Know more. Frank Martinez, Denver, Colo. Rodney W. Snow of Dixon Snow, Denver, Colo. Jonathan L. Olom of Marks Olom, Denver, Colo. Robert Gay Guthrie, Asst. Robert N. Miller, U. Robert Monaco and Terry Ratliff appeal their convictions on one count of conspiracy to use facilities in interstate commerce to promote prostitution, a violation of 18 U. The trial was to the court without a jury.
The issues on appeal are: 1 whether the Travel Act, 18 U. The defendants owned and operated two massage parlors in Denver, Colorado and two in Boise, Idaho. The defendants utilized interstate telephone service and made occasional airline trips between Denver and Boise in the management of these businesses.
Cash and receipts came from the Boise parlors to Denver by air freight. As part of their work at the massage parlors female employees would perform sexual acts with customers for money. Two of the women who worked in the Boise establishments became government informants and were given immunity in exchange for their testimony against the defendants. Documents utilized to convict the defendants were obtained in a federal search, pursuant to a warrant, of the defendants' business office in Denver.
The defendants claim that prostitution is traditionally left to the states to regulate. They argue that they made only limited use of interstate facilities for telephone calls and shipment of money to pursue this state-regulated enterprise, and thus the operation of their establishments was not intended to be covered by the Travel Act.
They contend that Rewis v. United States, U. We do not agree. We have applied the Travel Act in cases involving significantly less extensive interstate operations than those at issue here. See United States v. Barbieri, F. Stevens, F. We do not believe Rewis forbids application of the Act to the closely connected management of houses of prostitution in two states that regularly employed several instruments of interstate commerce to achieve its illegal purposes.
