Sex, Cash and Veritas

The trouble all began for Benjamin Overton '77 last July. He and a friend were in Cambridge Common, sunning themselves and girl-watching, when a Radcliffe junior passed by, catching both the men's eyes.

According to Overton, the friend leaned over to him and said he knew the Radcliffe woman. "She says she needs money. Says she wants to be a prostitute," the friend said.

A query by Overton of the woman and a nod from her comfirming the rumor planted the seeds of an episode that so far has resulted in prostitution convictions for the Radcliffe woman and a Summer School woman studying dance, the resignation of a Buildings and Grounds supervisor, and several charges against Overton, including taking money from the earnings of a prostitute.

Now, in the aftermath of the summer arrests and trials, the two women have resumed their academic careers. The dance student is taking classes at New York University, and the Radcliffe student, who was fined $10 after having propositioned an undercover policeman, has returned to her premedical studies here.

The lives of two men, however, have not settled back to normalcy.

Julian Fredie, the former Buildings and Grounds administrator who was charged with threatening the Radcliffe woman, lost his $14,000-a-year job, and Overton says he may face expulsion from the University.

Fredie, whom the two women accused at a court hearing in August of working as a pimp, denied these charges in last Sunday's Herald Advertiser. He attributed the allegations to a lie he said he told the women.

"I was drunk at the time," Fredie told the Herald. "I did tell them I was a pimp. That was a lie. I lied about myself. It has ruined my whole life."

Cambridge police arrested Fredie in late July, after the Radcliffe woman turned him in. She told the police that he had threatened her.

Fredie was found guilty a week and a half later, and sentenced to thirty days in jail. Soon after the guilty verdict, Fredie resigned from his University post. He has appealed the charge.

For Overton, who says he acted only as the Radcliffe woman's "paralegal advisor"--by "protecting and showing her the ropes," he explained--what lies in the future is a lot less certain.

Overton, who was asked to take a year's leave of absence for unrelated academic reasons, said he will present his side of the prostitution scandal to the Administrative Board some time in the near future. Ad Board representatives refused to comment on the case last week.

However, a source close to the Ad Board said that although the board does not necessarily discipline a student if she or he does something illegal--the board did not take action during the '60s against draft evaders--it tends to take a jaundiced view of students who members of the board feel have "behaved without responsibility and maturity."

According to Overton's account, the Radcliffe woman spent several nights soliciting sex in Boston's Combat Zone--which were interrupted when she was arrested following the police propositioning. After that, Overton said, she became angry "because she thought she was not earning enough money on the job, and she blamed me."

He added that, on the advice of the Summer School woman, who was his friend and prostituting at higher prices, the Radcliffe woman decided to leave him and work for Fredie. B&G supervisor previously had offered to pimp for her, just as he had for the Summer School student, Overton said.

For the $30 Overton said he received in financial benefits for what started out as "a lark, a means of excitement and adventure," the career of the Harvard undergraduate may be drawing to a sudden and not too profitable close.