By: David Dishneau, Associated Press Writer (AP) The city released 82 pages of prostitution business records Tuesday, including apparent client names, and promised to make public thousands more after losing an open-records fight.
Mayor Jennifer P. Dougherty said the city will not appeal a Jan. 28 ruling by the Maryland Court of Special Appeals ordering release of the so-called "black book" that city police seized in a July 1999 raid.
The Frederick News-Post, The Associated Press and a private citizen sought access to the documents under the Maryland Public Information Act in November 2000 amid allegations that the ring's customers included public officials.
A former Frederick alderman named in the records has acknowledged hiring some of the women to dance at parties but he denies having had sex with them.
Dougherty said she expects to release as many as 4,000 more pages in about a week, after the city's legal staff has blacked out Social Security numbers, financial account numbers and other information the law bars the city from releasing.
The documents released Tuesday consist of an 11-page computer printout and 71 handwritten pages. They contain some of the same information, in a different format, as other records The Frederick News-Post and the AP obtained in November 2000 under a different court order.
The printout contains nearly 500 names, mostly men's first and last names. Each name is accompanied by a date. The handwritten pages are monthly ledger entries of mostly men's names.
Beside most names is the first name of a woman -- such as Keri, Tina, Ginger or Anna -- and an amount paid, ranging from $50 to $200.
Police seized the records from the home of Angelika Potter and her Frederick-based business, the Corporate Affair Referral Service. Potter pleaded guilty to operating a brothel and was fined $100.
As part of the plea bargain, the city agreed to return Potter the material seized in the raid, but police kept copies of the records.
Critics of then-Mayor James S. Grimes alleged that the plea bargain was made to avoid disclosure that the documents contained the names of public officials and other prominent citizens. Those allegations prompted the open-records requests.
In June 2001, then-alderman Blaine Young, a Grimes ally, acknowledged his dealings with Corporate Affair.
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