by Patrick H. Moore
Although Heidi Fliess made a great deal of money operating her high end Hollywood call girl service in the late 1980′s and early 1990′s, it all came crashing down when she was arrested in a law enforcement sting in 1993. She was eventually sentenced to 37 months in Federal prison. Since then, she has had her ups and downs and is thought to have spent several years fighting a methamphetamine addiction. In recent years, she has “taken her stand” in Pahrump, Nevada where she has lived in seclusion for the most part. Instead of people, her everyday companions have been her splendid collection of exotic birds. These birds appear to have saved her from being hauled off to jail on Tuesday when she was cited for growing 392 marijuana plants.
According to Nye County Sheriff Anthony De Meo, the deputy did not arrest Fleiss because she had exotic birds valued at more than $200,000:
“We don’t have facilities for exotic birds, and they are pretty rare and very expensive.”
Instead, the authorities said they sent their report to the district attorney for charges to be filed.
This is how the discovery occurred:
A deputy went to Ms. Fliess’ home on Wednesday, August 7th, looking for another woman wanted on an arrest warrant. When the officer arrived, the front door was open and no one responded to his knock. He then went around to the rear of the main residence and spied some of the plants.
The officers then encountered Fleiss, who allegedly gave them consent to search another part of her property. Ms. Fleiss told detectives she was growing the plants to sell to a cooperative in Las Vegas, which is about 55 miles east of Pahrump.
“Ms. Fleiss could not produce the necessary documentation to support this. Later she admitted, in a roundabout way, that she was going to get a license because she did not have one.”
The officers stated that another factor in not arresting Fleiss — in addition to her exotic bird collection — was her consent to a search without a warrant and the fact that she was quite cooperative.
It was a pretty good plant hauling totaling 392 suspected marijuana plants.
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Although up to this point the Nevada authorities have bent over backwards to show Ms. Fleiss every consideration in this matter, this does not change the fact that this is a serious matter. She can only hope that the Feds don’t decide to take over this case to make an example of her. As a repeat offender; i.e., someone with a prior felony conviction, she would not be eligible for the “Safety Valve,” a federal mechanism through which federal drug traffickers avoid mandatory minimum sentences. Therefore, under Federal law, she would be looking at A MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCE OF 5 YEARS IN PRISON. This would be completely disastrous for this 48 year old woman.
Although the attorney general, Eric Holder, stated recently at a press conference that it is his intention for U.S. Attorneys to avoid mandatory minimum sentences for low-level offenders through simply not entering the drug quantity into the record, this would probably not apply in Ms. Fleiss’ case. First of all, 392 plants would, in theory, translate into up to 400 pounds of marijuana, not a small amount. Furthermore, the quantity of plants has already been announced and would be hard to suppress the number even if the Federal authorities wanted to give Ms. Fleiss a break.
She can only hope that the Feds let this one pass and leave the matter in state hands. I’m not certain what sort of penalties she would be facing under Nevada state law, but I imagine it would be approximately one-half the time she would face under Federal jurisdiction.
Click here to view our earlier post on Heidi Fliess’ career as the Madam of Tinseltown:
The Strange Saga of Hollywood’s Famous Madam Heidi Fliess