Secret Service scandal allegedly escalated when Colombian police intervened to help a Colombian prostitute in her disagreement with a Secret Service agent who only wanted to pay her $30

**Jenna** · 04-18-12, 09:41 PM

A Secret Service agent preparing for President Obama’s arrival at an international summit meeting and a single mother from Colombia who makes a living as a high-priced escort faced off in a room at the Hotel Caribe a week ago over how much he owed her for the previous night’s intercourse. “I tell him, ‘Baby, my cash money,’ ” the woman said in her first public comments on a spat that would soon spiral into a full-blown scandal.

The disagreement over her price — he offered $30 for services she thought they had agreed were worth more than 25 times that — set off a tense early morning quarrel in the hallway of the luxury hotel involving the woman, another prostitute, Colombian police officers arguing on the women’s behalf and American federal agents who tried but failed to keep the matter from escalating.

The woman veered between anger and fear as she told of her misadventure. “I’m scared,” she said, indicating that she did not want the man she spent the night with to get into any trouble but feared that he might retaliate.

“This is something really big,” she said. “This is the government of the United States. I have nervous attacks. I cry all the time.”

The Secret Service declined to comment on the woman’s account, but a United States official who has been briefed on the inquiry said the details were generally consistent with what agents have said. “On the whole, it’s pretty accurate,” the official said, indicating that the woman at the center of the dispute at the hotel had not yet been interviewed.

She is dismayed, she said, that the news reports described her as a prostitute, as if she walks the streets picking up just anyone.

“It’s the same, but it’s different,” she said, indicating that she is much more selective about her clients and charges much more than a streetwalker. “It’s like when you buy a fine rum or a BlackBerry or an iPhone. They have a different price.”

More here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/19/wo...imes&seid=auto