Insurance Official Acquitted in Brown U. Sex-for-Hire Ring

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — An insurance executive was acquitted today of charges he persuaded two Brown University students to become prostitutes by offering them money and hopes of modeling careers.

A Superior Court jury deliberated about eight hours over two days before finding Stanley E. Henshaw III, 45, guilty of possessing cocaine and marijuana. Defense attorney John F. Sheehan did not contest the two drug charges.

But the jurors acquitted Henshaw of seven felony counts stemming from the alleged sex-for-hire ring, which prosecutors said he organized and operated for himself and his business associates.

In closing arguments on Wednesday, Sheehan argued that the two young women had sex for money with Henshaw and his business associates as a lark.

He said Rebecca Kidd and Dana Smith, who both came from wealthy Connecticut suburbs, knowingly and willingly became prostitutes. “They did it because they liked it, and they did it as a lark,” Sheehan said.

But Assistant Atty. Gen. Robert Craven contended that Henshaw led them to that life with promises of money, modeling jobs and, in one case, a trust fund.

On Tuesday, the state’s seventh and final witness testified that Henshaw fixed him up with a Brown University woman who charged $130 each time they had sex.