Eastside 911 dispatcher latest charged in ‘League’ sex sting Investigators claim Edmonds man detailed his sexual experiences with prostitutes on TheReviewBoard.net

TheReviewBoard.net, as it appears today. Law enforcement seized the Washington-based prostitution fan site in January, closing it and arresting more than a dozen people alleged to be associated with it. TheReviewBoard.net, as it appears today. Law enforcement seized the Washington-based prostitution fan site in January, closing it and arresting more than a dozen people alleged to be associated with it. Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Eastside 911 dispatcher latest charged in ‘League’ sex sting 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

A Bellevue-based 911 dispatcher has been charged while an investigation into "The Review Board" prostitute rating site rolls on.

King County prosecutors contend NORCOM dispatcher Phillip “Skip” Dehennis was an active member of the website, which was shuttered in January following a lengthy police investigation. More than a dozen men have been charged with crimes related to the more than 13-year-old site.

Writing the court, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Val Richey said Dehennis, a 48-year-old Edmonds man, wrote long, graphic reviews of his experiences with prostitutes in the Seattle area.

As a 911 dispatcher, Dehennis should’ve been more committed than most to following the law, Richey said.

“Instead, he betrayed those principles by participating in criminal activity involving vulnerable and marginalized persons in the community,” the prosecutor said in court papers.

Boasting more than 23,000 members, TheReviewBoard.net had been well-known in the Seattle area for more than a decade when a multi-jurisdictional team of investigators seized and closed it in January. King County Sheriff John Urquhart called the site “Backpage on steroids,” comparing it to a classified advertising service notorious for accepting ads offering the services of prostituted children.

Investigators contend hundreds of women brought to the United States to work as prostitutes were being advertised through The Review Board and its sister sites. Many were working out of luxury apartments in Bellevue that had been quietly converted into brothels.

The January bust drew criticism in some circles, including from advocates for the decriminalization of prostitution. Savannah Sly, board president of the American branch of Sex Workers Out Reach Projects, argued that closing the website endangers sex workers.

“It disrupts communities,” Sly said in a statement. “It increases the marginalization of an already marginalized group. And it doesn’t stop trafficking.”

Investigators targeted a group of Review Board members who called themselves "The League." The men met at restaurants and bars to discuss brothels, prostitutes and how to dodge police.

But detectives appear to have been most interested in the board’s founder and chief booster, “Tahoe Ted” – since identified as Sigurds Zitars.

Speaking in 2008, “Tahoe Ted” bragged to Seattle Metropolitan magazine that few of the men who use The Review Board while buying sex get “ripped off.” A Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist praised “Tahoe Ted’s” site thusly: “For the loveless, the lonely and the ladies, TRB isn't just an answer -- it's an online family.”

According to court papers, a King County Sheriff’s Office detective was working to unmask “Tahoe Ted” eight years ago, even as Urquhart, then a spokesman for the office, told the P-I that police had more pressing vice concerns than The Review Board.

The detective posted fake reviews, asked other members for tips and got himself invited to “meet and greet” parties where men were introduced to sex workers, according to court papers. The detective first attended a party in January 2008, at a South Lake Union bistro that has since closed, and went to several more in the years since.

Investigators were able to photograph several members of “The League” during a June meet-up at The Taphouse bar in Bellevue. According to court papers, Zitars was subsequently identified as “Tahoe Ted.”

Zitars, a University Place resident, is alleged to have solicited donations at the parties while complaining about Department of Justice grants targeting human trafficking. According to court papers, he blamed “that (expletive) Obama” for the efforts and said the women brought to the country to work as prostitutes were being painted unfairly as victims.

As investigators describe them, those involved in the ad hoc brothels were indeed victims.

Most of the women working for the seven “agencies” targeted by investigators were taken from the airport directly to the apartment where they were expected to work, a Bellevue Police Department detective said in charging papers. The agencies provided the women with everything from condoms to customers, who found the women through The Review Board and other sites.

“The women are advertised as available 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week,” the detective told the court. “The prostituted people are typically foreign nationals who are trafficked from major city to major city so that there are always new workers and new ‘experiences’ for the agencies to advertise in order to meet the ever-growing online demand for commercial sex.”

Richey, the lead prosecutor in the investigation, described Zitars and the other men as holding an “obsession with sexual exploitation.” That fixation has fostered a market for prostitution, he continued, and helped to encourage the growth of brothels staffed by South Korean women who have been coerced into prostitution.

“These brothels serve as part of a national pipeline that transports exploited women around the country for use in prostitution,” the prosecutor told the court.

Dehennis helped in that network of exploitation, Richey continued, while working in law enforcement.

According to charging papers, Dehennis had been involved in The Review Board for at least five years prior to his arrest in February. Dehennis is alleged to have identified himself by name to the site and described his work at NORCOM, which provides 911 services to Bellevue, Mercer Island, Kirkland and the surrounding communities.

“I also work as a 911 dispatcher and tend to carry a lot of the stress (of) the job with me since it isn’t easy to share at home,” Dehennis said on The Review Board, according to charging papers.

Police arrested Dehennis in February. According to charging papers, he admitted to using The Review Board, comparing it to Yelp.com.

Dehennis has been charged with second-degree promoting prostitution, a felony sex offense. He has not been jailed in the matter.

Similar charges are outstanding against Zitars and 13 others accused of using The Review Board or operating brothels.

Anyone wishing to contact law enforcement with information on The Review Board can do so by emailing Trafficking@kingcounty.gov.

Seattlepi.com reporter Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 or levipulkkinen@seattlepi.com. Follow Levi on Twitter at twitter.com/levipulk.