Given the takedown of MyRedbook and Rentboy, and the repeated assaults on Backpage, I couldn’t say that the seizure of Seattle’s The Review Board by local cops in conjunction with the FBI was shocking; in fact, as I told the first reporter I talked to about it, my initial reaction was “Here we go again.” Of course, there’s one big difference between this case and the earlier ones: I was currently advertising on TRB, and in fact the screenshot of the board which was included in the cops’ press release included the headline of my most recent ad, with my name right there for anyone to read.
From my point of view, the way the news unfolded was this: I had just arrived home on Wednesday afternoon to prepare for a date when one of my sex worker friends texted me to tell me she had tried to sign onto the board and was confronted with the ugly, threatening sight of police badges. I in turn texted another close friend, who informed me that she had just emailed me the news herself; when my gentleman arrived he asked me if I had heard, and I said yes. By the time he left two hours later my phone was full of texts and my computer full of emails, and a strategy meeting had been called for that evening. I told SWOP-Seattle’s media director that I would be available for on-camera interviews if needed, since I’m out; by the time the meeting was convened I had already talked to a reporter from TV station KING 5 and was on the way to meet him for an interview. When I got back I was almost immediately sent back out to talk to a reporter from KIRO, this time in the company of another sex worker friend, Caroline McLeod. And when I checked Twitter yesterday morning after awakening to another flurry of text messages and emails, I discovered something that was news to my non-TV-news-watching self: those two interviews were virtually unprecedented. Nobody who tweeted at me had ever seen a local news station ask sex workers for their opinions on a bust before, and certainly not in as respectful a fashion as KIRO did.
By the time of the press conference held late yesterday morning so cops and prosecutors could congratulate themselves and deliver their warped view of events to reporters, we had a pretty good idea of what was going on; predictably, the seven SWOP members (including Caroline and I) who went to the press conference were excluded, so we waited in the lobby and handed cards to every reporter who walked in, letting them know we’d be available for interviews afterward. As we had suspected, the allegations involved “K-girls”, immigrant Korean sex workers, who were portrayed as helpless, enslaved victims despite the fact that officials fully admitted that they hadn’t interviewed any of these “rescued” women (and refused to tell reporters where they were being held). So far, it appears the entire case was built on the statement of a single K-girl, and I don’t need to explain how cops and prosecutors go about extracting such “testimony” by intimidation and threats of dire consequences unless the victim “co-operates”. One other weird feature of the accusations is that TRB is being represented as a nationwide site, when in fact it is strictly limited to the Seattle area.
After the press conference, though, something amazing happened: reporters from two TV stations, two radio stations and two newspapers stopped to ask for our input. We split up to talk to those reporters; I handled another reporter from KING 5 and one of the radio interviews (in which I got to respond directly to the sheriff, who interestingly tried to “head me off” by negating what he assumed I would say). The KING 5 reporter seemed weirdly obsessed with the word “prostitute” (and his cameraman seemed fascinated by my snakeskin boots); he asked me if all of us there were prostitutes, and I stated that we were all sex workers. I further explained that sex workers included strippers, porn actresses, phone sex operators, etc, and that one of our criticisms of prostitution law was that it attempts to draw artificial lines between consensual sexual behavior which the state allows and that which it doesn’t. He then asked if I was a prostitute, and on camera in the hall of a courthouse, within earshot of at least half a dozen cops, I said “yes”. As I wrote on Twitter last night, “I felt a sense of great pride, power and even triumph in openly and clearly stating on camera that I am a prostitute.” When I started this blog, I cloaked my identity, and now I’m almost as out as I can be. Though the state has just thrown yet another obstacle in the way of my making a living, it can’t ever take that supremely badass moment away from me. And though there will no doubt be a lot more detail forthcoming as this story develops, the fact that reporters are at least beginning to allow sex workers a say is a huge step forward.
Sorry to hear about this Maggie. Hope it doesn’t inconvenience you too much.
I did want to say, that you can bet the South Korean government is involved in this too. I’m Australian, and know people in Australia’s Immigration Department. As you know, most of the east coast of Australia has fairly liberal prostitution laws. What my contacts in Immigration say, is that the Koreans are constantly pissed that Korean women can come to Australia and do sex work. As it’s a legal job here, there isn’t anything Immigration can do to placate the South Koreans except constantly say they’ll look into it. The Koreans want Australia to prevent their citizens from doing sex work on work-holiday visas. It isn’t enough for Koreans to make sex work illegal in their own country, they expect other countries to enforce their laws too.
