A woman who ran an escort service in Lansing — but was acquitted of sex trafficking underage girls — will spend at least five years in prison.
Amber Speed was convicted last month of running a criminal enterprise that prosecutors said involved online sex ads, some of which involved underage girls.
Speed originally faced nine charges, but jurors either could not reach a consensus or acquitted Speed on several of the charges; others were dropped by prosecutors because witnesses were unable to testify at the trial.
At a hearing Wednesday in Ingham County Circuit Court, Judge Joyce Draganchuk sentenced Speed to between five and 20 years in prison.
"She’s disappointed," said Patrick O'Keefe, Speed's attorney. "But the judge sentenced her within the sentencing guidelines, which started at 36 months and went up to 60 (on the low end of the sentence)."
O'Keefe said Speed, 41, has been taking classes for parenting, anger management and substance abuse.
"We had hoped for some other alternative forms of incarceration, and possible community programming to allow her to continue treatment," he said.
Attorney General Bill Schuette's office prosecuted the case.
“Today’s sentence brings this case to a close and takes a dangerous individual off the street,” he said in a statement after the hearing. “This case is a great example of how human trafficking education and awareness makes a difference. I want to thank the MSP Trooper for his diligence in this case.”
Michigan State Police Trooper Sam North testified at the trial that he identified Speed as a suspect during a separate 2016 prostitution investigation. Officials had said North attended training on how to spot human trafficking shortly before his investigation began.
In a recorded interview with police that was played on video during the trial, Speed admitted running an escort service for several years in the Lansing area but denied the women who worked for her sold sex.
The women stripped at bachelor parties and provided massages, she said.
Former Lansing band teacher Jeffrey Howenstine testified at the trial that Speed blackmailed him after he paid one of the victims for sex in 2014.
He estimated he paid Speed “at least $20,000” over two years.
Howenstine, 60, of Haslett, said he did not know at the time that the victim was younger than 18.
A once-popular teacher who led the Otto Middle School band to national prominence, Howenstine was sentenced last week to six months in jail after pleading guilty to one count of attempting to hire an underage girl for prostitution.
The victims in Howenstine's case are separate from the victims in Speed's case.
Officials have said Howenstine and Stuart Dunnings III, the former Ingham County prosecutor, were both clients of Tyrone Smith, a Lansing man serving a 25-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.
Dunnings was charged by Schuette's office with 15 prostitution-related crimes and ultimately pleaded guilty to one count each of misconduct in office, a felony, and engaging in the services of a prostitute, a misdemeanor.
He was released in September after serving 10 months in the Clinton County jail.
Contact Christopher Haxel at 517-377-1261 or chaxel@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisHaxel.
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