'Hot Dog Hooker' goes free after sentencing

EAST ROCKAWAY (WABC) -- Cathy Scalia, who pleaded guilty to a prostitution charge, was sentenced to seven days in jail, credited with time served and released.

Catherine Scalia pleaded guilty to the prostitution charge, but denied offering sex to an undercover police officer inside her hot dog truck. She showed up for court on Monday wearing a bathing suit under her clothes and carrying a package of hot dogs, saying she was eager to get back to work.

Nassau County police say she propositioned customers at her hot dog truck on Sunrise Highway in Baldwin, telling clients to come to her home in East Rockaway.

She admitted to stripping for customers, but says she did not offer sex for money.

"I don't think I'm going to jail," she said. "Because I'm innocent. I really didn't do anything wrong."

Scalia 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."

She 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."

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