Federal Judge Supports Mann Act Charge

A federal judge spoke supportively yesterday of a 1910 law used to combat prostitution and mentioned by legal experts as a charge prosecutors may consider bringing against Governor Spitzer in his escort scandal.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein discussed the Mann Act as he sentenced a woman to two years and a month in prison for her conviction in the prosecution of the operators of a string of massage parlors that used Korean immigrants transported from state to state. After a lawyer tried to minimize the importance of the act, the judge said it "has as a purpose, I believe, to make sure that anyone who did this in the United States of America — that is create a brothel for the purpose of which was to attract women from abroad to come here — was violating the law and deserves punishment."