Accused Sex-for-Tickets Wife Cries Foul

Charged with Promoting Prostitution in Try for World Series Ducats, Susan Finkelstein Insists She Intended to Pay $$ for Them

(CBS/ AP)  The Philadelphia woman charged with offering sex in exchange for tickets to the World Series contends police are swinging and missing.

Susan Finkelstein, a 43-year-old University of Pennsylvania graduate student, says she wanted to take her husband to a game between her beloved Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees.

She says she was simply trying to score tickets online, as she had in the past, so she put an ad in Craigslist. The ad had some apparent double entendres. It described, in part, a "gorgeous, tall, buxom blonde ... in desperate need" of the tickets.

"I wanted to get Series tickets I could afford," she told "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith Friday. " ... I work in communications and PR (public relations). ... I wanted my ad to stand out" among ones soliciting customers for merchandise ... (do) why not make it fun and witty?"

An undercover police officer responded to the ad, and met Finkelstein at a bar in suburban Bensalem, Pa. She says she told him she needed two tickets, one for herself and one for her husband. "I wanted to negotiate prices" for the tickets, she told Smith. " ... I have pretty good negotiating skills."

PICTURES: Sex For Series

More on Finkelstein, on Crimesider

October 29, 2009 - EXCLUSIVE: Susan Finkelstein, Alleged Sex-for-Series Wife, Says "No Such Thing as a Free Ticket"
October 29, 2009 - Susan Finkelstein, "Sex for Series" Wife, Says She's Happily Married (Pics)
October 28, 2009 - Susan Finkelstein Pics: Did She Really Offer Sex for World Series Tickets?
October 28, 2009 - Susan Finkelstein, Woman Accused of Offering Sex for Tickets, May Go to World Series After All
October 28, 2009 - Susan Finkelstein Sex for Series? Lawyer Says Tickets Were For Husband
October 27, 2009 - Susan Finkelstein Offered Sex for World Series Tickets, Say Cops

Finkelstein and her lawyer, William J. Brennan, say no price had been discussed before several officers sitting at a nearby table came to arrest her. She and Brennan stopped short of recounting specifics of what else was said at the table.

Brennan hopes to get the misdemeanor charge count against Finkelstein dismissed.

"If somebody read into that posting a sexual connotation, that's on them. There's no overt sexual reference," Brennan said.

Finkelstein didn't put the ad in any of the Craigslist categories in which people seek each other out for sexual encounters, Brennan pointed out to Smith. "This case would be so much different if it was in a different section, if she met him in a motel, if there was physical contact. ... She lives and dies with the Phils. (It was an) innocuous posting. (They met in) a public place. No money exchanged. No physical contact," and an ad with "no smoking gun."

Finkelstein faces a preliminary hearing in Bucks County on Dec. 3. On the bright side, she's been offered a pair of tickets to a weekend game in Philadelphia, courtesy of a radio station and car dealer.

"It definitely wasn't worth all this ... turmoil and anxiety," she told the AP with her lawyer and husband, 56-year-old John LaVoy, on the line. "Hopefully, the silver lining is I do get to see the game."


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[3busyboys]

What a two bit wh- - -! Her husband selling her out as well - what a pig - they should both be charged. Also, shame on Harry Smith for laughing during the entire interview Fri. morning and shame on the pathetic radio station that gave her what she wanted! Fine examples for the children in their lives and all of our children as well. Hope they enjoy the game Sat. evening!

[voxpopulus]

Shame on you and the cops who have such one-track minds. It ain't nobody's business but theirs.

[bradkt1]

I think that all of you should leave "Phiily's Sweetheart" alone.

Shame on those dirty old cops...pestering that poor, innocent woman for sex.

Er....Susan, how much would you like to go to a Phillies game with me?

[mecanik-2009]

I use to work as a police officer and in my opinion they don't have a case yet. If no price was mentioned and no sex was discussed this is a dead case. I think they were too quick at the trigger on this one and didn't wait long enough to get her to say the right words. Now if they had caught them in the room taking off their clothes I would say yep! she's soliciting. But in this case, too bad guys. Don't be so quick at the trigger.

[darwufche]

13 year difference makes a ***** gal do what a ***** gal's gotta do!

[wonkguy]

Is this lady joking? The nation being hit by swine flu is not the same thing as pigs flying. She was offering sex for the tickets, period, end of story.

[Dwagnfly]

She was clearly, just flirting. Geez, some guys need to get over themselves. They think everything a woman says is an offer of sex.

[nowhiningallowed]

How ignorant could this supposed PR and writer person have been to think that the wording she used, soliciting, wouldn't be considered just that? Her lame excuses, her lame husband and her lame attorney are all a brain trust waiting to happen. It doesn't matter which section of Craigslist she placed her solicitation ad in. I hope she gets a criminal record for this just because of her idiocy.

[nowhiningallowed]

...she offered prostitution, which is still illegal, in exchange for the tickets...what she did was illegal...

[toldyouso21]

If they don't have a tape of her, deliberately offering **** for money or for a swap--and this does not mean her on tape saying she would "give anything and I mean, anything for tickets" but explicitly describes certain acts for tickets...then the prosecution has nothing. I heard Philly is a pretty violent place--maybe these same law enforcement people could focus on all of the violence, gang murders etc in their city and less on what one woman who wants Philly tickets will or will not do to get them--because after they nab her or don't it will not matter one wit to the safety and security of their city...
If the DA and the cops in Philly don't get perspective, they are doomed to be the butt of jokes and not respected by Philadelphians as well as the rest of the country. I mean really--with murders and drug deals and corruption galore in Philly--and they focus on a woman who says she will do anything for tickets--THAT has got to take the cake for having skewed priorities--by both the woman and the cops.

[3busyboys]

Have to agree with you - what idiots - they all deserve a misdemeanor!

[LOOSEYGOOSEY1]

Mr. Finkelstein is hotter than July in Georgia. The wild hair, the puppy dog eyes, that bewildered look. Wow. If they divorce over this, I'm gonna be on him like white on rice.

[mtcolquitt]

She's lying. When you advertise "Buxom Blonde", that meant one thing and one thing only!
Maybe her husband would let her work in the local "Shakie Booty Club" and in one night, she could afford the tickets!!
Busted!

[mikeyman0408]

Who cares about entrapment. The woman ought to be sent to prison for marrying a dork named Finkelstein. Did they just yank that guy out of bed and prop him up on the couch.

[hologram5]

Sounds like a classic case of entrapment. Which if I remember correctly is illegal in the US. Typical though. Entrap someone, get away with it. Organized mafia attitude.

[mikeyman0408]

What's up with her husband, man? That dude looks like a Finkelstein.

[inketolstoy]

She would have had more luck going to the Philly Acorn office. They might not have been able to get her world series tickests, but they could have given her tax advice.

[AttentionDeficit]

bringing politics into this for what reason? oh yeah, just a shot...

[valopinion]

you would think that a DIE HARD Phillies fan of THIS MAGNITUDE would have season tickets.

[get_down]

It boils down to whom one believes ? this woman ? a.k.a. Susan Finkelstein, 43 intended to Pay $$ for a couple of tickets to the World Series or the law who caught her in the act of offering sex in exchange for those tickets. Hummmm, based on what I?ve read so far ? I?m on the law?s side. She?s very deceptive to say the least. I don?t trust liar.

[candide08]

Don't the polics have BETTER things to do?

Really, this is a huge waste of time and money - OUR TAX dollars.

Hey undercover cop - go catch a violent criminal.