Sacto 9-1-1
March 19, 2013
Placer County jury weighing pimping charges against Roseville couple

By Ed Fletcher
efletcher@sacbee.com

If you take Roseville contractor Steve Putnam at his word, he's just a guy who likes to date escorts and that in this case, his much younger live-in girlfriend -- Syla Debra Thongsy -- slipped back into prostitution.

Thongsy's lawyer isn't disputing the fact that over the summer of 2010 she was working as a prostitute, but the lawyers for both contend their clients were not pimping two teen runaways as the Placer County District Attorney's office is seeking to prove.

"She made poor choices, but she was not pimping," attorney Dionne Choyce told the jury Monday.

Tuesday, after closing arguments from the two defense attorneys and the county prosecutor, the case was handed to a Placer County jury.

Deliberations are expected to take several days. Putnam, 48, and Thongsy, 24, were arrested in Aug. 2010. Putnam and Thongsy are facing nine separate felony charges related to the pimping and pandering a pair of Sacramento teens, then 15- and 16-years old.

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