“A defendant accused of forcing a prostitute at gunpoint to have sex with him and three other men got lucky, so to speak, last week. A Philadelphia judge dropped all sex and assault charges at his preliminary hearing. Municipal Judge Teresa Carr Deni instead held the defendant on the bizarre charge of armed robbery for — get this — ‘theft of services.’ Unbelievable. Deni told me she based her decision on the fact that the prostitute consented to have sex with the defendant. ‘She consented and she didn’t get paid… I thought it was a robbery.‘ The prostitute, a 20-year-old single mother, agreed to $150 for an hour of oral and vaginal sex on Sept. 20, according to assistant district attorney Rich DeSipio. The arrangements were made through her posting on Craigslist. She met the defendant, Dominique Gindraw, 19, at what she thought was his house, but which turned out to be an abandoned property in North Philadelphia. He asked if she’d have sex with his friend, too, and she agreed for another $100. The friend showed up without money, the gun was pulled and more men arrived. When a fifth man arrived and was invited to join, DeSipio said, he asked why the girl was crying — and declined. He helped her get dressed so she could leave. It’s true the prostitute negotiated sex with the defendant — but not unprotected gang sex at gunpoint.” — Philadelphia Daily News (US)

There’s an old joke. Question: How do you make a hormone? Answer: Don’t pay her. You can imagine situations when this falls on the side of “theft of services” rather than rape. Suppose a prostitute agrees to have sex with someone then he runs off without paying. Just like a plumber or a barber, she has voluntarily provided a service with the expectation of receiving a fee. If the john fails to pay, it’s the same as if a customer stiffs the plumber or barber.

The brutes in this story, however, did more than simply refuse to pay. They invited friends, brandished a gun, and threatened a girl’s life. They transformed the thing under negotiation — “oral and vaginal sex” — into a new thing, gang rape. If the prostitute had named a price at which she would be willing to engage in group sex at gunpoint, it might be reasonable to call her the victim of “theft of services.” But she never agreed to that. The men imposed it on her, and therefore she was threatened, assaulted, raped. Could it be any clearer?

It is difficult to conceive why a judge would think anything else. Perhaps Judge Deni has simply grown cynical in her years presiding over two-bit criminals. Perhaps she subscribes to the notion that a prostitute is a law-breaker for whom rape should be considered an occupational hazard. Perhaps she was just bored and wanted to stir up some controversy. She told a reporter that she has to “sleep at night with what I decide.” And after making this decision? “I slept well,” she claimed. Perhaps that tells you everything you need to know about the judge’s moral compass.

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