SPOKANE -- For more than 15 years, Cheryl Larson ran one of, if not the most, successful escort services in Spokane. She was in charge of dozens of girls, clients and millions of dollars. But in just one night, the former madame went from running her own business to losing it all.
Cheryl Larson says when she was growing up, she wanted to be a teacher. She married and had children at a young age, fulfilling another dream of being a mom. By the mid 1980's, Larson was making a name for herself in Spokane as a successful real estate agent.
Despite her career, Larson fell behind on bills. That's when a friend offered her a job answering phones for his escort service.
"After a couple of months I started realizing what it was all about," says Larson. "Girls going on dates and being paid for sex."
Even with the extra cash, Larson says her house fell into foreclosure. The next day, she went to work for another service and a madame -- this time as an escort.
Larson says sex wasn't part of the deal, at least not at first.
"By the sixth date she said, 'You will start sleeping with these guys or you will not be getting anymore dates.'"
Larson says she was beaten up and robbed. So she quit and became her own boss.
Ad's for "Cheryl's Class" and her six other services were everywhere, from phone books to calendars. Larson says the girls, who ranged from college girls to nurses and doctors, all contacted her asking for a job.
"Every single day I'd get calls asking if they could go to work," says Larson. But she says she had standards -- no drugs and no streetwalkers -- and made it clear to them: that this job was to be used as a stepping stone towards life, not a lifetime career choice.
Larson says the girls knew what to expect and were paid well.
"Typically it would be $350 an hour, split 50-50 with the service," she says. And they served everyone from doctors to lawyers, but Larson refuses to name any names, citing her safety as a top concern.
At the highest point, Larson had 29 girls working for her. Her business could bring in as much as $5,000 in one day -- that helped support Larson's growing cocaine habit.
Larson says she didn't worry about getting caught, or about paying taxes. According to the Washington Department of Revenue, Larson hadn't filed an single tax form since 1997.
After 2000, Larson says she traded her drug habit for gambling, playing millions of dollars at Northern Quest Casino. Authorities accused Larson of using the casino as a site for dates, claiming there was surveillance video of her taking money from men, accusations that Larson denies.
"The girls, because I had such a gambling addiction, they would bring me money out there after they had already gone on a date but they never met out there," she says.
And although Larson was the boss, she says she also accepted dates with clients. But one call almost cost her her life. On July 7th, 1997, Larson says another madame who was jealous of her success hired someone to kill her, beating her up.
But nothing told her anything was wrong with accepting a date on November 30, 2006. What she didn't know then was that the caller was an Airway Heights Police officer.
"He handed me $600. I went to put it in my purse. I turned around and I was being arrested," says Larson.
Larson was charged with several counts of promoting prostitution and money laundering and sentenced to two years in prison.
"In my heart of hearts, I never dreamed I would be going to prison," says Larson. "I justified it as it wasn't really illegal because it's certainly a business that's needed."
Now out of jail, Larson is working as a convenience store clerk. Her paychecks are far from $5,000 a day, but says someone has picked up her former business.
"Sex for money under the ruse of being an escort service is still an active business in Spokane," she says, but without her and most of her former clients.
As for her dream now, Larson says she just wants to be happy and successful.
"Success to me is finding happiness and peace in your life," she says. "I guess I'm content. I'm not happy, just content. I'm not even sure I'm that!"
Larson says she kept records and client names on her computer, but they're all in code. Police combed through it and gave the computer back to her. Now she says she's going through deleting that information.
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