'D.C. Madam' Apologizes for Outing Ex-Lilly Chairman as Client

Anders Wiklund

Randall Tobias, Ambassador and Acting Administrator of U.S. AID, speaks with reporters at the Stockholm Conference for Lebanon's Early Recovery in Stockholm in this Aug. 31, 2006 file photo. Tobias, resigned Friday, citing personal reasons. (AP Photo/Scanpix,Anders Wiklund, File)

A woman apologized Monday for outing former Eli Lilly chairman and top State Department official Randall Tobias as a client of her escort service but said it was necessary to prove her company was doing legal business.

A federal grand jury indicted Deborah Jeane Palfrey in March on charges of running a high-class call girl ring in the nation's capital from her home in Vallejo, Calif. She maintains the escort service did not engage in prostitution.

Palfrey said she turned over phone records to ABC News hoping the documents would unveil thousands of clients, such as Randall Tobias, and compel them to testify on her behalf.

Tobias, who resigned Friday as head of the Bush administration's foreign aid programs, confirmed to ABC News that he used Palfrey's escort firm, Pamela Martin & Associates, but said he only received legal services such as massages.

Prosecutors have accused Palfrey of seeking to intimidate witnesses by outing them publicly.

Palfrey's civil attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley, said he does not know how many people will be outed by ABC, which is planning to air a report Friday on its "20/20" newsmagazine.

During Monday's hearing, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler ordered a new attorney be appointed for Palfrey, citing irreconcilable differences between her and public defender A.J. Cramer.

Kessler denied a request to appoint a specific lawyer requested by Palfrey. The judge said Palfrey will no longer have to wear an electronic monitoring device that had been a condition of her pretrial release. She will be required to check in with court officials by phone three times a week.

Tobias joined Eli Lilly in 1993 and served as chairman and chief executive for five years. In addition to Eli Lilly, Tobias has also served on on the boards of AT&T, Agilent Technologies, Kimberly-Clark, Knight-Ridder and ConocoPhillips.