hookers

Police crack alleged prostitution ring

Couple lived modestly, but authorities say business was high class

By BRIAN ROGERS, BILL MURPHY and MIKE TOLSON Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle

March 18, 2009, 8:35AM

12

Harris County Sheriff's Office

Deborah L. Turbiville, 33.

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• Read the search-and-arrest warrant here

• • •

With two locations, several Web sites, dozens of apparently satisfied employees and perhaps thousands of loyal, well-heeled customers, the service business that Debbie and Charles Turbiville nurtured over the last few years was impressive for a pair of young and inexperienced entrepreneurs. Some say it was the largest of its kind in Houston.

But prostitution is not legal. For all their efforts, the Turbivilles apparently now find themselves in need of a good lawyer.

The couple stands charged with running a sophisticated brothel and call-girl operation that catered to the city’s high rollers and screened its prospective clients carefully. Like similar operations that have come to light in New York, Washington and New Orleans, it relied on Internet advertising, well-trained and educated young women and lots of word-of-mouth publicity. Clients paid $300 and up for a one-hour session.

“She’s the Heidi Fleiss of Houston,” said Houston Police Sgt. Mark Kilty, whose office spent more than a year investigating the operation before arresting the couple last week, along with two alleged prostitutes who worked for them. “She was the one all the big players go to. If you come to town and you’re a big player, you call her. She screens you and she knows who you are and then you’re good to go.”

The comparison to Fleiss — the notorious Hollywood madam who made millions catering to the show-business elite before police shut her down — might be a bit of stretch for the foreign-born Deborah, 33, and her husband, the 31-year-old son of a College Station radio personality. They lived modestly, with no ostentatious displays of wealth.

But with a popular and growing business, the Turbivilles clearly were on their way. Police are still trying to determine the extent of the operation; Kilty said the client list seen so far totals about 1,500 people. The list, which has not been made public, includes professional athletes, doctors and lawyers, according to court documents. Kilty said background checks were conducted before the couple would allow clients access to a hotel rendezvous or the three-bedroom apartment in the 9900 block of Memorial Drive where a handful of women worked mostly in the afternoon.

“You had to be brought into what she called ‘her family,’ ” Kilty said. “These weren’t johns off the street. These were suit-and-tie businessmen. She had the upper scale. She probably had the biggest escort service in Houston.”

The Turbivilles were arrested March 10 and charged with aggravated promotion of prostitution, a third-degree felony, punishable by a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. They were released after each posting. $5,000 bail. Police said charges of money laundering are likely to follow when the investigation is complete.

The couple, parents of  two small children, declined to comment on the charges when contacted at their West Houston home Tuesday. Neighbors in the quiet 1970s-era subdivision off Briar Grove said they knew little about the couple.

“I walked over after they moved in a couple years ago, and the husband shared almost no information,” said Noel Noble. “I was shocked by their arrests. I never saw anything that made me think something was going on.”

That changed last week. Neighbors got an eyeful when vice cops and other officers showed up to search the Turbvilles’ 2,200-square-foot home. Officers carried out two safes and opened them on the lawn, Noble said. Among the contents was a substantial amount of cash, gold and silver. Police also seized a Lexus sedan, a Chevy SUV, a pistol and several computers, which police are using to put together Houston’s longest “trick” list.