Deborah Jeane Palfrey was blunt at times, rambling and conspiratorial at others in a 1991 letter explaining to a judge why she jumped bail and skipped out on her trial for prostitution-related charges in California. "Prison is an absurd and unthinkable horror for me to embrace for simply being an enterprising business person," she wrote. "For God's sake, I was only running an escort service!" Now, 16 years later, Palfrey, 51, of Vallejo, Calif., is accused in federal court of running a Washington, D.C.-based prostitution ring. Prosecutors fear history will repeat itself, now that a judge has rescinded a requirement...