Attorney Reema N. Bajaj, 25, has been charged with three counts of prostitution and has admitted that she was a prostitute but gave up the occupation after graduating law school. She is not alone in allegedly the combination of two of the oldest professions.
Police insist that they have evidence to two acts of prostitution this year after discovering emails between Bajaj, a suspect in an unrelated case and a DeKalb man. They allege that Bajaj agreed to perform the acts for $100 – a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. They pushed that charge up to a felony by charging that it occurred within 1,000 feet of a school.
While it is not uncommon to see judges (here and here and here), law professors, and lawyers charged with associations with prostitutes, we have seen a few less common cases of lawyers who allegedly worked as prostitutes or escorts.
Source: Daily Chronicle
“The main function of US law is to protect the current privilege hierarchy by preventing upward social mobility by members of minorities and poor people.” Carlyle Moulton
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I thought we had evolved…..
Laws against sex, drugs and rock and roll are so convenient. So many breaches occur that resources only allow detection and prosecution of a tiny fraction. This then allows them to be enforced with extreme prejudice against the usual suspects whom all the God bothering and righteous know to be evil, namely poor people and minorities.
Since the civil rights movement it has not been possible to make laws that discriminate explicitly against Blacks and poor people, however implicit discrimination via biased application of apparently nondiscriminatory laws works even better and it is self justifying as it reinforces the beliefs in the inherent bad character of the victims.
The main function of US law is to protect the current privilege hierarchy by preventing upward social mobility by members of minorities and poor people. This case is an excellent example of its use. This Indian student will never be able to become a lawyer and will never be able to repay her education debt. Justice served.
$100.00…………??????
she is clearly desperate and dearly undervalued…..
Vindictive is kind. How interesting that the indian girl got arrested based on her “statement”? but the alleged child porn suspect John didn’t?? Can you say Racists? Misogynistic?
Also the report said she was a suspect in another crime. WRONG! The john was a suspect in another case and they linked to her through him.
She is a young lawyer and her life is being destroyed. People in the profession should be racing to her aid and they should be telling the Prosecutor that his or her next election is in real danger unless this goes away and fast. I am incensed by the treatment. The cops didn’t see it it wasn’t reported and moreover the law is arcane.
Even if she were an escort can anyone tell me why it is illegal for her to use her body to support herself? Men do it all the time, from football players to Soldiers and it is “ok”. It is her body, it is his money, and it is their time. How does the DeKalb county prosecutor or anyone else figure into this??
BTW can anyone tell me how the school kids were effected?
Where are her professors and classmates to say what a good person she is and how hard she worked for her clients (which is in part why they are doing this). How about we talk about how this public “Outing” has destroyed her personal life and her practice just as it was beginning?
This prosecution sickens me and it should sicken everyone else. Here is a kid who just wanted to be a lawyer. She sacrificed to do it. And now that is is over, to quote Michael Corelone “They are pulling (Her) back in.”
She should be a hero to anyone who has ever had to struggle to get to somewhere better in their lives.
What a SIN. Crime must be slow in DeKalb cause they have a lot of time to follow BS around.
she’d make a perfect attorney, she already knows all the judges.
Swarthmore mom
1, June 3, 2011 at 12:30 pm
Made a mistake. One was a felony because it was near a school.
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Hmmm… I wonder if there’s a market for an iPhone app here? Once the phone locates itself via GPS, a map appears with various “protected” places (schools, etc) with an appropriate buffer (GIS-speak for “a colored zone x feet in diameter/width drawn on top of the map”) displayed on the map. Thus, as you’re offering your “intimate entertainment services” or, um, being an “independent pharmaceutical marketer”, you’d know how far down the block you could ply your trade without triggering those (often absurd) extra charges…
But overall, am I the only one seeing the irony of lawyers looking down their noses at prostitutes? (rimshot!) Hey-oh! I’m here all week – try the veal chops!
Made a mistake. One was a felony because it was near a school.
http://www.daily-chronicle.com/2011/05/31/sycamore-attorney-faces-prostitution-charges/abz6y3e/ The charges seem to be misdemeanors.
BN,
You understood what I was saying….lol
This one was telling the truth: She was working her way through law school.
Buddha,
The right words, yet again… Thanks. 🙂
“I don’t understand why prostitution is illegal. Selling is legal, fucking is legal. So why isn’t selling fucking legal?” – George Carlin
Lemmy has it right: this is vindictive prosecutorial overkill, and I have a feeling that she probably is acquainted with someone of the local DA’s staff. Someone who would find public revelation of that acquaintance…embarrassing.
“It seems strange that the authorities would work so hard to make the case a felony.”
“Strange” isn’t the word. “Vindictive” is more like it. Obviously she’s being singled out by the prosecutors to drive her out of the profession.
The truncated truth…..
I support the legalization of prostitution … always have, always will.
Prostitution should be legalized. It makes no sense that it is illegal and the fact that it happened to have occurred near a school doesn’t make it any more offensive. It happened in a private residence. The fact that the high-rise apartment happens to be near a school doesn’t mean it is 3-times more offensive. It isn’t like it happened with school kids or she was walking around the school grounds with daisy-dukes and 9-inch stiletto heals.
I am more shocked that a woman with her intelligence got busted for prostitution. Part of the reason it is illogical for prostitution to be illegal is the arbitrariness of it. It is illegal to pay for sex but you can pay for anything else and sex “just happens”. Heck you can pay someone for sex provided it is being filmed, labeled a casting call, and in some cases labeled an education/therapy session. She should never state sex for money. Money for time, fine.
I have always wanted to (but never will) open up a brothel which is highly profitable but illegal. I would solve the illegal problem by labeling a school to teach people the fine art of acting in adult films and/or operating an adult web site. The “class” would of course include sex, but you aren’t paying for sex, you’re paying for the acting class which just happens to include a final exam 🙂 I’m not a lawyer but I believe that such a “school” would hold up to charges of prostitution.
“A sane society would fine her and send her on her way.” Joeey LaRusso
I’ll agree, with one small change. “A sane society would simply send her on her way.”
We have significant and serious problems. This is beyond absurd.
People will do what they need to do to survive. She seems to have used the money to try to better herself.
It seems strange that the authorities would work so hard to make the case a felony. Whatever happens I do not think that sending this woman to jail/prison, or barring her from getting meaningful employment, is going to help her or society.
A sane society would fine her and send her on her way.
Given the cost of law school and how difficult it is to find a job I am not the least bit surprised.
As a contract employee I am not going to make any jokes about the similarities between prostitution and what anyone does for a living.