1 prostitution charge dropped against Phillies fan

Susan Finkelstein, the Phillies fan who allegedly offered sex to an undercover Bensalem police officer in exchange for 2009 World Series tickets, no longer faces a charge of "promoting prostitution."

Bucks County prosecutors withdrew that charge yesterday.

Although Finkelstein will still be tried for prostitution on Feb. 24, her lawyer, William J. Brennan, said both he and his client are "ecstatic" because "promoting prostitution is a charge you could go to jail for, but a prostitution charge is one step above a traffic ticket.

"It's like a charge of moping with the intent to gawk," Brennan said. "It's the difference between getting caught with a nickel bag of pot in your pocket or a pound in your trunk. The pound makes you a dealer; the nickel bag doesn't."

Brennan said "promoting prostitution" is commonly called "the pimp statute" and is appropriate "if you run a massage parlor."

"She's not running a prostitution ring," he said. "If two people meet in a bar and have a conversation that's sexually explicit, that's not a crime. I mean, if that's a crime, then every guy who ever bought a girl a Cosmopolitan . . . "