Sex cases' reality is too little, too much

OK, I've had enough.

Read the criminal complaint (hint: skip to page 26 for the goods on Client 9).

Tried to come up with my own tabloid headline (failed, unless you count: "Silly habit, tricks are for Spitz").

Flipped through the Emperors Club VIP catalog of offerings (sample: Marina, award-winning ballerina turned pianist who plays "the best of Bach" turned career woman who "advances via her precision with numbers").

Listened to the song by Kristen AKA Ashley, call girl AKA aspiring singer, on her MySpace page (advice: Don't give up your night job).

But now, New York's "luv guv" scandal has just about run its course for me -- jumped the shark, gone from engrossing to just gross, hilarious to banal in record time, thanks to the Internet and the refresh button.

Maybe it was inevitable, as any spectacle, whether it's Brit or Spitz, cycles through and eventually the sideshow fades and you realize the harsh reality of it all -- as in Eliot Spitzer's case, a horribly betrayed family and a shattered political career.

Or maybe it was hearing of another prostitution case in Maryland, unfolding at the same time but in a much less riotous way. By one of those twists of the calendar, on the day -- Monday -- that Client 9, Kristen, $4,300 sex, Room 871 and all the other deliciously awful details of Spitzer's downfall were entering the lexicon, a pay-for-sex case in Maryland was also heading toward resolution.

In court documents, this prostitute is known as C.H.H. Surely, she never saw the inside of a room as posh as the ones at the Mayflower, or had her picture and diamond-rating posted on a Web site for the perusal of a pampered clientele. Her going rate topped out at $30 for 15 minutes -- which might explain why a typical workday included 25 or more customers.

And, saddest of all, C.H.H. was 14 years old when, as the document puts it, "she began her employment."

On Monday, Javier Miguel Ramirez, 35, of Hyattsville pleaded guilty to sex trafficking for transporting C.H.H. to customers in Maryland and Virginia. He will be sentenced in June. Part of the reason federal authorities became involved in her case, said James A. Dinkins, who heads the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Baltimore, is that crossing of state lines -- a violation of the once again famous Mann Act that may also be leveled against Spitzer since his paid-for partner traveled from New York to Washington for their Feb. 13 assignation at the Mayflower.