BY JIM DOOLEY AND MALIA ZIMMERMAN – An X-rated local escort service called “The Volcano Girls” is being operated out of the Waikiki residence of University of Hawaii Professor Lawrence W. Boyd, Jr., a Hawaii Reporter investigation shows.
An “appointment” booked by Hawaii Reporter with a Volcano Girls escort took place Friday afternoon in a bedroom inside Boyd’s apartment at 250 Ohua Avenue.
A Hawaii Reporter staffer posing as a customer arranged the appointment in a series of telephone calls to the website contact number that rang inside Boyd’s apartment. The website – https://www.thevolcanogirls.com – has been shut down for “maintenance” since Friday night.
A woman first answered The Volcano Girls phone when we called Friday morning and a manager took later calls, referring to the woman as “the receptionist.”
In an interview Tuesday, Boyd denied any connection to the escort service, saying it might be operated by a woman, Lorraine Drake, who rents a room from him in his apartment.
“I can be very specific. I’m just saying flat out I didn’t talk to you on the phone Friday,” Boyd said.
The The Volcano Girls number we called is listed in the phone directory as the number for Lorraine Drake. Attempts to reach Drake this week were unsuccessful.
Boyd said Drake helps care for his partially disabled wife, but he hadn’t seen or spoken to her for four days, adding that her absence has “perturbed” him.
He said it “is kind of hard to believe” that she could be operating an escort service out of his Ohua Avenue condominium.
In arranging the Friday appointment with an escort, the manager at The Volcano Girls recommended a young woman called “Kendra” who is featured prominently on the website and is reviewed by “Laurence” as “smoking hot.” There were nine women featured in total on the web site.
Kendra was described as “a busty Caucasian (of) part-Italian/Brazilian background.”
When asked the price of the encounter, the manager said, “The gift is three.” That was understood to mean $300, a charge that conformed with fees cited in the comments section of The Volcano Girls website.
“It’s a flat rate,” the manager said, with “nothing hidden” in the charge.
Kendra has her own site on the web, https://kendrakanexxx.com/kendra-kane1.phtml, which lists the prices of “gift donations” as $300 per hour for in-call appointments and $350/hour for out-call visits.
“All gifts must be placed in an unsealed white envelope marked ‘GIFT’ & left in the bathroom or on the table, no discussion necessary,” her website said (underlining in original).
The Volcano Girls manager gave detailed driving instructions to the 250 Ohua Avenue apartment building near Ala Wai Boulevard, advising the caller to park across the street in the Waikiki Health Center’s lot.
We were directed to “park in there, just not in any reserved space,” he said.
The manager also gave the entry phone code number for Boyd’s apartment in the building.
Once in the building, we were told, “You’re gonna take the elevator to the first floor.”
The apartment number, the manager said, was “1C as in Charlie.”
Boyd has owned Unit 1C since 2006, claiming it as his personal residence to qualify for an $80,000 exemption from City property tax valuations, real estate records show.
The Volcano Girls manager spoke as if he owned the apartment.
“I’ll have a little sign on the door that says ‘please remove your shoes,’”the manager said, but added that that wasn’t necessary “because it’s all hardwood in here.”
When a Hawaii Reporter staffer rang the doorbell at the apartment, “Kendra” opened the door, admitting the reporter into a 
dimly lit hallway.
She led the way to a bedroom at the end of the hallway.
After Kendra sat on the bed, the reporter asked her if the price of the service was $300. Kendra said the price was whatever had been previously arranged on the telephone. The reporter explained that he had changed his mind about the encounter, gave her $50 as a cancellation fee and left the premises.
Kendra was the only person seen in the apartment.
Within 10 minutes, the manager who arranged the encounter called to ask if there had been a problem with Kendra, describing the call as a ”quality control” inquiry. After complaining briefly that Hawaii Reporter’s meeting with Kendra had been arranged only after a “cancellation with another appointment” had to be made, the manager ended the call by saying there was “no problem.”
In the interview Tuesday, Boyd said he had heard complaints in the past about escort service activities in the building.
“I’ve heard about it, but it seemed so bizarre it didn’t seem relevant. This was a year or so ago,” he said.
He said he was “dumbfounded” to learn of Hawaii Reporter’s encounter with Kendra inside his apartment last week.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I mean, I go to work, I come back, you know, around five or six o’clock. My wife is out during the day. I mean, that, that’s it.”
Boyd holds a doctorate in economics and is a faculty member at the Center for Labor Education and Research at the West Oahu campus of the University of Hawaii.
He lectures on labor-management issues and has written one essay in the past that was published by Hawaii Reporter.
No business registration records or tax licenses could be found for The Volcano Girls. Boyd holds an excise tax license for a private consulting business.
Boyd is is a member of the owner’s association board of directors at 250 Ohua.
The resident manager of the building, Christopher Jacobowski, said he has “never seen” any signs of escort service activity there. Jacobowski also lives on the first floor of the building, several doors down the hall from Boyd’s unit.
The Honolulu Police Department had no immediate response to questions about The Volcano Girls website or the activities at 250 Ohua Street.
Two officers familiar with escort service investigations said bringing prostitution charges against them is difficult.
The services are able to pre-screen customers and are well versed in the fine points of the law, they said. The websites offer what is referred to as a “GFE” (girl friend experience) and use code words such as “roses” when referring to cash payments, the officers said.
The University of Hawaii said through spokeswoman Lynne Waters that it was unaware of any allegations linking a professor to escort service activities.
“We have no specific knowledge of this matter. In general, if a university employee is investigated we will, of course, cooperate fully,” said Waters.
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It’s not even February yet and we already have a leading candidate for Babooze of the Year!
Does Boyd know Bobby Titcomb or Barney Frank?
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