Is it really the Koreans, or are the Koreans doing that at the behest of the Americans who are currently camped out there?
” the fact that reporters are at least beginning to allow sex workers a say is a huge step forward.”
Amen! Put that feather on your diadem, Maggie.
CYA, and keep Ken White’s number in your favorites list.
Won’t do much good for anything, save a Popehat Signal – Ken’s not licensed in WA…
Good work, Maggie, and congratulations on coming out so boldly and publicly. Wishing you and everyone well in dealing with this.
Best wishes. Perhaps now is the time to take a quiet trip for a week or two.
It wasn’t immediately clear why the detective, who was not working undercover, did not arrest Mueller at this juncture but merely warned him about continuing to perform illegal activity.
However, a King County detective has participated in online TRB discussions since 2013 and infiltrated “The League” in 2015, getting invites to five meet-and-greets
The way all you Seattle sex work folks got ahead of this story was frickin’ amazing. You were getting your word out before the authorities even made had their official press conference, and you got on the KING 5 report before the police did. I’m real proud to know you.
Thank you, Maggie.
‘The League’ was infiltrated by undercover detectives.
Well the only way to gain ‘cred’ to infiltrate group or club like this is to make dates and generate credible reviews. Fake reviews are easy to detect and/or the provider outs it as fake. There’s no mention of that in the articles. I wonder the community’s reaction if they knew there tax dollars were being used so these detectives could bang hookers.
Not true. Your looking at these women as though they are “indies”. Most providers in K-houses don’t even know about reviews and see so many anonymous men a day they wouldn’t even be able to know who wrote it to dispute it.
All any cop would have to do is read previous reviews of the lady to formulate how to then add a review that seemed credible and contribute to the boards.
Does no one remember how ASPD was infiltrated? They employed both male and female cops, as well as CIs to create reviews. Male cops wrote reviews of CIs and female undercovers for months and were able to infiltrate quite easily leading to a very public and televised arrest at a Christmas
meet and greet. It wasn’t entirely what brought that board down, the death of the founder was the final straw and her Mother just felt she really couldn’t keep the board going, but it was a catalyst to its demise.
And this happens more often than is spoken about, which is a HUGE reason providers need to stop relying on other provider okays as a vetting system as well as just relying on employment verification which is also easy to fake.
It wasn’t immediately clear why the detective, who was not working undercover, did not arrest Mueller at this juncture but merely warned him about continuing to perform illegal activity.
However, a King County detective has participated in online TRB discussions since 2013 and infiltrated “The League” in 2015, getting
Despite the fact that it sucks that you had a useful tool unjustly confiscated, I feel a need to wish you congratulations on being able to get your side of the story into the mainstream media.
Dude detective wasn’t working under cover before he went under cover.
The reporter calls bullshit by writing it’s not clear why the detective didn’t arrest the eventual target BEFORE he went under cover
Seriously WTF
I
Well done, Maggie – and more power to your elbow.
Touching on the details, I note that since the clients had to provide proof of identity and that this proof is apparently now in the grubby hands of LE, is there any indication of how many men (and women) can potentially now look forward to being prosecuted or otherwise subjected to State violence? How much identifiable information was kept once verification had taken place?
Were sex-workers also required to provide ID when listing? If so, are you likely to find yourself on the receiving end of a ‘visit’ from one of Seattle’s ‘finest’?
Fortunately, it was the K-girl board which required ID rather than TRB. And the ladies didn’t have to provide anything like that, either; we had to have references from other board members to get on.
Friggin awesome. So glad it was you they interviewed. We couldn’t ask for a better spokesperson.
Reblogged this on SaneSurvivor.
Awesome Maggie. I saw the interview. It was great.
FemWho
up on ‘promoting prostitution’ charges and being called traffickers while NO VICTIMS have actually been heard from, no statements at all.
Come on people it’s because the police are/were involved. Just look at Urquhart’s presseR body language and facial expression. Even the author of the newspaper article recognized the PD’s behavior as far beyond hypocritical and likely conspiratorial, criminal. The Bellevue Boys were in knee deep and now they got SWOP demonized for “associating” with TRB. Classic distraction by fire starting. The only question is who “shamed” the PD into hosting a self-humiliating national press conference over class c felony accusations, FBI or manager moving in on TRB’s and K-girls cash flow.
I read that piece of garbage news story, and I applaud your bravery. It’s nice to read this and get a little more of the backstory.
