While visiting Spokane to attend a Republican conclave in October, two-term state Rep. Richard Curtis took himself out for a night on the town. He made his way to an adult video store that had cubicles in the back where men were known to have sex. Many people would later recall him quite distinctly because he was the only person there dressed in women’s lingerie.
For Curtis, a proclaimer of family values who has voted against domestic partnerships for gays and opposed a bill that banned discrimination of gays — and who is 48 and married (to a woman) — partying at the video store arcade should have been enough excitement for one night.
But it wasn’t. Still clad in drag under his street clothes, Curtis stopped by the casino for a few hours. At about 3:30 a.m. he returned to his hotel — the swanky Davenport, where taxpayers were picking up his tab — with a new acquaintance in tow, Cody “the Stallion” Castagna, a professional escort.
Curtis and Castagna disagreed later about what transpired in room 968 at the Davenport in the wee hours that morning. Butaccording to the police report, Curtis admitted that he gave Castagna $100 and then had sex with him but insisted that the money wasn’t a fee for sex but just a gift “to help him out.”
According to Castagna, however, later in the evening Curtis asked for services not covered by the original “gift,” services that would cost $1,000. Castagna agreed to the new offer but then proceeded to break the first rule of whoredom: He failed to secure the fee before he provided the services.
After the next round of sex, Curtis apparently passed out cold. Castagna says that he was unable to wake Curtis and so took photos of the naked, sleeping Republican legislator as evidence of their encounter. He also took Curtis’ wallet.
When Curtis came to and found his wallet missing, he called the police and accused Castagna of extortion. During the investigation by police, Curtis’ room was searched and several interesting items were found, according to the officer who collected the evidence:
I saw a plastic sack which contained a light grey length of nylon rope, a plastic doctor’s stethoscope, and other items I could not immediately identify. Curtis told me they had nothing to do with the sex act and that the suspect had not handled them. Curtis said he did not want to show me those items in the sack.
As Pokey Anderson, writing at The BRAD BLOG, put it: Who says lawmakers can’t act quickly?
Republican leaders in Washington State moved rapidly to contain the scandal. Rep. Curtis submitted a resignation letter to Washington’s governor effective immediately (blaming “events that have recently come to light” as having “hurt a lot of people”). Curtis’ name was removed from the statehouse GOP web site within hours of his announced resignation. A Republican will be appointed to replace him in the legislature.
Earlier this month, police announced that they are pursuing extortion charges against the Stallion. Castagna’s attorney is outraged, saying his client may be a prostitute but he is not an extortionist.
