Phone Records in Contention

Attorneys Argue Over Release of the 'Little Black Book'

Ever since she burst into the media spotlight earlier this year, the alleged "D.C. madam" has made it clear that she is not alone: She is accompanied by 46 pounds of phone records.

In U.S. District Court yesterday, attorneys spent more than an hour arguing about the value of those records -- the possibly incriminating, perhaps no-longer-quite-so-titillating remnants of Deborah Jeane Palfrey's escort business.

At issue is a temporary restraining order that U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler placed on Palfrey and her civil attorney last month, barring them from releasing any more of the records containing former clients' numbers to news organizations or the public. Palfrey wants the ban lifted; prosecutors want it to remain in place.

"This is the defendant's little black book," Assistant U.S. Attorney William Cowden said in court yesterday, arguing that the records were an asset of an illegal enterprise and thus forfeitable under federal law. "It looks like the reasons she kept it was so she could come back someday and blackmail."

But Preston Burton, Palfrey's court-appointed criminal attorney, countered that there was "nothing intrinsically valuable" about the records, except for about $15 in scrap paper.

"We're talking about a phone bill. This is not the secret formula for Coca-Cola," he said. " . . . What I'm talking about is a client's right to use her own information."

Kessler did not rule, and in her questions to the attorneys, stressed she was "playing devil's advocate."

"Aren't the phone numbers of customers the phone numbers of unindicted co-conspirators that we're protecting here?" she asked Cowden at one point.

Palfrey, who says she is indigent, said she needs reporters or groups to help her mine the records for potential witnesses. The defendant, who lives in California, was not present at yesterday's hearing.