Amazing work Maggie. Having watched both your interviews and the police press conference (full of self agrandisment and myths) the truth of the situation cannot fail to have been seen by an objective viewer.
Good on you Maggie, that was a brave thing to do.
Well, as far as confrontations go, I think this turned out well. And I agree that your “yes” to the question whether you are a prostitute in that situation is one of those things that you do not get to do very often in a lifetime and many people shirk away from using such an opportunity. Pretty badass, indeed.
I expect the OpFor was pretty much blindsides by that and by the whole reaction by SWOP. And if the press talks to you, you are certainly not some shady figures hiding in the dark in their view. As certainly one of the central problems with legalization is that most people cannot relate to sex workers in the illegal variants, because they have no faces they can associate that with, this is a big step forward. While the OpFor has won this battle, I think they are closer to losing the war than ever. They are beginning to look really stupid.
The interesting thing will be to see whether they will attack you directly and if they do, then how that turns out. I hope they will not, and as these types are usually cowards, there is a good chance they will indeed not dare to.
Just came across this blog, and wanted to say thank you for your words – it is very interesting to me to read about and learn about many other perspectives besides my own.
I haven’t been active in the Bellevue ‘K-Girl’ scene in 4 years or so, and admittedly things may have changed since I was, but I also looked upon the recent dramatic ‘KOREAN SEX SLAVES AT TRB!!!!!’ headlines as being a bit hyperbolic.
When I was seeing ladies, I met one Korean lady in particular – in her mid-30s – who was an absolute sweetheart. I have to admit to doing the dopey-guy thing…yes, I fell in love with her…but for whatever reason she seemed to reciprocate at least some feelings of friendship and togetherness above and beyond pure money, because we spent a fair amount of time ‘off the clock’ going to dinner or lunch, chatting on the phone, shopping, and hanging out with her friends.
Although since she moved to SF a couple years ago we have returned to the occasional text or phone chat to keep up with what we are each doing, for a time she invited me down there to go to church retreats with her, to do touristy SF stuff, and to see how well she was doing in her new legit businesses.
We were just generally being nice, caring, and yes – ‘human’ to each other. Imagine that! 🙂
To get to my point, this lady was a strong woman who knew what she wanted. She had a forceful personality, an incredible work-ethic, had business skills both traditional & non-traditional – on a par opr better then most ‘legit’ businesspeople I have met – and she was in no way ‘trafficked’.
None of her Korean lady friends (also working girls) I met at the time were ‘trafficked’, and the only time I heard that topic brought up in conversation was in the context of someone they had heard about in LA who had ended up too deep in consumer debt back in Korea and was worried about a Korean-mafia bunch dispossessing their relatives from the condo they had purchased. This was discussed in the context of ‘she was stupid to borrow from the Korean mafia’ and they tut-tutted the lady for thinking that was a good idea.
I got the impression that much of the ‘K-Girl’ scene consists of Independant working girls and former working girls, helping each other & networking amongst themselves about the best places and ways to carry out their occupation, with a mafia-like unedrbelly that can mostly be avoided. Avoided, in much the same way that we in America can avoid the Italian Mafia unless we chooses to get involved in that sketchy underbelly.
I don’t know – I am adamantly opposed to real trafficking – and if I had any impression that my friend or any of her friends were truly ‘trafficked’ I would have been the first to offer an immediate safe haven, and any resources I could muster to assist in contacting the appropriate authorities to *end* that situation.
As a White Knight, Don Quixote if you will, I never personally encountered such a windmill against which I could tilt. The ladies I met were just fine in that regard, but thankyouverymuch.
In the end, I was just glad that I could meet a really cool lady, who gave me the closeness, friendship, and human contact that I had been lacking for so many years of being an introverted, painfully shy, and socially awkward computer geek.
I will remember this particular Korean lady until I die…as the Angel who talked me out of my shell. 🙂
That made me get tears in my eyes. That was a beautiful letter. I always tell people before you go saving people make sure they want to be saved. It seems your friends had their heads on straight but even in cases that are more blurred as to if they are victims are questionable. Some girls may be victims to one persons way of thinking but to them they are doing what they need to to take care of their families. And while it breaks my heart that some people are in this profession and absolutely hate it , if they have the ability to leave and dont, then leave them alone. They have obviously weighed their options and are ok with what they are doing.
I started in this business out of desperation. But it was always my choice. It may have been desperation that made me consider doing this but it is many other things that has kept me here for over a decade and its always been my choice.