Visit the Internet Archive website to view websites archived beginning in 1996. In the box that states "Way Back Machine" enter "www.escortorl.com to view my website from 1996 through September 2001. After that I have no clue what was done with the site.

Valentine's website when I closed in 2001

My name is Vicky Gallas and I owned escort services in the Orlando, Florida area from 1992, until I closed in late September of 2001. The first service that I opened was Abra-Cadabra Orlando Escorts. When I closed this one in 1996, the main name that I used thereafter was Valentine's Orlando Escorts. Abra-Cadabra was first published on the internet in 1993, and it was the second escort service in the world online. The first was a service in the Seattle, Washington area. If you ever dialed my service or viewed the website, you'd know me as Laura.

Above are screenshots of my website in the early years. I never even had an adult ad or banner on my website. November.org (an anti Drug War organization) and FAMM (Families Against Mandatory Minimums) were given free banner space. I was all too aware that I lived in Orlando.

On November 20, 2001, the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI) in Orlando, Florida arrested me on a list of six charges that all pertained to the operation of my escort services. The case was a joint investigative effort with Florida's Office of Statewide Prosecution (OSP). Of the six charges that I was arrested on, the only two actually filed by the OSP were:

Racketeering (RICO), Florida Statute 895.03(3)

Conspiracy to Commit Racketeering (RICO), Florida Statute 895.03 (4)

To be clear, my case was not the typical case by any stretch of the word. The MBI never had sufficient evidence to get a court order for a wiretap or a search warrant. There was never any recorded statement of me discussing or promoting prostitution with an escort, a client, or an agent. When the false allegations were removed from the 120 page “warrant for arrest affidavit” it became more of a ‘he said, she said’ story backed by nothing.

Throughout its 30 year existence the MBI has seriously abused the Florida racketeering statutes. The agency has left thousands of victims in its trail of misconduct. Today, and as of December 2008 when former director William Lutz retired, the MBI is a different agency. The MBI of today hardly resembles the MBI from 1978 through 2008.  

I have always stated that the MBI adds two plus two and comes up with an answer of six. Has there ever been an escort service owner prosecuted on charges as serious as racketeering and conspiracy when there was never even enough evidence to get a wiretap? 

I do have the distinction of being the only escort service owner to be acquitted by a jury on organized crime/racketeering/RICO charges in any state or federal court in the U.S., in so far as my research has revealed. The feds do not usually go after escort service owners using the RICO Act, and I believe that the first case federally prosecuted was that of Deborah Jeane Palfrey. Palfrey was found guilty by a jury on April 15, 2008. 

The Florida racketeering statutes are actually much worse, and carry potentially longer sentences, than the federal racketeering statutes. I define worse as having an even broader scope, and open to conspicuously gray interpretations. Any business owner or individual conducting business is in danger of prosecution with the Florida RICO Act.