A federal judge gave a two-year prison sentence yesterday to the woman who ran an expensive Charlotte-based prostitution ring that made about $3 million.
Sallie Wamsley-Saxon, 58, broke down in tears when sentenced by Judge Frank Whitney of U.S. District Court, who ordered her taken out of the courtroom immediately to begin her sentence.
"Oh no, oh no, your honor!" she said as the sentence was imposed.
She turned to family and friends and said, "I'm sorry."
Prosecutors said that the business charged clients up to $700 an hour.
Wamsley-Saxon had pleaded guilty to several charges, including conspiracy to entice women to cross state lines to engage in prostitution.
Her husband, Donald Saxon, 53, and photographer Glex Fox, 58, also pleaded guilty to several charges. Saxon received 21 months, while Fox received 15, defense attorney Melissa Owen said.
Authorities said that Wamsley-Saxon ran the ring from her Charlotte home and had more than 500 clients.
She had faced four years in prison, but agreed to help prosecutors in exchange for a two-year sentence.
According to court documents, the prostitution service, referred to as "HUSHHUSH, operated under the companies Soft Touch Promotions Inc. and SW Associates. Wamsley-Saxon apparently kept one or more prostitutes on call in Charlotte, and sometimes gave clients discounts for multi-hour sessions and for the use of more than one woman. Wamsley-Saxon collected a 30 percent fee from her workers.
Saxon collected the money at or near the hotels where the women worked, and Fox took their photos for use on the Web sites managed for company use.
The charges against the three centered on conspiracy to bring people across state lines to engage in prostitution and to use the mail to distribute the proceeds of an unlawful activity. Wamsley-Saxon and Saxon were also charged with racketeering and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
A Charlotte businessman, accused of using the company's services, pleaded guilty this month to tax fraud for claiming on a tax form that payments to the prostitution ring were advertising expenses.
A Raleigh cardiologist pleaded guilty in June to enticing a person to travel from Nevada to North Carolina to engage in prostitution.
Owen said that two other cases involving former clients of Wamsley-Saxon were making their way through the system, but she could not give a total of how many former clients had been -- or are to be -- charged.
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