Eager to write stories about an alleged mother/daughter prostitution ring last month, the mainstream press either ignored or downplayed critical facts about the man who "tipped the police." This man's real motivation seems to be a crusade against his ex-girlfriend and her daughter. You remember the headlines: "Ex-boyfriend blew whistle in vice case" and "Two arrested for running high-end prostitution ring."
It turns out the whistle-blowing ex-boyfriend had not been--as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer wrote--simply running "a home-based marketing company." As The Stranger first reported a week after the daily headlines hit, the ex-boyfriend, Jeff Skinner, had run a stripper service himself, and the business was linked through websites and website registrations to his former girlfriend's alleged prostitution ring, the Garden of Eden ["A Closer Look," Josh Feit and Amy Jenniges, Dec 18]. Skinner proudly admits running a stripper service, but says his legal strip business was separate from Garden of Eden. More important to the full story about the Garden of Eden, though, is the fact that Skinner was the subject of domestic violence protection orders--approved on August 8 by Snohomish County Commissioner Arden Bedle--filed by Suzanne Dean and Jill Cassette, the mother and daughter that Skinner hung out to dry in the media. While the P-I breezily acknowledged that Dean had obtained protective orders against Skinner, the paper failed to elaborate. "The court finds there was an act of domestic violence sufficient to enter an order," Snohomish County Superior Court records say.
The media aren't the only ones who have ignored some apparent basics in this story. The King County Sheriff's Office, which seemed to act on Skinner's info to arrest Dean and Cassette and raid their homes on November 25, ignored an urgent October 22 letter from Dean's attorney, Lawrance Edwards. Citing the August 8 DV protection orders for Dean and Cassette, Edwards wrote to King County Detective Edward Draper: "I believe Mr. Skinner is a very dangerous individual and will stop at nothing to destroy Ms. Dean, and anyone who attempts to help her."
While Edwards' opinion is histrionic, public records do indicate that Skinner has a volatile past. On August 16, 2001, according to a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department report, Skinner was arguing with his parents while in a car, and ordered his mother to get out. She refused, and Skinner allegedly pushed her out. Skinner then ordered his father out of the car. Later, back at their apartment, Skinner punched his parents, who called the police. His parents later dropped charges.
One year later, on August 12, 2002, Suzanne Dean filled out a form at Snohomish County Superior Court seeking a domestic violence protection order. A day earlier, Skinner had backed her into a dresser in their bedroom and threatened to kill her, she says. "He called my daughter and told her, 'If you don't get your mother out of here, I'm going to kill her,'" Dean wrote. Dean later dropped efforts to get an order at that time because she was scared Skinner would hurt her, she says.
On July 24, 2003, Dean says she had an appointment to sign papers for a new home. When she looked for $7,000 her daughter had lent her for the move, it was missing. Dean called Cassette, who called the police and went to her mother's house. Dean claims in a court declaration, "[Later, when Skinner arrived], he charged at me and my daughter, and tried to grab my daughter. He then came after me and told me he was going to hurt me." In the same declaration, Dean wrote, "He has threatened to hurt my daughter and her family [if] she attempts to help me."
Just a few weeks later, on August 13, Dean--who already had the August 8 protection order against Skinner--says she received a phone call from Laura Olin at Harborview Medical Center, who told her Skinner was threatening to commit suicide. Dean refused to get involved. About an hour later, Olin reportedly called Dean again, and said Skinner had threatened to kill Dean. "She told me that [Skinner] planned on killing me first, then himself," Dean wrote in court documents. Dean called 911, and then left her house. Seattle police tracked down Skinner, and an ambulance took him to Harborview.
"That's the kind of shit that made me want to find my mother a hiding place," Cassette says. "If Snohomish and King County had done their job and protected us from this lunatic--that's the shit they should have investigated. Instead they raid my house."
Cassette, 31, who looks more like an overworked single mom than an Internet madam, moved to the Seattle area from Michigan in April 2000. She worked briefly at a car dealership in Marysville and was registered to start hairdressing school in Lynnwood this fall. Mostly, though, she was embroiled in her mother's stormy relationship with Skinner and was trying to help her mother break it off. "Jeff had been made well aware that I did not like him or the way he treated my mother," Cassette says. Relying on her child support payments and her fiancé, she says, she eventually loaned her mom $7,000 to move. "Jeff knew once I took my mother out of that situation that his meal ticket was gone," Cassette says. According to Cassette, Skinner took the $7,000 from Dean on July 24. Later that night, Skinner was arrested. The pair entered their temporary DV protection orders the following day.
Neither Dean nor Cassette have been charged with running a prostitution ring (both are still being investigated). Dean, 47, denies her "entertainment" business promoted prostitution, and Cassette says she has "nothing to do with the Garden of Eden." (The pair was released after spending one night in jail, driven in a bus in shackles to the King County Regional Justice Center in Kent.)
A spokesperson for Skinner's company flatly denied that his business involved prostitution--an accusation that a dancer on a job for Skinner in 2001 alluded to in our December 18 article, when she told us the job seemed like more than a strip show.
According to an e-mail that our stripper tipster forwarded to us, it appears that Skinner lashed out at her after that original story hit. In that e-mail, he allegedly wrote: "You can run--but you can't HIDE! Good things do come to those who wait... and I've waited a long time to find you!... IT'S PAYBACK TIME CUNT! I PROMISE YOU I WILL GET YOU BUSTED! I KNOW HOW TO SET YOU UP! AND YOU CAN EXPECT IT! GUARANTEED! IT'S DOOMS DAY FOR YOU TOO BITCH! Hee-hee-hee. Whaahoopah!"
The stripper was not surprised to get what appeared to be a threatening e-mail from Skinner. In fact, two years earlier, she says, Skinner sent e-mails threatening to undermine her custody battle by forwarding her website to her ex. "Oh, and I haven't forgotten about my intent to contact your 'Ex' about your... website," Skinner's e-mail--which the stripper provided to the Seattle Police Department in 2001--said. "I know he'll love the advantages it will provide him... when it comes to custody considerations of your kids. Mom's a call-girl." A representative for Skinner denied Skinner forwarded any website photos or got involved in the woman's custody battle. He did not deny that Skinner sent angry e-mails to the stripper in 2001, however, explaining that the woman owed Skinner money for the strip gig.
Interestingly, Cassette now accuses Skinner of exploiting custody rights to intimidate her today. Cassette's former in-laws say Skinner recently called them in Michigan to tell them that Cassette was involved in adult prostitution. "I received a call from a man named Jeff," Cassette's former aunt, Ruby Sindone, wrote in a statement supporting Cassette's unsuccessful December 2 effort at Snohomish County Superior Court to expand her protection order against Skinner. "During that call he stated... someone needed to get out to Seattle to take care of the children because Jill was involved in an adult escort service. He wanted Tony's [Cassette's ex-husband's] phone number." The Stranger contacted Tony Sindone, and he said Skinner had called his family. Tony Sindone has since taken Cassette's two junior-high-age children back to Michigan.
"Now, my kids are gone," Cassette says. "I had nothing to do with [the Garden of Eden] except trying to protect my mother from that lunatic. I have lost everything. There is nothing I haven't lost."
In response to our calls and e-mails requesting comment on all of these accusations, Skinner says he has been advised by the King County Prosecutor's Office "not to comment to any media on any further questions regarding any of the matters you have questioned me about." Skinner says he has moved out of state.
