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"Professor Pimp" Allegedly Used His University Email Address To Run Hooker Site
By
John Del Signore
Published Jun 22, 2011
Modified Jun 22, 2011
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jun 22, 2011
Modified Jun 22, 2011
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An Upper West Side physics professor wasn't too bright when he registered the domain for a prostitution website, prosecutors say. David Flory, 68, who teaches at Fairleigh Dickinson (heh) University in New Jersey, was charged with 40 counts of promoting prostitution this week in connection with the website "Southwest Companions," which connected men with prostitutes in New Mexico (where Flory has a vacation home). Prostitutes-turned-informants tipped off investigators that the site was owned by a David Flory of New York, and NorthJersey.com reports that Flory "used his university e-mail address to start the site, which helped police identify him."
According to investigators, Flory grouped johns who used the Southwest Companions website into three categories: probation, verified and trust. Albuquerque police Lt. William Roseman tells the Post, "In order to get off probation you had to sleep with one of the prostitutes featured on the Web site and she in turn would tell [Flory] what acts occurred, how much they paid, and any comments. That opened you up to verified status. Once you got into verified status, that opened you up to different girls available." The Post also reports that undercover investigators were able to work their way up to "trust" status and set-up encounters with hookers. (Wonder how they got off probation?!)
Investigators got a break in cracking the webmaster's identity when he used the web handle David8 to post news of a prostitute's ("Juicy Gin") arrest at the same time Juicy Gin was dropped from the website's hooker roster. This led investigators to home in on "David8" as the person in charge of the site. On May 31st, they subpoenaed GoDaddy.com, which registered the site's domain, and got the name David Flory. Police also got Flory's credit card info and cellphone number, and drove to his vacation house last Wednesday when his cellphone was "pinging" off a cell tower in Santa Fe.
According to a copy of the arrest warrant obtained by NorthJersey.com, "They looked through a window to see Flory sitting on a couch using a computer. Authorities then logged on to the website to see that the webmaster had been online at that time... That was the final incident that led authorities to request a warrant for his arrest." He was busted at an Albuquerque Starbucks on Sunday, and reportedly told police he ran the site as a "hobby" in order to "create a safe place for prostitutes and johns to get together."
Investigators have seized a computer and two boxes of evidence from Flory's homes in New Mexico and New York, where he resides in the fancy Belnord Building on West 86th Street, and counts Matt Damon as a neighbor. "Everyone's talking about this, no one can believe it," one resident tells the Post. "He comes out in a big cowboy hat and wears a Western medallion on his belt. He thinks he's a cowboy but he's nerdy, really nerdy."
Tagged
david flory
Fairleigh Dickinson University
jersey
professor pimp
prostitution
southwest companions
Upper West Side
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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