Philip & Astrid & Etc.

Philip Bailley, 29, seemed the very model of a modern, upwardly mobile lawyer. In 1966, he was the Crescent Cities, Md., winner of the Speak Up for America contest sponsored by the Junior Chamber of Commerce. He graduated from Washington's Catholic University law school in 1969, and everybody got a good laugh when his classmates named him in the school's lampoon newspaper as the future attorney "most likely to be disbarred." He built a practice that earned him $25,000 a year, most of it in government legal fees for defending the indigent.

Now Philip Bailley's world has collapsed. He stands indicted in U.S. district court on 22 counts of morals offenses, including prostitution procurement and violation of the Mann Act. The charges reportedly involve inducing into prostitution secretaries and office workers on Capitol Hill and one Government woman attorney (who was fired when the case broke).

Blackmail. Bailley's troubles grew out of his activities with Astrid Lee-flang, an old flame. While she was a student at the University of Maryland, Bailley brought her to his Washington apartment for drinks. Soon Bailley introduced the girl, whom he affectionately refers to as "old Fling Flang," to other men. His relationship with Astrid may have been part of a pattern extending over three years. Some women have testified that Bailley would take photographs of girls in the nude with whom he spent the night and then blackmail them into prostitution.

The Government brought charges after raiding Bailley's apartment in April on a complaint by Astrid, who had become disenchanted. FBI agents found 164 photographs of nude women known by Bailley, various sexual devices and four address books containing the names of 200 women. The Government claims that it has built its case on statements from eight women, some of whom have agreed to testify that, having seduced and photographed them, Bailley then threatened to show the pictures to their families and employers unless they worked for him as prostitutes.

For his part, Bailley categorically denies all charges and coolly defended his swinging style. The pictures? "Women get a thrill out of having their pictures taken in the nude. You take them up to your apartment, make love to them, take their picture, make love to them again. It sure as hell beats watching television. Any man in America has the First Amendment right to take pictures like that. Of course, that conflicts with the moral code of the Baptists on the grand jury." The sexual accouterments? "Hell, anybody who digs sex has stuff like that around his apartment."

As for the women involved, Bailley insists: "Those poor women The only thing they did wrong was to love me. Now the Government is going to destroy them and me. I am not guilty of running a prostitution ring. I may be guilty of fornication. Those Justice Department bureaucrats just don't understand my lifestyle, which is the lifestyle of half the people in America my age. The bureaucrats are astounded to hear that anyone could have intercourse on the first date. They can't believe that they're not still back in the 1940s. That's what the whole thing is about."

Unpersuaded, Judge Charles Richey, after a closed-door session, ordered Bailley committed to St. Elizabeths Hospital for mental observation.

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