Sunday, June 08, 2008
News, In this Issue...
The mansion revisited
Gwinnett’s district attorney plans to pursue the final charges in the Mansion Madam case against an Emory urologist
Part Two: “Cowboy” and “Neal B.”
Click "play" to hear the D.A.'s wiretap evidence:
Click here for alternate audio format. (Recommended for IE users) Much of the evidence against Taylor was provided by her husband, Ian Martin, who, according to court documents, would leave the house while she serviced her clients. Gwinnett County investigators related in the narrative of the case that “Martin asked to come forward with testimony regarding Taylor’s nefarious activities in exchange for recommended legal counsel in his pending divorce.” (As of this writing, Taylor and Martin are still married.)
It was also Martin who told investigators that “DCT,” the letters Taylor scrawled next to her clients’ names in her contacts book, “referred to ‘Dream Come True’ or ‘Dream date,’” which, according to court documents, “means sexual acts with Taylor … He further advised that well-known clients are listed with their first name only.”
In her appointment book, Taylor listed more than 120 clients denoted with the acronym “DCT.” Almost all are listed with both first and last name. Only four are not. Of the four, two are from out of town: “Kenric” in Newark, N.J. and “Dennis” in Blue Mound, Ill. The other two, “Cowboy” and “Neal B.” are local.
When The Sunday Paper called Cowboy’s number, the man who answered said it was a business phone and he couldn’t talk. He denied any knowledge of Lisa Ann Taylor or Melissa Wolf and said the number belonged to a refrigeration company. Attempts to reach Neal B. were unsuccessful (click here to listen to The Sunday Paper’s attempts to reach him).
Porter could only pursue charges against johns whose transactions with Taylor had been corroborated by witnesses, as well as wiretapped conversations between the johns and Taylor. Gwinnett County police listened to Taylor and Probert’s phone conversations and read their text messages from early December 2006 until early January 2007. Through requests made under the Georgia Open Records Act, The Sunday Paper has obtained recordings of all of the wiretapped conversations. By listening to the contents of more than 1,000 audio files accounting for nearly a month of wiretapping, the paper has discovered information related to the case that has not been reported previously.
In many wiretapped conversations, Taylor and Probert talked about trafficking in prostitution across state lines, a federal offense. Another woman, working under the name of “Amanda Foxx,” and Taylor also discussed working in New York, and photos downloaded from Wolf’s Web site show the two of them with Probert in Florida. All three also worked legitimately as exotic dancers and “models.”
Porter relayed the information to the FBI, the agency that investigates crimes committed across state lines, but they weren’t interested. The bureau, through Spokesman Steve Emmett, declined comment for this story.
“The agent I talked to told me that their resources were spread so thin that they just couldn’t pursue it,” says Porter. “And, they probably also thought about how they would need to build a case that involved only small amounts of cocaine, ‘eight balls,’ and would result in only a misdemeanor possession charge.”
They were busy, according to Porter, with homeland security concerns as well as hunting down people who were prostituting children via the Internet.
What to do when you’re $300 short
Meanwhile, there were more than 120 men listed in Taylor’s client contacts who would never be charged with anything because there was no evidence to connect them to a sexual act performed for money—other than comments on client information sheets about previous services.
And then, there was Morgan, the Emory Urologist who was surprised to hear from The Sunday Paper that Porter planned to pursue charges against him. Returning The Sunday Paper’s call from his office at Emory on June 4, Morgan acknowledged that Taylor was his neighbor and said he had “heard something about” the Mansion Madam case. When asked if he knew that his conversations with Taylor had been wiretapped, he responded, “No, no.” He referred all other questions to his attorney.
However, a witness list for the case against Kruzel among the public records at the Gwinnett County District Attorney’s office includes Morgan’s name and notes that he was represented by the firm of Andersen, Tate and Carr.
Audio files of Morgan’s conversations with Taylor detail Morgan’s attempt to set up an appointment with Taylor that would end a little more than an hour before his wife was expected to arrive home on the evening of Dec. 8, 2006.
In a series of conversations that day, Taylor tells Foxx that she has an appointment with “some clown … this doctor in the neighborhood” and that she plans to tell him about Foxx. Later, Morgan calls Taylor and they discuss price and the nature of the transaction. Morgan—who almost never fails to identify himself by his full name in the conversations—says “I’m married” and “sometimes my wife carries my phone.” He also confides that he’s nervous and adds, “You’re no rookie at this, are you Melissa? I’m a rookie.”
He further relates that he left home with only $500 cash—not the appointment’s asking price of $800. Taylor responds that she takes credit cards, and that the charges show up under the name of SE and Associates. She says the initials stand for “Simply Exercise,” and that if anyone looks it up, they will find a fitness business. Given that he is $300 short, Morgan suggests that instead of “full entertainment” Taylor can perform “good oral sex or something.”
Then they discuss his preferences. He asks her if she smokes.
“Do you like, you smoke cigars any?” he asks.
Taylor: “No, but I’ve got some for people who do.”
Morgan: “Oh do ya? You don’t smoke? You smoke cigarettes?”
Taylor: “Not really, but I do if it’s requested.”
Morgan: “I think it’s pretty sexy.”
Taylor: “Do you have a smoking fetish?”
Morgan: “Yeah, I think it turns me on.”
Taylor: “I can handle that.”
She tells him that she will leave the garage door up so that he can discreetly park his car. Gwinnett County police, who were watching Taylor’s house while they listened to her phone calls, noted the arrival of Morgan’s car and traced the license number.
After the appointment, Morgan calls Taylor and says, “You were awesome, baby.” He tells her he wants to see her again and hopes this is the beginning of a long relationship. He also says he will buy her a Christmas present. She asks for Godiva chocolates.
In a later conversation with Foxx, Taylor describes Morgan as an “idiot” and complains that he paid only $500.
(Morgan would call back a week later seeking another appointment and begging her not to return his call because he was worried his wife would find out. He said he would call her later.)
Taylor also tells Foxx that Morgan has left her some Cialis, Levitra and Viagra, which she plans to use personally and give to clients. Foxx cautions her against this, pointing out that if a client is taking nitro glycerin (for a heart condition or high blood pressure), Viagra might be dangerous for him.
Drugs are a topic of many of the recorded conversations. Some of those discussed had been prescribed to Taylor, including Xanax and Loritab. She relates in one wiretapped conversation that she gets stressed out and has “outbreaks” and is on 1,000 milligrams of medication for the condition. She also uses cocaine so copiously, she tells her friends, that her nose is “f**ked up” and she needs to go away to the mountains to get away from all the people who are “coming over every night and doing blow … that’s all we do.” At one point she says her drug dealer is “shoving” the cocaine up her nose.
Drug charges against some of those connected to the case were dropped in exchange for cooperation with authorities. District Attorney Porter says more arrests could have been made, even outside of Gwinnett County, and more charges would have stuck.
“But we had to consider the Gwinnett County impact of doing that,” he says, explaining the relationship between resource-intensive investigations and misdemeanor charges.
For Porter, the pending charges against Morgan represent the wrap-up of the only prostitution case he has handled in the more than 20 years that he has worked for Gwinnett County.
As for Taylor, according to her Web site, she is available for photo shoots these days, for which she charges $300 for the first hour, $200 each additional hour, or $1,000 for a full day shoot. She also offers $99 “Naughty Calls” with a DVD with “the alleged Mansion Madam.” It’s not $500 for good oral sex, but it’s a living. SP