Ex-prostitute details working life at hearing

A former prostitute described in detail Friday how she was recruited into the escort service Michael Spencer is accused of running.

Her testimony took place during the 35-year-old Palatine man's sentencing hearing. Spencer faces up to 30 years in prison after he was convicted last month of possessing and intending to deliver cocaine.

The sentencing itself was pushed back to Jan. 25.

Now 21 and in school, the ex-prostitute said she became acquainted with Spencer in spring 2005 when he came into the Rolling Meadows tanning salon she worked at to buy a package for one of his escorts.

Her identity was revealed in court but, at the request of the state's attorney's office, the Daily Herald is not naming her.

After several encounters, she and a friend met Spencer to discuss working for him. They went to a hotel, where they each had sex with him as an audition, she testified.

She worked several months for Spencer, whom prosecutors described as a savvy businessman. He arranged meetings with clients in various hotels and took half of what she made, usually $225 to $350 per hour. He also regularly supplied cocaine, she said.

The former prostitute said she signed modeling and talent contracts, one of which was notarized, that specifically prohibited unlawful activities. She said Spencer had 10 to 15 girls working for him.

Over a period of several weeks in 2005, Spencer netted more than $80,000 from two of the prostitutes he employed, according to Cook County state's attorney investigator Hank Ribich.

The former Chicago police officer testified that he reviewed police reports and bank and hotel records and found Spencer had booked a Schaumburg hotel 187 nights since starting the business in 2003.

Spencer had also deposited more than $100,000 cash into two bank accounts.

When authorities pulled Spencer over in January 2006, they found $19,000 in a safe in his trunk, along with contracts, a scale and nearly 19 grams of cocaine.

His arrest came in connection Rolling Meadows officers' hunt for a missing 17-year-old. The girl, who was found safely a week later, was one of Spencer's prostitutes, prosecutors said.

He still faces other unresolved charges of pandering and money laundering.

Spencer is being held in Cook County jail without bond.