Pimp using Denver's top strip clubs for prostitution ring

This is a great article - how much of this do you think goes on? I hope not very much, but you never know. By the way, the article has mug shots of some of the girls for those of you interested in such a thing. An alleged pimp nicknamed "Jell-O" faces felony charges stemming from an unusually sophisticated prostitution ring run throughout the metro area out of some of Denver's best-known strip clubs, police say. A search-warrant affidavit filed recently in Denver District Court provides a glimpse into what authorities say was a prostitution service that financed Germaine "Jell-O" Wallace's extravagant lifestyle of flashy cars and exotic pets in a Douglas County mansion and the intimidation tactics police say he used to recruit and control the women in his employ. The affidavit and other court documents name about 10 women with ties to the operation and suggest each was required to bring in a minimum of $500 a night between their legitimate stripping jobs and turning illegal tricks in backrooms. Four of the women also face charges for allegedly helping Wallace, 38, run the business. Big house, exotic pets A bust of this magnitude is unusual in Denver, according to Lt. Aaron Sanchez, operational commander for the Police Department's narcotics and vice unit. Prostitutes working strip clubs are typically well-trained at spotting undercover officers. And since they bring in big money, they have a greater incentive to protect the enterprise, Sanchez said. "In their mind, it's in their best interest to take the hit and not affect the business," he said. "So it's really hard for us to get witnesses to the more elaborate operations." A series of anonymous tips alerted authorities to Wallace's operation in early fall, and he was arrested in November. Detectives continue gathering evidence as his case crawls through the court system. Wallace has hired high-profile criminal-defense attorney Harvey Steinberg, who maintained his client's innocence. Steinberg declined to comment on information contained in police documents other than to caution, "Don't believe everything you read." Wallace, free on $150,000 bond, next appears in court June 17 for arraignment, according to court records. He faces a Class 3 felony count of pimping and felony counts of pandering, sexual assault and possession of a weapon by a previous offender. Records show Wallace lived in a rented $1.3 million mansion tucked into an 18-home luxury subdivision in the hills north of Castle Rock. There, police say he and a cadre of prostitutes lived on 35 acres of land where they rode dirt bikes and four- wheelers, affidavits say. He kept exotic pets — a now-deceased serval (an African wild cat) named Goldie and a small mammal from the rainforest called a kinkajou, affidavits show. Police say Wallace also kept a collection of guns, including an assault rifle and a pink handgun that were seized from a Parker storage shed. His half-dozen vehicles included a leased Bentley and an orange Pontiac Fiero that was made to look like a Lamborghini. One car — a blue-silver minivan — showed a logo of Bugs Bunny grabbing Jessica Rabbit with the words "choose up" written on the side, street slang encouraging prostitutes to pick a better pimp, according to police reports. "It is typical of a pimp to invest earnings from an operation of this size into multiple vehicles," wrote Sgt. Daniel Steele in a affidavit supporting a civil suit to seize Wallace's assets. "The use of luxury vehicles enhances the profile of the pimp on the street and can thus be used as a recruiting tool." Methods of recruitment Wallace and his crew have since left the Douglas County mansion; police took the guns, some money and a small amount of Ecstasy as evidence; and most of the vehicles have been repossessed or sold by the state, affidavits show. A spokesman for the Denver Police Department wasn't sure what happened to the kinkajou. Entry into Wallace's world came quickly for one 20-year-old woman, whose name is being withheld because she alleges he raped her. Denver police busted her after she allegedly offered an undercover officer sex in a strip club during the sting that helped make the case against Wallace. Within weeks of coming to Denver last fall to dance at Centerfold Showclub, the woman said, she was recruited by a fellow dancer and the so-called "mother" of Wallace's group. Kara Laughead allegedly invited the woman back to the mansion and promised, "My man will take good care of you." The newcomer said Wallace forced himself on her that night with the threat of violence and that by the next day she was being schooled in the rules of the house. "We work literally every night unless someone is sick," the woman told detectives. She typically brought in $800 a night and said she had to text Wallace every hour with earning updates. She was told which clubs to work, how much to charge, how to solicit johns and club-specific details regarding where to perform the sex acts, she told detectives. The women at the house were allegedly driven to and from the strip clubs or "dates" in other locations by Wallace or other men in his crew. At the end of every night, the women dumped their money onto a table for Wallace, the affidavit says. Wallace allegedly ran prostitutes through big-name clubs such as the Diamond Cabaret, Centerfold Showclub and PT's All Nude for several months without knowledge of the club owners. Four alleged prostitutes who traveled with Wallace to Colorado would apply to dance at clubs, then recruit from among their new colleagues, police say. Laughead, 24, Allison Kelly, 25, Teresa Weeks, 22, and Amber Wilson, 24, all face Class 3 felony counts of pimping. They would perform sex acts in the private suites and booths typically reserved for one-on-one lap dances, according to the affidavits. Clubs deny knowing of ring Police believe the ring has been in operation since midsummer. The 20-year-old alleged rape victim complained to police that she thought club bouncers knew that Wallace, who hung out at the clubs while she worked, was a pimp. A spokesman for the Police Department said detectives have no evidence that the clubs knew about the alleged prostitution ring. Tim Killeen is a regional manager who oversees Diamond Cabaret and La Boheme for the company that owns Denver's best-known strip clubs. He said Wallace and the women involved have been barred from the clubs and that no managers knew about alleged illegal activity in the backrooms. "They (the rooms) are monitored all the time," Killeen said. "The recruiting issue, that's how we found out. The girls would tell us." This isn't Wallace's first run-in with the law. Records from the Miramar Police Department in Florida show Wallace was arrested in 2002 after he and another man repeatedly sexually assaulted an 18-year-old woman and a 17-year-old girl. The teens were kept against their will in a house where Wallace and another man lived with a number of other women, reports show. He served 233 days in the Broward County Jail for four felony counts of armed sexual battery and two counts of armed battery, records show. The Miami Herald at the time reported that Wallace and his associate persuaded the two teens to fly down from Ohio for a visit, assaulted them and pressured them into prostitution. 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