Business and Advertising

Our view: Sex-for-hire is crime by any name.
Her accomplice, Anthony Gorgoglione Jr. of Millbury, took pictures of the girls wearing lingerie and posted them on a Web site used to advertise the business. Halstrom took $100 from each of the $300 appointments as her share.

The jury in Lawrence Superior Court found Halstrom guilty on three counts of inducing a minor into prostitution and three counts of deriving support from a child prostitute. She faces a sentence of five years to life in prison.

Gorgoglione was also found guilty on two charges of inducing a minor into prostitution.

Lawyers for both defendants say they will appeal.

Defense attorneys argued that the girls were minors in age only, that they were living independently and made their own choices about their lives.

But child abuse statutes and other laws that treat minors differently from adults recognize that children do not make rational, responsible choices.more