The Times Mirror Company, Los Angeles Times Friday, September 22, 1995, Home Edition SECTION: METRO; PAGE: B-3
Nancy Hill-Holtzman; Times Staff Writer

Municipal Commissioner Richard L. Brand rejected arguments that it would be dangerous to the public to free Sandra Lorraine Massey on her own recognizance after she pleaded guilty to prostitution charges.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Ronda C. Brody said she had predicted that Massey would not show up for sentencing on felony prostitution charges.

Because Massey admitted to plying her trade while knowing she is HIV-positive, and because she has a prior conviction, she faces a 32-month mandatory state prison sentence. Prosecutors noted that such a sentence could be the equivalent of a life sentence for someone facing a fatal disease, increasing her likelihood of flight.

Massey was arrested on Sepulveda Boulevard in Mission Hills last month in a police undercover operation.

The commissioner, a hired judicial officer, released the woman pending sentencing in San Fernando Superior Court to allow her to make arrangements for care of a child while she was in prison. Brand could not be reached for comment.

Massey, who pleaded guilty last month, had been ordered to see a probation officer and then to appear in court ready to go to prison.

That is the last anyone in the criminal justice system has seen of her. Massey failed to appear for sentencing last week or at a rescheduled hearing this week.

Brody, a deputy in the San Fernando branch of the district attorney's office, blamed the commissioner.

"It was a bad judgment call on his part to release her," Brody said.

Brody's supervisor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth Barshop, agreed, saying Massey is probably out working the streets.

Barshop said the commissioner's decision was particularly inappropriate because prosecutors had not asked him to make the more difficult call of whether to remand the woman into custody without warning.

"It's not that he didn't take her in, but that he let her out," Barshop said.

Massey's attorney, Deputy Public Defender Marie Girolamo, could not be reached for comment.

Felony prostitution charges are applicable if someone has a prior prostitution conviction and has been tested and informed that she or he is carrying the AIDS virus.

Another provision of the state penal code requires HIV testing of convicted prostitutes as a condition of probation.

Although prosecutions under the felony statute are not common, Brody said she has used it before as a deputy at the district attorney's Beverly Hills office.

The prosecutor said Massey has 'tons and tons of prostitution arrests," including two since learning in February that she is HIV-positive.

Brody said what bothered her most about the case was knowing from the arrest report that Massey had no condoms in her possession when she was arrested and may be putting customers at risk.

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