Escort Service Boss Found Guilty

Burton called no witnesses and relied on the argument that the prosecution had not met its burden of proof. Palfrey did not testify.

After Palfrey turned over thousands of her former clients' phone numbers to ABC News last year and later posted them on the Web, a deputy secretary of state, Randall L. Tobias, resigned, acknowledging that he had used Palfrey's service for massages. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), also linked to Palfrey through phone records, apologized to constituents for a "very serious sin," without saying what sin he had committed.

ABC said it found numbers linked to corporate CEOs, military officers, lobbyists and officials of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and NASA. In a court filing, Palfrey named Harlan K. Ullman, a think tank military strategist, as "a regular customer."

Although lawyers in the trial said in court that Vitter, Tobias and Ullman were on their witness lists, no prominent alleged ex-clients were called to testify.

The embarrassment of having to publicly recount an unsavory past fell mainly to the 13 women, each of whom testified that she worked for Palfrey for no more than a year or so (in some cases just a few months) and quit the call-girl business long ago.

Judge Robertson, sympathizing with the women, said yesterday that documents in the trial that contain the names of the other 119 former escorts would be sealed.

This was not the convicted madam's first dust-up with the law. Jurors were not told that she was convicted of running a prostitution ring in California 17 years ago and spent 18 months in jail.

Considering Palfrey's history, prosecutor Catherine Connelly asked Robertson to order her locked up until sentencing. But the judge declined, saying Palfrey is an "intelligent woman" who knows she would be punished if she tried to "flee the country."

She did flee the courthouse, though, avoiding a half-dozen television cameras waiting outside. Burton said later that his client "is, I think, holding up fine.

"She's with her mother."