King County Sheriff's Deputy Accused Of Protecting Prostitution Ring

By Michelle Esteban

Summary

Prosecutors say deputy Dan Ring used his job to keep an on-line escort service in business.

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Story Published: Feb 25, 2005 at 2:04 PM PST

Story Updated: Aug 31, 2006 at 12:52 AM PST

King County Sheriff's Deputy Accused Of Protecting Prostitution Ring
KING COUNTY - A King County Sheriff's deputy is accused of protecting a prostitution ring.

Prosecutors say deputy Dan Ring used his job to keep an on-line escort service in business.

The first time we reported on King County Deputy Dan Ring, he was in court accused of stealing thousands of dollars from an elderly man, and charged with stalking his ex-wife. That was last year.

Now, prosecutors say the 26-year police veteran used his badge to protect the "Garden of Eden," a now-defunct escort service that police say was a blatant front for prostitution.

"High class expensive hookers is what it boiled down to," King County Sheriff's spokesman John Urquhart told KOMO 4 News when deputies busted the operators -- a mother daughter team -- back in December of 2003.

Now they've learned one of their own, Dan Ring, is accused of protecting that alleged prostitution ring.

Here's how:

In court documents, prosecutors say Ring gave the escort operators tips on 'how not to get caught', specifically advising them to stop advertising out of state escorts for sex. He said if caught, "it's a big federal crime."

In those documents, Ring also insisted they never talk about money for sex, knowing that without that, cops can't arrest them.

Ring is even accused of revealing undercover cops to the owner and tipping her off to escorts working as informants.

We wanted to talk to Dan Ring -- he's on administrative leave while he awaits trial -- but I was told there would be no comment while the matter is under investigation, and it could be a while.

After all, it's been more than a year since police busted The Garden of Eden Escort Service.

They confiscated an electronic black book with addresses of hundreds of Puget Sound executives, credit card numbers and e-mail addresses.

Prosecutors allege Ring also used a database at the Sheriff's department to do illegal background checks for the escort service.

Court documents also say Ring harassed his ex-wife for years. In fact, over a one year period, prosecutors says he tapped into a law enforcement database 1,000 times, and more than 500 of those searches are connected to his ex- wife.