Plea deal made in prostitution ring
A Spokane woman accused of laundering more than $3 million from her prostitution ring through Northern Quest Casino received a prison sentence of two years Friday after she accepted a plea agreement.
Cheryl Mae Larson, 48, pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a controlled substance, one count of money laundering and three counts of promoting prostitution before Superior Court Judge Ellen Kalama Clark. Larson also received credit for 177 days she’s already served in jail.
According to court records, Larson spent as much as $10,000 a year for telephone book advertising for at least five “escort services” she operated – “Cheryl’s Class, AA Always Available, A Extra Help, Consulting Services and Gents for Rent.”
Customers of both sexes would call those escort businesses, and male or female prostitutes would be driven to the customer’s location – frequently hotel and motor inn rooms throughout the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene areas, said Gary Drumheller, special agent with the Washington state Gambling Commission.
Instead of depositing money from her escort operations in a bank account, Larson is accused of buying gambling tickets at Northern Quest – apparently an attempt to launder the illegal proceeds so they would be harder to track, Drumheller said.
Criminal investigators with the Gambling Commission opened the investigation in late 2005 after developing information that Larson frequently was seen acting suspiciously at Northern Quest, a large Airway Heights casino operated by the Kalispel Tribe, Drumheller said.
“They thought something was suspicious about her – both the amount of money she was gambling, plus the people she was meeting and interacting with at the casino,” Drumheller said in a previous interview.
At the casino, Larson had a Camas Club card, and her purchases of gambling tickets were meticulously recorded by computers which are audited, court documents say. Surveillance cameras frequently recorded Larson using her cell phone in the casino, and she also regularly was seen with various younger women. Casino records revealed Larson is “one of the top 25 bettors” at Northern Quest, the court documents say.
“There are also some indications that she contacted her potential customers or they contacted her at the casino,” Drumheller said.
On at least one occasion in November, the court documents say, Larson was caught on surveillance cameras in the casino showing a young man photos of young women, apparently prostitutes, on her cell phone.
Northern Quest officials issued a brief prepared statement after Larson and her associate, Ricky V. Doran, were arrested earlier this year.
“While it would be inappropriate for us to comment on any potential ongoing investigation, it is our policy to always report suspicious activity to appropriate law enforcement authorities and proceed as requested by those officials,” said Phillip Haugen, executive director of the Kalispel Tribal Gaming Agency.
“We have acted in accordance with this policy,” the tribal official said in the statement.
Court documents said that between 2003 and the time of her arrest, Larson’s “buy-ins at the electronic machines exceeded $3.3 million, while her cash-outs exceeded $3.1 million.” The $200,000 difference between the “buy-ins” and “cash-outs” accounted for Larson’s losses at the casino, Drumheller said.