Monday, June 9, 1997 | 6:17 a.m.
A Los Angeles woman, labeled by Metro Police vice officers as a Heidi Fleiss-level madam, has received a $4,000 fine for her role in organizing a high-roller party at the MGM Grand.
Some of the 10 women brought to Las Vegas were, in fact, leftovers from the infamous Hollywood madam's toppled empire of high-priced call girls.
A few pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts while charges were dismissed for others, and a couple simply vanished into the seamy world of prostitution.
Actually, according to Deputy District Attorney Bill Hehn, they all had vanished when it was time for them to come to court and name 24-year-old Perla Ferrer as the madam du jour, as they had in police statements.
Hehn said he did what he could -- kept his mouth shut about the vanishing vixens and plea bargained the case for what he could get.
Ferrer, represented by attorney John Momot, pleaded guilty last week to two gross misdemeanor counts of conspiring to live off the earnings of a prostitute, with a guarantee of no jail time and no probation.
Ferrer's $4,000 fine, less than some of the hookers were charging the purported MGM Grand high-rollers for a one-night "date," admittedly was a light penalty, but Hehn said it was better than nothing.
"I needed the women to prove she was living off the earnings of a prostitute," the prosecutor said. "I didn't have strong evidence without them. I couldn't prove the case."
"Those women were around," Momot said of the missing witnesses. "If they weren't, I would have known.
"I had a great client and we were able to work out a successful negotiation, taking four felonies down to two gross misdemeanors. Now she can get on with her life."
The saga began in 1995 when Los Angeles vice officers took down Fleiss' exclusive call girl operation that catered to Hollywood stars as well as other monied moguls.
With Fleiss out of action, the Fleiss-ettes -- including one 1995 Playboy magazine playmate -- took their show on the road for a stopover in Las Vegas.
But their high-roller party at the MGM Grand in October 1995 was a bust -- literally.
The big-money gamblers turned out to be Metro vice officers who were carrying out the final stage of an operation begun by their counterparts in the Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles sheriff's office.
Then-Metro vice Lt. Bill Young said at the time that of the 10 "Heidi Fleiss leftovers" arrested, several had been witnesses in Fleiss' pandering trial, which had resulted in a felony conviction and prison term for the madam.
One of those who came to Las Vegas on the sex junket was a Charlie Sheen favorite, police said. The actor has admitted spending more than $50,000 in one year in Fleiss' operation.
In Las Vegas, the women in their early 20s were demanding up to $5,000 a "date" from the men they believed to be high-rollers but actually were undercover detectives.
After the arrests, all but Ferrer bailed out of jail. The Los Angeles woman that Young said is a "Heidi Fleiss-level ... ringleader" was held on four felony counts and a fugitive warrant from California in a pandering case.
Momot disputed the claim that Ferrer was near that level and he said he believes the California charges eventually were dismissed.
But Young suggested that Ferrer's Las Vegas foray into madam-dom was not her first.
"You can tell she was well connected," he said after the arrests.
Young recalled that one of the first things Ferrer did at the Metro party was to call a host at another Strip casino "to do some entertaining business."
"Ferrar is a pretty free-wheeling person in Los Angeles whose business is entertaining high-rolling clients," said the longtime vice lieutenant who has since been moved to another assignment. "Her business is supplying those type people with women."
Young had alleged that Ferrar also was "involved with drug dealers" because some drugs were recovered in the MGM Grand operation.
While the Playboy playmate traveled to Las Vegas with the troupe, she never was arrested.
Young explained that she and her 2-year-old child became sick on the flight to Las Vegas and the woman, whose name was not released, didn't attend the party.
Young never gave specifics about how California authorities set up the Las Vegas party, indicating only that Metro vice officers primarily were pressed into service to play the roles of high-rollers.
"They came to a party thinking they were partying with seven or eight high-rollers," he explained. "We flashed money. We looked like we met their expectations."
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