After five days in jail, Cathy Scalia emerged unapologetic, unrepentant and unwilling to change her chosen profession. She believes she was set up by an undercover officer.
Police say Scalia, who operates a hot dog truck in Baldwin, has been offering a little something extra on the side - selling herself for sex with men.
She was arrested Friday in her East Rockaway home after police say the undercover cop solicited her for sex.
"I gave him a little lap dance the next thing I know he asks me for (more)," she said. "I had 20 cop cars there with handcuffs on me, charging me with prostitution."
On Tuesday, Scalia pleaded guilty to one count of prostitution, even though hours later, she insisted that isn't what she meant. She says she has been a stripper since the age of 19 and has worked in the hot dog truck for seven years, offering nothing more than lap dances, while serving hot dogs wearing a bikini.
"I pleaded guilty to stripper, a stripper," she said. "Not prostitution. Prostitution is sex. Listen, I'm Sister Theresa over here. Showing your cleavage is indecent exposure. Prostitution is sexual acts. That's prostitution."
The judge says she will be sentenced to seven days in jail, provided she gets a psychiatric evaluation and treatment.
Sshe says her four teenage kids were taken away from her, and are now living with their grandmother. But she makes no excuses about what she does for a living, even to them.
"I just tell them, I say, you know, this is what mommy does," she said. "And that's the way it is."
On Wednesday, she was back in her regular spot in Baldwin selling hot dogs and, she says, lap dances.
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