SALEM — A judge yesterday denied a motion to dismiss prostitution charges against a Salem woman who allegedly offered her services to an undercover Salem police detective.
Paula Webb and her lawyer, Jennifer Koiles, had argued that police violated Webb's rights when they sent Detective Bill Jennings into her Albion Street home wearing a wire that transmitted their conversation to other officers in a nearby surveillance van.
Prosecutors argued that the wire transmitted the conversation but did not record it and was simply for the officer's safety.
In a decision released yesterday, Salem District Court Judge Dunbar Livingston agreed that police had the right to use the so-called "Kel" wire to protect the officer and further found that Jennings did not need to first obtain a warrant.
He did rule, however, that only Jennings would be able to testify about the conversation between the two and not the officers who were listening in the van parked outside.
Webb, 42, was arrested and charged last April, after an investigation touched off by Webb's husband.
During a police visit to their home because of a domestic squabble, Webb's husband showed officers a "dominatrix dungeon" in the basement, complete with eyehooks and various whips and other devices.
It is not illegal to be a dominatrix in Massachusetts. But her husband told police that when things got slow in that area, Webb would use the Internet to solicit traditional sexual activity for a fee.
Police eventually responded to an ad Webb allegedly placed on a popular Internet site and set up a "date."
Webb is expected to stand trial in June.
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