David Vitter Back In the News

A former New Orleans prostitute who claims David Vitter was a regular customer in 1999 says the soon-to-be congressman and U.S. senator was sometimes stressed during their meetings, complaining about "these damn politicians" trying to derail his political career.

In an interview and accompanying explicit photo spread for which she was paid by Hustler magazine, Wendy Yow Ellis reveals little new about the relationship with Vitter than what she divulged earlier this year after Vitter's name was connected to a Washington, D.C., call girl operation.

In the interview, which will appear in the magazine's January edition, Ellis said she got into the "escort service" business in New Orleans after being approached at a strip club by a man she identified only as Jonathan. She said she soon began seeing Vitter at a French Quarter apartment, almost always on Tuesdays and Thursdays and at times between the hours of 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., for several months. She suggested that Vitter, who was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1999, went to some lengths to keep the relationship secret.

"It was a rule that I could not wear any perfume, body lotions, not even take a shower," Ellis said. "Because he did not want any scent on him whatsoever. He would always come in, hang his jacket on the door, go into the bathroom and take a shower. He would come out with a towel wrapped around him and sit down on the bed. We'd talk. And then he'd do his business."

Ellis also said that "usually people would leave their condoms in the trash can," but Vitter would take his with him.

Vitter has acknowledged being a customer of Pamela Martin & Assoc., a D.C. escort service the Justice Department says was a prostitution ring. After his cell phone number was found in the service's records, Vitter confessed to committing a "very serious sin" and said he had sought forgiveness from God and his family.

Yow and Jeanette Maier, who has admitted to running a brothel on Canal Street, then said that Vitter had also used their services. Vitter has deflected questions about those allegations by saying, "those New Orleans stories" are not true.

Vitter did not respond Wednesday to questions about the Hustler interview.

Ellis gives some conflicting images of Vitter. At one point in the interview, Ellis, 34, says that after sex, Vitter would take a shower and then leave without saying goodbye.

But later in the interview, she says, that the Vitter told her he could trust her.

"He was personal that way. He'd say, 'This is my time with you. I don't want to spend my time anywhere else because I trust you. I know that I can come here because it's quiet and secluded.' And it was -- you had to go through several doors to get there. He would park a block away or have his driver drop him off. He was very quiet, very gentle. To me, he felt like a person who needed somebody just to be there."

Sometimes, Ellis told Hustler, she could sense that he was stressed. "He would talk about 'these damn politicians, they're trying to get me out of office.' He'd talk about Dave Treen, who was running against him" in a special election for Congress.

Vitter defeated fellow Republican Treen in a bitterly fought run-off election to succeed Rep. Bob Livingston, R-Metairie, in May 1999. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004.

Ellis repeated her earlier account of the day their relationship ended. Ellis said she asked him if he ever wanted to see her "privately," and gave him her phone number. "I wrote my name down and said my real name's Wendy. And he said, 'Oh, my God.'¤" That was the last time they met for sex, she said. Vitter's wife is named Wendy.

Before that, Ellis said, she had used the name Leah, although she also said she worked under the name Wendy Cortez.

Ellis, who Hustler says passed a lie detector test, said Vitter would still come watch her dance at a French Quarter strip club after their relationship ended. "He'd just sit there and look at me," Ellis told Hustler.

Ellis said she decided to go public because "they called me a lying whore on the front page of my hometown newspaper, where my daughter could read it."

Ellis repeated her view that Vitter should resign. "How can you talk about family values when you are continuously doing the same thing over and over again? Family values is, I believe in my marriage, I believe in my children. I believe in what I can give to my country through my marriage and family -- not my hookers on the side."