Madam I Am

Naturally, all of the 14,000 clients Keavy's agency had recorded since as early as 1992 had a story.

Notes in his file at the agency describe Bruce Jacobsen as "a sweetie." Jacobsen ended up telling a grand jury how he came to be a client:

"Well, leading up to it, in '94 my wife passed away from cancer and so after that [was] three years of pretty depressed and lonely. And in '96 my father passed away, and early '97 I got a little inheritance, and I had a little money, and I just was very lonely and wanted some friendship."

His first date with an escort was in July 1997.
"Primarily I spent the evening telling her about my wife and my life and my kids and what had happened and what I'd been through, and she was very sympathetic and ended up giving me lots of hugs, and being very sympathetic, and kisses. And thinking back, I think we did actually go to bed before she left. It wasn't very productive."

During the next year, Jacobsen used the service about 100 times, spending nearly $30,000.

"Sometimes we would just go out to lunch and talk, the ones that I got to know better, and sometimes out to dinner. A couple of times I took different ones over to spend two or three hours at Pier 39 in the afternoon, going to lunch and on the turbo ride. Just walking around, you know, just holding hands and people-watching and talking to them. It wasn't always, you know, just pure sex."

"[P]robably 80 to 90 percent of the time it was."
Jacobsen was a frequent customer, but not by any stretch the biggest spender. Other clients spent upward of $50,000 in less than two years.

Mark Stadler became acquainted with Keavy in 1994, back when she was still seeing clients herself.

"Frankly, I guess it was pretty embarrassing altogether but I tend to have, I tend to be pretty shy so I don't really meet a lot of people and I have a lot of pressure at work and so I really haven't had much going in the way of relationships," he testified before the grand jury. "And, you know, basically I was, initially was, you know, looking for some company and that's basically how it started."

Stadler, a computer engineer, used the agency about 30 times. And he'd ask for Keavy whenever he called to book another escort. "She was the only one I felt comfortable talking to, so for the most part, I don't really remember anyone else."

Stadler saw a number of different escorts during the four years before the agency was shut down in June. The evenings always started with money, and the vast majority of the time, they ended in sex.

In April 1998, a man named Daniel called for an escort, more specifically, an Asian woman, to come to his hotel room in San Jose. Keavy took the call, and told the client that the price, $350, was all-inclusive. It was agreed that she would send an escort named Gina.

When she arrived, Gina collected payment, by credit card, and called the agency to check in. Daniel and Gina talked for a few minutes, and Daniel said that he was interested in straight and oral sex. Gina disrobed and walked over to the bed. Daniel asked if she had a condom, and Gina produced one from her purse. Suddenly, the phone rang. Daniel appeared to have a heated conversation with someone, and then told Gina that his girlfriend was in the lobby. Gina got dressed and scooted out of the hotel room. She was worried about the girlfriend. Gina didn't know she'd just made the acquaintance of an undercover cop.

If Raeshel Keavy's adherence to structure and procedure seemed tedious, the reward was well worth the effort. Keavy made a lot of money. But it was the kind of business a smart owner had to baby-sit. And Keavy worked nearly every day, constantly in touch with what was going on.

She seemed to have a limited personal life, and few friends who were not connected to the escort agency. Nonetheless, Keavy enjoyed the luxury and image of a wealthy business owner, and wore it with the understatement of a woman secure in that role. She shopped at Union Square boutiques, wore expensive clothing, and drove a brand-new silver BMW 538i. She carried a cell phone and a laptop computer. Keavy traveled to Europe and the Bahamas, dined in fine restaurants, and took weekend trips to ski resorts and Las Vegas. In short, Keavy had a lot of cash to spend. And, apparently, she also invested wisely.

Police seized about $250,000 from her home and accounts at Morgan Stanley Dean Whitter & Co., Washington Mutual, Bank of America, and Great Western Savings. They found more than $57,000 of that divided into envelopes that were bundled together in a Louis Vuitton bag in her house. Police also seized $25,000 in a stock account, which Keavy is fighting in court to have returned. The money, she argues, did not come from her illegal business operation, though Keavy has no other apparent source of income.