Lie detector backs up hooker on Vitter

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Sept. 11 (UPI) -- Publisher Larry Flynt said Tuesday the New Orleans prostitute who claims U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., as a customer passed a lie detector test.

The prostitute, Wendy Yow Ellis, joined Flynt for a news conference at his office in Beverly Hills, Calif., The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reported.

"I have been called a liar all of my life," Ellis said. "This is one time that you can't call me a liar. I have admitted my wrongs. I am not proud of myself for my past, but my integrity and my self-respect mean more to me today than anything."

Ellis said she and Vitter had sex in a French Quarter hotel about the time he was elected to Congress. Vitter first became enmeshed in sexual scandal when his telephone number turned up in the records of the woman known as the D.C. Madam.

Flynt, publisher of Hustler, arranged and paid for the lie detector test and also plans to pay Ellis for her account of her dealings with Vitter.