Prostitution foe now faces similar charges
 

OKLAHOMA CITY - Brian Bates says he was so fed up with prostitutes and their customers cruising his working-class neighborhood in the mid-1990s that he picked up a video camera and started documenting their sex acts on tape.

Dubbed the "video vigilante," Bates soon made a splash on local TV and drew praise from police and prosecutors with his lurid, caught-in-the-act footage, which he posted on his Web site to embarrass the johns. The national media eventually took notice, and Bates was appearing regularly on programs such as "The Maury Povich Show."

But now Bates could be looking at prison himself.

Prosecutors say some of his footage was not a result of intrepid camera work. Instead, they say, he paid prostitutes to take their customers to locations where he could easily tape them.

He has been charged with pandering and aiding and abetting prostitution.

Bates and his attorney have denied the allegation and claim Bates ran afoul of the police and district attorney's office when he videotaped two white Oklahoma City police officers beating an unarmed black man with their batons during an arrest in 2002. At the time, District Attorney Wes Lane defended the officers and decided not to prosecute them, and Bates bitterly criticized him for that.

Lane, who is up for re-election in November, has disputed any suggestion he is out to get Bates. When the initial charges were filed a year and a half ago, the district attorney said he believed Bates had good intentions when he started the videotaping but crossed the line after getting a little taste of fame. He said Bates' video work had become "just this side of pornography."

Jay Trenary, a former assistant district attorney who resigned from Lane's office in April, said prosecuting Bates became a top priority for Lane.

"My personal opinion is that Brian Bates is being picked on," Trenary said. "Certainly more resources were devoted to his case than there were to other crimes going on at the time, and even more serious cases."

Bates said he earned $15,000 from his appearances on "Maury Povich" but makes nothing off the Web site and turned down a $250,000 offer from a production company that wanted to make a "Hookers Gone Wild" video.

Despite the pending charges, Bates continues to patrol the streets with his video camera, documenting prostitutes engaged in lewd acts with their customers.

"If I wanted to win a popularity contest, I'd save the whales or feed the children," he said. "I took on something that was controversial, and I enjoy it because I can literally do it by myself, and I can see results."