Delaney Park woman arrested on prostitution charges

ORLANDO, Fla. — Agents with the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation shut down a suspected prostitution house in the middle of a high-end neighborhood near downtown Orlando.

Investigators said they arrested a 50-year-old suspect at the house on Anderson Street, not far from Delaney Park.

Investigators estimate in the two years Diana Cowart operated at the home, she averaged more than five customers a day, many of them meeting for sex.

Anita Platt has lived near Delaney Park for six years and walks by the home nearly every day. She said she never suspected it was being used as a house of prostitution.

Neither did next-door neighbor Sasha Smith.

"This is just crazy this is happening next door to me," Smith said.

But that's exactly what MBI said was going on for two years.

Agents arrested and charged Cowart with racketeering and prostitution. They said men would contact Cowart online and meet her at the home for sex.

Channel 9 looked through the report and learned customers were using the website Backpage.com to contact Cowart.

There, Cowart allegedly went by the name Leslie the Bombshell and she described the home as being in a "cozy upscale location," said Channel 9's Jeff Deal.

Cowart's photos show her dressed in lingerie.

Channel 9 also learned Cowart was arrested in 1999 and later convicted for a lewd and lascivious act on a child. Reports show she was having sex with a 15-year-old and providing alcohol, drugs and pornography to minors.

She's now a registered sex offender.

WFTV