Man pleads guilty to prostitution

The Trego man has changed his plea to guilty to prostitution charges.

Thomas Leone, 58, pleaded guilty in Flathead County District Court on Wednesday to two misdemeanor prostitution charges.

Amended information was filed in the case, reducing the two felony counts of prostitution and one misdemeanor count of prostitution Leone previously faced to the two misdemeanors.

Leone admitted paying Sonya Pitkin, 22, of Columbia Falls for sex on three separate occasions last year, according to court documents.

Leone told investigators what hotels he and Pitkin had used, and detectives were able to obtain records that revealed either Leone or Pitkin had rented rooms at those hotels on Jan. 6, Jan. 21 and March 6.

Pitkin has pleaded innocent to three counts of misdemeanor prostitution.

Pitkin also is charged with felony forgery for allegedly cashing a check stolen from Leone.

A trial is pending for Pitkin.

In Montana, the criminal statute for prostitution includes both the person offering and the person receiving sex in exchange for compensation.

Another woman, 22-year-old Amanda Lea Wyatt, was sentenced to a two-year deferred sentence and ordered to pay $1,500 in restitution after pleading guilty to felony forgery, a common scheme, for cashing a second check stolen from Leone.

Leone told police that Pitkin and Wyatt stole a number of blank checks from him in September 2009.