Taking calls from her Canterbury Green apartment, Kirstin Cook would dispatch women to hotels or office buildings throughout the city for “dates” with clients of her two businesses – Discreetly Yours and American Showgirls Escort Service.
The 42-year-old, though, was providing more than female companionship, according to Allen County prosecutors, who Monday formally charged Cook with promoting prostitution after Fort Wayne police concluded an undercover sting last week.
But if she hadn’t allegedly provided sex for money, and if the women working for Cook provided the services detailed in her ad in the local phone book, there would be no legal issue.
Since 2007, an escort service, if registered with the city, is considered a legal business. It is covered by a city ordinance introduced to better track nude modeling agencies, massage parlors and businesses such as Discreetly Yours.
But as of Tuesday, no legal permits for such escort services were on file with the city, despite many ads for such businesses in local phone books and online.
Cook’s business, Discreetly Yours, has a prominent ad in the Yellowbook next to a listing of “escort services” promising “Local & Non Local Models.”
But it’s unclear who would inspect such businesses or report them to the city for operating without a permit. Any such business operating without a proper permit is subject to a fine of as much as $2,500, according to Fort Wayne city code.
“A city fine is a civil matter and would be handled by the city’s law department in cooperation with the respective city department,” city spokeswoman Rachel Blakeman said in a statement e-mailed to The Journal Gazette.
Escort services are nothing new to Fort Wayne, and based on records, this is not Cook’s first arrest. In 2001, she was arrested on a prostitution charge in another undercover sting in which Fort Wayne police sought to hire women from the American Dreams Escort Service – found in a phone book, according to a police report.
Using an alias of Kirstin Gillenwater, Cook met officers at a motel on Goshen Road with another woman. The women made $280 – their standard fee – just for showing up, according to the police report. But the women were arrested when they offered sex acts for more money, according to the report. Cook pleaded guilty in that case.
In 2007, then-City Councilman John Crawford introduced an ordinance, at the behest of police, to help curb such businesses.
Under the new law, running a massage parlor, nude modeling agency or escort service is fine, but the permit to do so now requires photos of the owner and employees, a list of any previous criminal history, a 10-year previous employment history and fingerprints of everyone involved in the business.
Applications for permits are either approved or denied by the Fort Wayne Board of Public Safety.
Cook did not have a permit at the time of her arrest July 19, when police allege she booked an escort for an undercover police officer posing as a client. Police, in fact, said they had been looking into her businesses for several months before raiding her apartment.
At some point, someone alerted Canterbury Green management that something suspicious was happening at the apartment, though investigators do not believe clients were going there for sex.
On July 15, an officer called Cook and requested a woman who was “young and blond.” Cook later called the officer back and said a woman would call him shortly.
A woman called and identified herself as his “date,” records said. She told the officer she would meet him wherever he wanted. She would charge him $80 for the meeting – and then expected at least $100 in tips for her services.
When the two met, that woman was arrested, court records show. Police used that woman as a confidential informant to learn more about Cook’s businesses.
They found out that the $80 meeting fees were paid directly to Cook through deposits in her bank account. The tips were retained by each girl, court records said.
When police questioned Cook, she maintained that her employees were dancers and performed at bachelor parties. Cook then told police she “was just trying to make ends meet after losing her job,” court records said.
Police found a ledger of Cook’s clients and their appointments as well as text messages indicating when an appointment had been completed between a client and an escort.
Police spoke to at least two clients of Cook’s services who said they paid women for sexual favors, records said.
Cook was booked into the Allen County Lockup on her formal charge and released on her own recognizance.
Attempts to contact her were unsuccessful.
