Prostitution Ring Case May Go To NM High Court

The New Mexico Supreme Court is taking up a case involving two aging professors accused of helping run an online prostitution ring.

The state's highest court will hear arguments Feb. 6 after prosecutors appealed a lower court's ruling that the website was legal.

In June, a state judge ruled that the website "Southwest Companions" linked to former University of New Mexico president F. Chris Garcia and retired Fairleigh Dickinson University physics professor David C. Flory violated no laws. That ruling complicated the case for prosecutors, who were planning to present their case to a grand jury.

Garcia and Flory were arrested by Albuquerque police in June 2011 on charges of promoting prostitution.

Attorneys for the two men want the case dismissed.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.