A Chicago madam who ran a West Side fetish business that hosted risque parties labeled “Halloween Mischief” and “Black Tie Bizarre” pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal prostitution charge.
Jessica Nesbitt, 35, who also goes by the name “Madame Priscilla Belle,” admitted in a plea agreement with prosecutors that she raked in more than $1 million in payments from clients over seven years through her business, Kink Extraordinaire.
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Nesbitt, who has been free on bond since 2019 and cares for a teenage son, faces up to five years in prison when she’s sentenced May 3, though her attorneys said she is also eligible for probation.
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“Ms. Nesbitt has accepted full responsibility for all of her deeds,” attorney Barry Sheppard said in the lobby of the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse. “She never attempted to shift the blame in anyone else’s direction. … She is a really smart woman and she’s a great mom.”
The guilty plea scuttles a trial set for later this year that certainly no one on her lengthy list of clients wanted to see.
Sheppard had previously said in court filings that Nesbitt’s client roster included many people in “positions of prestige in the community, including in law enforcement and government,” though he did not offer names.
Nesbitt was charged in a 13-count indictment unsealed in September 2019 with prostitution, conspiracy to commit prostitution and illegally structuring bank withdrawals to evade reporting requirements.
According to her plea agreement, from 2010 to 2017 Nesbitt placed ads on websites offering paid sex with her and at least five employees. She also emailed invitations to her clients for sex and fetish parties.
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Some of the acts of prostitution were carried out in Nesbitt’s condominium building in the 2400 block of West Augusta Boulevard. Nesbitt also arranged for her and her employees to perform sex acts in California, Washington D.C., Florida, Indiana, Nevada and Wisconsin, according to the plea.
Nesbitt herself charged clients from $300 to $1,000 for sex acts, depending on what was performed, Assistant U.S. Attorney Erika Csicsila said.
Federal prosecutors had been seeking forfeiture of Nesbitt’s building, a three-story brick residential condo building constructed in 2008, but in exchange for the guilty plea, a lien that had been placed on the property will be lifted once she pays a $194,600 forfeiture to the U.S. marshals office.
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Real estate records with the Cook County recorder of deeds’ office show Nesbitt bought the first-floor duplex for $370,000 in 2009 when she was just 21. She purchased the top-floor unit in 2015 for an additional $356,000, the records show.
At the time Nesbitt was indicted, an ad visible on the site Gentlemen’s Pages showed the rooms in the building each had been outfitted with different themes, including a dungeonlike room and a classroom “great for student/teacher role plays.”
Nesbitt also advertised on social media. “Follow us for day-to-day open kinky fun at our play space, birthday spankings, stories of erotica, holiday spice, and exclusive play party updates,” read one Twitter post from 2018.
