The woman who authorities allege ran a prostitution business in the Washington area for 13 years and counted high-profile government officials among her clientele confirmed this week that she employed a female Naval Academy officer as an escort and believes that the woman has agreed to testify against her.
Two Navy sources familiar with the matter said the academy's superintendent had been notified that the woman might testify against Deborah Jeane Palfrey, known as the "D.C. Madam."
In a wide-ranging interview, Palfrey, whom federal prosecutors have charged with racketeering and conspiracy to commit money laundering, said the Navy officer met clients in the Annapolis area and charged them about $275 an hour for "erotic fantasy" services.
The telephone number Palfrey said the woman used appears more than 300 times in phone records she posted on the Web site, according to a Sun analysis of the records.
The sources said the woman worked for several years at the academy in a senior, non-faculty position.
"Her name is splattered throughout the records," Palfrey said. "We would not talk to each other if the girl wasn't working."
The woman did not return phone messages left at a number listed as hers yesterday. Her attorney responded to an e-mail sent to her and said that neither she nor he would comment.
Hundreds of Annapolis telephone numbers and dozens of others from Baltimore, Glen Burnie, Severna Park, Columbia and other areas appear on the phone records, which Palfrey has posted on a Web site.
The phone number of Brandy Britton, who committed suicide after being charged with running a prostitution business from her home in suburban Howard County, appears in the records.
One number appears to be that of an editor for the Army Times Publishing Co., which publishes several military weekly newspapers. Its Navy Times first reported a Naval Academy employee among the escorts.
That editor's calls were placed in 2004 and 2005, according to the records. The Chicago Tribune, which is owned by the same company as The Sun, has reported that one number apparently originated in its Washington bureau.
Speaking from her home in California, Palfrey lashed out at the government's case. Palfrey, 50, and her legal team have maintained that she ran a legal escort service where the women who worked for her were instructed not to have sex with clients.
