Kevin Provencher (center), a newspaper sportswriter, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for running a prostitution operation. He is flanked by prosecutor Melissa Woodward and a court officer.(Photo by Angie Beaulieu/Eagle-Tribune, North Andover, Mass.)

CNHI News Service

An award-winning sportswriter has pleaded guilty to running a prostitution operation, saying he needed the extra money to make up for a pay cut because of the downturn in the newspaper business.

Kevin Provencher, 52, Manchester, N. H., admitted in Salem, Mass., Superior Court Friday he recruited and received financial support from prostitutes working out of hotel rooms in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

He was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison and fined $5,000 on the prostitution charges and also for intimidating one of his hookers from testifying against him.

Provencher worked 23 years for the Manchester, N. H., Union Leader prior to his arrest in July of 2009. He is a four-time winner of the New Hampshire Sportswriter of the Year award from the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association.

His attorney asked the judge to sentence Provencher to probation instead of jail, saying he had no previous criminal record and only started his "side business" to make up for a reduction in his sportswriter's salary that resulted from the newspaper industry's economic woes.

But Judge Timothy Feeley said the victimization of young women he lured into prostitution required he spend time behind bars.

Prosecutor Melissa Woodward described Provencher as a "pimp" who recruited women into prostitution, arranged for them to meet men in hotel rooms, then demanded half of their earnings plus the cost of the hotel room.

She said the women earned $240 per hour or $150 per half-hour and would pay Provencher in cash or by depositing the money in his bank account in 2008 and 2009.

Woodward said Provencher advertised his prostitution business on craigslist and other websites that feature adult sexual encounters.

"His crime was not a one-time lapse in judgment," said Woodward. "He planned, thought out and ran these services at the expense of these women."

The prosecutor said authorities arrested Provencher after employees of the SpringHill Suites Hotel in Andover, Mass., noticed several men coming and going from a room there, and alerted police to what they suspected was a prostitution operation.
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Details for this story were provided by The Eagle-Tribune, North Andover, Mass.