South Carolina’s Attorney General has been told he must halt threatened plans to prosecute the owners of Craigslist over prostitution adverts. The site has been granted a temporary restraining order against Henry McMaster.

McMaster had given the site a deadline to remove any section of its site which could be used for the promotion of prostitution. Craigslist has recently removed the erotic services section, commonly used for such purposes, and replaced it with an adult services category where all ads are pre-vetted. However, McMaster decided this was not enough and had begun a criminal investigation.

Craigslist filed a preemptive suit asking for declaratory relief – that is, a court ruling that its behavior in this area is legal, which would be a relatively iron-clad defense against prosecution. The district court judge who heard this claim is still deciding whether to grant this, but has put a block on McMaster launching a prosecution in the meantime.

There have been claims that Craigslist’s filing was done in an excessive manner for the sake of publicity. As well as naming the Attorney General, the filing also refers to the 16 solicitors, the senior prosecutors in each of the state’s judicial circuits.

One of those, Ed Clements, said the solicitors had not been involved in McMaster’s deadline. “Some sharp lawyer in Charleston decided he was gonna make a lot of money by suing all of the solicitors and we don’t like getting sued”

In an unconnected case, seven people from New York have been indicted over claims they ran a 24-hour escort service through Craigslist. Five defendants were charged in Queens with corruption, conspiracy and money laundering. The remaining two are at large and will be formally charged as and when they are found.

The group is alleged to have run a service known as Room Service Entertainment which placed ads in the now-removed erotic services category. They each face maximum sentences of 25 years if convicted.

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Entry was posted on Monday, May 25th, 2009 at 6:58 pm under Adult content, Advertising, Legal.

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