Justices throw out Spokane prostitution loitering case

OLYMPIA – The state Supreme Court on Thursday threw out a 3-year-old case against a Spokane woman who’d been charged with prostitution-related loitering.

Gypsy Ann Neff was charged under a 1987 Spokane city ordinance that bans loitering for the purposes of prostitution. Among the things police can consider: whether the person repeatedly tries to stop people or cars, and whether the person is a “known prostitute.”

The ordinance, however, doesn’t define “known prostitute.” Neff had been questioned about alleged prostitution or loitering nearly a dozen times over three years by police, but she had never been convicted of prostitution.

The city’s attorney for the appeal, Michelle Szambelan, argued before the high court that there’s no need to define “known prostitute.” It’s self-explanatory, she said.

The nine justices disagreed, saying that it’s unconstitutionally vague and “invites an inordinate amount of police discretion.” Justice Charles Johnson compared the situation to a recent curfew ordinance, which the Supreme Court threw out because it banned “lingering” without defining it.

The city ordinance stands, but police can no longer use the fact that someone is a known prostitute as a reason to charge someone with loitering for the purposes of prostitution. Neff could, in theory, be retried, although her lawyer said he doesn’t think the city has much of a case left.

Several other prostitution-related loitering cases have been on hold pending the results of Neff’s appeal, said Brian Raymon, with the city public defender’s office. He argued Neff’s case before the Supreme Court. “This was a really big deal for us,” he said.

It’s not as big a deal for prosecutors, Szambelan said. Tossing out the term, she said, “should not radically affect pending cases.” She said the city will simply add a definition of “known prostitute” to the ordinance.

In their unanimous ruling, the nine justices seemed to point to an easy fix. A very similar ordinance in Seattle, they noted, defines a known prostitute as someone whom police know to have been convicted of prostitution within the past year.