Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Manhattan, Queens and Fairfield are elected officials who need to take a tough stand against these quality of life related crimes in order to be re-elected in their counties.

Patronizing a Prostitute in the Second Degree (under NYS PL 230.05) and Patronizing a Prostitute in the First Degree (under NYS PL 230.06) include significant enhancement in possible penalty (including jail time) where the alleged prostitute is a child.

It is a defense to the higher patronizing a prostitute crimes to show that the person charged did not have reason to believe the alleged prostitute was a child.

The consequences of sex crime arrest and sex crime convictions can be disastrous. They can include:

1. Loss of child custody; and
2. Loss of employment; and
3. Loss of professional licenses (such as law, teaching, real estate or medicallicense); and
4. Inability to supervise children (such as a teacher or little league baseball coach); and
5. Megan’s Law Reporting Requirements.

Accordingly, it is important to quickly and aggressively defend these charges with defenses like a lack of knowledge, consensual sex and entrapment.

Mr. McMillan is a Westchester prostitution lawyer with over twenty (20) years of experience defending clients charged with prostitution and patronizing a prostitute in Courts like Manhattan, Queens, Bronx, Rockland, Stamford, Rye, White Plains, Port Chester, Greenburgh and Elmsford.

If you have been arrested for prostitution, contact our prostitution lawyers now at (914) 358-4326 or at (917) 538-5016.