Washington Sweats Over 'DC Madam' Prostitution List

WASHINGTON, D.C. — You may find forgiveness for anybody at the Archdiocese of Washington who on Monday found himself sweating — forgive us, too — like a hooker in church.

It seems that one of the longer-lasting sex scandals in the capital's long, scandalous history is very much alive and has been traced to the archdiocese, among several thousand other places.

On Monday, court papers linked an archdiocese telephone to Deborah Jeane Palfrey, aka "The D.C. Madam," the woman at the center of a sensational high-level prostitution case that has kept some of Washington's powerful elite on edge for more than a decade now.

More precisely, Palfrey's phone records and an attorney trying to make them public have caused all the anxiety.

A court filing Monday didn't name names of who called the Madam's number; the filing just listed where some of her presumed customers worked.

The case goes back to the early 2000s, when Palfrey was arrested for prostitution-related charges and Washington went abuzz — or lost its buzz — with the discovery that thousands of names and phone numbers of presumed were available.

Things got a lot more serious for all involved when a federal jury found Palfrey guilty in April 2008 of racketeering charges and she committed suicide before her sentencing. As a result, her defense team never shared a CD contained information on those who called her service.

Court orders have forbidden the woman's attorneys from releasing the names.

A court filing first obtained Monday by WTOP radio, though, lists the archdiocese and 173 other entities that had dialed Palfrey's service, Pamela Martin & Associates, between 2000 and 20006, when it serves as as the D.C. Madam's call center.

The court papers were filed by Palfrey's former attorney, the very Washington-named Montgomery Blair Sibley, who continues to fight for the right to release the full records, which he says are relevant to the upcoming presidential election. (He's never publicly said how.)

Sibley was granted permission to identify 5,902 telephone numbers back in 2007 that had contacted the escort service as he mounted his defense of Palfrey, who was facing racketeering charges.

He's been trying since February to remove a restraining order that prevents him from releasing full records.

The government agencies listed include the Department of Health and Human Services, FBI, General Services Administration, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, Internal Revenue Service, National Drug Intelligence Center, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Army Information Systems Command, Department of Commerce, Department of State, U.S. Postal Service and U.S. Forest Service.

Others listed in the filing include the Archdiocese of Washington, Embassy of Japan, Bethlehem Steel, Constellation Energy/BGE, Hewlett-Packard, Johns Hopkins University, Washington Gas and several large law firms.

Louisiana Sen. David Vitter acknowledged that he was one of Palfrey's customers when the case was going on in 2007 after she released some of the phone records. However, a judge ordered Palfrey to stop distributing the records.

Sibley is trying to get himself released from the restraining order on the grounds that he has a First Amendment right to publication, and the information is in the public's interest.