Lawyer's Other Job Is at a Nevada Brothel

Des Moines attorney wants to change laws, attitudes
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 9, 2019 4:45 PM CDT
Woman Works 1 Week in a Law Office, 3 in a Brothel
Destini Starr, a prostitute at a Nevada brothel, applies makeup in her bathroom last year.   (AP Photo/John Locher)

Like a lot of people, Katherine Sears has a side hustle. The Des Moines lawyer doesn't drive an Uber or deliver pizza. Her other job is in a brothel in Nevada. "I like sex," she says. "Sex is fun, and I can get paid for it." Sears, who has been working as a prostitute for three years, is telling people about her sideline in an effort to decriminalize and destigmatize prostitution, KCCI reports. "We’re not going to have legislation change if we’re passive about it." She considers prostitution to be consensual sex, and she has the right to decline clients. "You can say, 'No sex without a condom.' You can say, 'No sex until we’re married.' But you can’t say, 'No sex until you pay me'?" Sears says. "And that feels like it really undermines what consent means.”

In Iowa, Sears lives with her husband, John, and 4-month-old son. She was already working as a prostitute when she met John in law school, and they now practice criminal defense law together, per WNDU. "I don't really care that much" about her job in Nevada, where prostitution is legal, her husband says. Katherine typically spends three weeks in Nevada and one in Des Moines, though she's spent more time at home lately to practice law and be with her husband and son. On a busy day at the brothel, she'll have 10 to 15 clients after three hours of preparing. Her biggest haul was $55,000 in three weeks, she says. As a lawyer, she handles prostitutes' cases free of charge. "Their bodies belong to them, and we have absolutely no reason that you cannot condition your consent this way," Sears says. (More prostitution stories.)

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