You know how it goes, a wealthy 66 year old man meets a pretty 25 year old woman in a hotel bar in Las Vegas, one thing leads to another and they end up back in the hotel room together for a ‘private massage’.
Kenneth Harold was staying in the Wynn Hotel in Vegas when he met Christina Lafave and was quite taken by her massage skills, being willing to pay up to $300 to test them out. But he didn’t quite get his money’s worth when he realised at around 3am that he was missing his prized $35,000 Rolex Presidential. He immediately called hotel security and accused Lafave of snatching the watch, a charge which initially she denied.
The room was searched by police and Harold later explained that he had disrobed and removed his watch so that Lafave could rub down his arms. Within five minutes, the watch, which had been in his sight on the floor, had disappeared. Lafave eventually admitted to having stolen the watch and had concealed it in a rather unusual place: her vagina.
The woman was taken to the University Medical Center in order to extract the watch. She was then arrested upon charges of grand larceny and possession of stolen property, but later released on a $40,000 bail.
Despite the evidence all adding up, Lafave’s lawyer, Chris Rasmussen, is fighting the case based on an apparent illegal search-and-seizure. He stated:
“We intend to file a motion to suppress the medical intrusion. The search is an unreasonable search when medical providers have to use equipment to conduct an invasive procedure to remove what police believe is evidence. We believe he gave her the watch and later he tried to take it back when he wasn’t satisfied with her services. Like any person who works in these hotels, she believed she was going to be compensated for her massage.”
