Alford pleas, dropped charges end ‘bawdy house’ saga with no jail time

After about 20 minutes of attorney and attorney-client discussion outside the Warren County General District Courtroom after the scheduled 2:30 p.m. starting time Wednesday afternoon of a motions hearing in the cases against Cynthia Atkinson Bailey and three family members accused of offering prostitution services out of a Front Royal massage parlor, a plea agreement was announced.

Bailey took an Alford plea to two misdemeanor charges, one of prostitution and of operation of a “bawdy (defined as gross, indecent or overly graphic) house” and had the remaining felony charges against her dropped by the Commonwealth. In an Alford plea a defendant pleads guilty without admitting guilt, only that the prosecution may have enough evidence to convict. Felony charges dropped included pandering or making money from prostitution; and cruelty to children, involving a teenage niece answering the phone and scheduling appointments for the Blue Valley Services business.

Noting that Bailey, 55, has no previous criminal record, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Matt Beyrau informed Judge W. Dale Houff that Bailey would be sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined $500 on each guilty plea, with all jail time and $400 on each count suspended. Bailey will also be on unsupervised probation for 12 months.

A similar agreement was then announced for Bailey’s daughter Brandy Nicole Atkinson, who had a misdemeanor prostitution charge amended to disorderly conduct, also a misdemeanor. She received the same suspended sentence, fine agreement and 12 months of unsupervised probation as her mother.

From left, Cynthia Atkinson Bailey with children Brandy and Jesse Atkinson outside the WC Courthouse following an earlier hearing on their cases – Royal Examiner File Photos by Roger Bianchini

Bailey’s son Jesse Thomas Atkinson and Brandy Atkinson’s fiancé Joshua Allan Stamper had peripheral charges to the bawdy house operation dropped by the prosecution. It was noted that Stamper was incarcerated on unrelated charges at the time his trio of co-defendants were arrested on May 15, 2019. Defense counsel indicated Stamper, who appeared in court in orange and white striped jail clothes, was still serving a two-year sentence on that unrelated conviction.

Cynthia Bailey and Jesse Atkinson were represented by David Downes; Jonathan Silvester was counsel for Brandy Atkinson and Stamper. Had the plea agreement not been reached, defense attorneys were prepared to argue for exclusion of much of the prosecution’s evidence in the case.

Background
So, with a whimper, not a bang, ends the massage parlor/bawdy house saga that embroiled and led to the resignation of Front Royal Mayor Hollis Tharpe last May; and led to some testy press release exchanges between Bailey attorney Downes and the Winchester Special Prosecutor’s Office and Front Royal Police Chief.

Tharpe was indicted on a solicitation of prostitution charge on April 15, 2019, a month before Cynthia Bailey and her family members’ May 15 arrests. According to an FRPD press release issued on May 16, the arrests were the result of an ongoing investigation that began in late January of 2018.

Tharpe’s April 15, 2019 Grand Jury indictment, ironically signed by Tharpe’s eventual successor as Interim Mayor Matthew Tederick as grand jury foreman, references a May 31, 2018 incident in which Tharpe allegedly offered “money or its equivalent to another for the purpose of engaging in sexual acts … and thereafter did a substantial act in furtherance thereof against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth …”

On March 25, 2019, Mayor Hollis Tharpe, center, listened with council colleagues Bill Sealock and Letasha Thompson as former Councilwoman Bebhinn Egger asked town officials to learn from their past mistakes regarding the EDA. Ironically, the following day the EDA civil litigation was filed. And six weeks later Tharpe would resign under a legal cloud.

Queried after his interim mayoral appointment, Tederick called his grand jury role in Tharpe’s situation a coincidence, noting he received the grand jury assignment before the Tharpe case was brought forward.

Cynthia Bailey was initially arrested one week after the referenced Tharpe massage parlor incident, on June 7, 2018 on a charge of prostitution. That charge was dropped by the Commonwealth on October 2, 2018.

Tharpe’s misdemeanor solicitation case was eventually dismissed at the request of Special Prosecutor Heather Hovermale during a July 15, 2019 hearing due to Bailey’s invocation of her Fifth Amendment right to not self-incriminate due to the related charges hanging over her head.

Prior to that Downes and Hovermale and eventually the Town Police Chief whose officers were involved in the investigation of the Blue Valley Services operation, had engaged in dueling press releases. Downes first expressed the opinion the prosecution against Bailey was retaliatory in nature because of law enforcement’s interest in the then mayor of Front Royal and Bailey’s uncooperative stance regarding that investigation. That led to official denials by the involved prosecutor’s office and law enforcement.

For his part, Tharpe admitted visiting the massage parlor operated by Bailey at 312 Biggs Drive. However, the 67-year-old Tharpe told this reporter he visited Biggs Drive for legitimate massages on his aging and aching body. Tharpe lost a November 2019 special election attempt to regain his mayoral seat in a two-way race with Councilman and former Mayor Eugene Tewalt.

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Winchester prosecutor’s office responds to Downes press release

He’s back: Hollis Tharpe’s solicitation charge dropped – will run for mayor