Navy-officer call girl was $300,000 in debt

A divorced Navy officer who testified this week that she moonlighted for an alleged prostitution ring while stationed at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., was nearly $300,000 in debt at the time despite a Navy income of more than $93,000, court records show.

Lt. Cmdr. Rebecca Dickinson, 38, owed more than $58,000 on 20 credit cards and $177,000 in three mortgages on a house in Georgia, according to records from a bankruptcy filing in December 2006. She also reported spending $700 a month on travel to see her three children, who reportedly live with their father in Georgia.

The records offer clues as to why a decorated Navy officer would turn to work as a call girl, even with an income that reached nearly $100,000 a year at one point.

Dickinson, a supply officer, managed food services at the Naval Academy from September 2004 to May 2007, a Navy spokesman said. She also taught a leadership course in the leadership, ethics and law department.

But on the side she visited the homes of white-collar clients of an escort service, charging $275 for 90-minute appointments, which typically involved sex, she testified this week. She said she worked with the name Renee and kept $130 for herself and sent $145 to the escort service's owner.

The service, Pamela Martin & Associates, was allegedly run by Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the so-called "D.C. Madam," who is being tried in U.S. District Court in Washington.

Palfrey, who allegedly ran the business by telephone from her home in Northern California, gave interviews before her trial and was quoted by The Navy Times as describing Dickinson as "very pleasant, very nice."

In court, Dickinson acknowledged that money and marital problems led her to moonlight as a prostitute for the rich and powerful of Washington.

"I needed the money, yes I did," said Dickinson, a divorced mother of three who two years ago stopped working for the prostitution ring and filed for bankruptcy.

Asked why she walked away from prostitution, Dickinson replied: "It was getting hard to do. I didn't like it."

There is no accusation Dickinson was hired for prostitution by any of the best-known clients of Palfrey, 52.

The client list included Sen. David Vitter, R-La.; Randall Tobias, who stepped down as deputy secretary of state after his links to the ring were exposed; and Harlan Ullman, the military-affairs scholar who created the Pentagon's concept known as "shock and awe."
None of those men has testified.

Dickinson, now stationed at the Naval Supply Corps School in Athens, Ga., has been relieved of her duties and placed on leave, a Navy spokesman said. Her current pay grade, with housing allowance, is $93,897.

Because she testified under grant of immunity, she effectively cannot be court-martialed or prosecuted for federal crimes relating to the case, said the spokesman, Capt. Jack Hanzlik. The Navy is considering administrative punishment, which could include an other-than-honorable discharge and a "substantial" loss of retirement benefits, Hanzlik said.

Dickinson joined the military in 1986. She has been awarded two Navy/Marine Corps Commendation medals.