Suburban Detroit police release names of prostitution ring's clients

The Associated Press

01.15.99

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HUNTINGTON WOODS, Mich. — Over the objections of prosecutors who feared widespread invasions of privacy, police have released 7,000 names found in the computerized black book of a woman who ran a million-dollar-a-year prostitution ring.

Marci Devernay — the "Huntington Woods Madam" — pleaded guilty last month to racketeering charges for operating a prostitution business that served clients throughout Detroit's affluent suburbs.

She is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 19.

Many of the names are accompanied by addresses and phone numbers, and notations such as "Big Tipper" and "BAD LIST!!!" Most of the addresses are in Michigan but some are from as far away as Europe and Korea.

Two newspapers argued in court papers that they were entitled to the list because public officials might be included. The Detroit News said it would not publish any names for now; the Detroit Free Press said it was deciding how to handle it. Neither published any names in today's editions.

The Huntington Woods Police Department issued the list on CD-ROM with a warning that the names weren't verified.

"We do not know that names on the list are in fact clients or customers," the department said. "We cannot attest to the authenticity of the names nor do we know with any degree of certainty their relationship with Ms. Devernay."

Oakland County Prosecutor David Gorcyca had refused to divulge the names, saying he needed to "protect the unknowing, unwitting spouses and children from public ridicule."

"Some of these individuals may not be clients of Devernay's, and they may not have participated," he said. "And how do they regain their reputation once their names have been published?"

Prostitution rings often include prominent names on client lists in hopes that that will keep the information private, Gorcyca said.

Authorities say Devernay, 33, employed at least 25 male and female prostitutes.

Since authorities seized her records, officers have fielded calls from men offering excuses for why their names might be on the lists — and from suspicious wives.

Police said there were another 7,000 names on Devernay's Rolodex and about 6,000 more in paper files that would be released later.

Mark Silverman, publisher and editor of The Detroit News, said his paper was not planning at this point to publish the names.

"What we have here is a convicted felon accusing 20,000 people of a crime," Silverman said. "To name them would violate the fundamentals of basic journalism ethics that should govern all media outlets."

Free Press managing editor Carole Leigh Hutton said that whether her newspaper would publish any names would "depend on what we find from a reporting standpoint."

"We have no interest in harming anyone or printing information that is not true, causing unnecessary grief in personal lives," she said. "Nonetheless, we need to report what is happening out there."

In Huntington Woods, a quiet community about 15 miles north of Detroit, some residents downplayed the significance of the release.

"If you think of all the things that could happen in a community, it's certainly not the worst," said John Abela, 36. "It's not government corruption. If it had been a drug house, the community might have been more up in arms."