FLORY: Faces 40 counts of promoting prostitution
Inside the classroom, it was all about physics. Outside, police say, it was all about getting physical.
A physics professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey was in jail in Albuquerque late Monday on charges that he was running a multistate, Internet-based prostitution ring that had more than 1,400 registered members and 40 prostitutes, according to court records.
David C. Flory, 68, faces 40 felony counts of promoting prostitution, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.
He was jailed at the Metropolitan Detention Center – where he was being held on a $100,000 cash or surety bond – following his arrest on Sunday evening, court and jail records state.
A months-long APD Vice Unit investigation resulted in the arrests of several prostitutes who were working for Flory’s “Southwest Companions” Internet ring, according to the complaint.
After confirming Flory’s identity, detectives traced him to a home he owns in Santa Fe last week, the complaint states. The detectives arrested him in Albuquerque on Sunday.
The complaint described Flory as the “coordinator of the physics department at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey” and says he was using his university email address to maintain the alleged prostitution site.
After becoming aware of the site, detectives learned that Southwest Companions had three levels of membership: “unverified,” with limited access; “verified,” in which two or more members essentially vouch for a newer member who can then access more of the site; and “trusted,” which gives a member the ability to view the whole site and send messages back and forth with other members and “providers.”
The site contained numerous checks to make sure prospective members were not law enforcement officers, according to the complaint. It also had a section where members could essentially “rate” their experiences with different prostitutes. Members used codes on the site to describe different sex acts.
Detectives were able to become “trusted” members of the site, then set up encounters with different prostitutes, the complaint states. Some of the women were arrested. Others agreed to cooperate with detectives.
Last week, detectives prepared search warrants for Flory’s homes in New York and Santa Fe, as well as his office at Fairleigh Dickinson in New Jersey, the complaint states.
The alleged prostitutes identified in the complaint are from Albuquerque, Colorado Springs and Cañon City, Colo., and Washington, D.C.
Detectives also identified several “johns” through the course of their investigation, according to the complaint.
Fairleigh Dickinson is a private college with an enrollment of 12,000 students and offers 100 degree programs.
According to its website, it “is a center of academic excellence dedicated to the preparation of world citizens through global education. The University strives to provide students with the multi-disciplinary, intercultural, and ethical understandings necessary to participate, lead, and prosper in the global marketplace of ideas, commerce and culture.”
According to personal website that appears to be Flory’s and can be reached from the Fairleigh Dickinson University website, Flory said he is married with two daughters and a stepdaughter and lives most of the year in New York City. He said his academic interests include elementary particle theory, relativistic quantum field theory and its implications for astronomy and cosmology, and prehistoric astronomy in the American Southwest. Flory said he has been on the faculty of Fairleigh Dickinson University since 1969 and a professor of Physics since 1980.
— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal
Photo Credit – Dean Hanson/Journal
Cutline – FLORY: Faces 40 counts of promoting prostitution
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