FALLS CHURCH, Virginia — Prostitution is illegal in the state of Virginia, but dozens of brothels nevertheless operate openly in Fairfax County alone, according to local officials.

How did the state’s largest municipality, a wealthy and highly educated suburb of Washington, D.C., become a sanctuary county for pimps, madams, and whorehouse operators? All signs point to the Commonwealth’s attorney, self-styled progressive prosecutor Steve Descano.

County police say their “hands are tied” when it comes to known prostitution businesses, and it seems that the man tying their hands is Descano.

Descano has not explicitly announced the decriminalization of prostitution, but one can better understand the county’s booming prostitution industry by considering Descano’s record of selective enforcement, his policy of not prosecuting most misdemeanors, and his stated willingness to ignore laws that he disagrees with.

It is a misdemeanor in Virginia to be a prostitute or engage in prostitution. “Residing in a bawdy place” or “keeping a bawdy place” are also misdemeanors. Putting a woman into prostitution — being a pimp or running a whorehouse — is a felony.

Nevertheless, one neighborhood over from my own, a couple of blocks from where my county councilwoman lives, Rose Spa operates as an obvious brothel out of a two-story colonial on a residential street. The evidence is overwhelming that this is a whorehouse: neighbors’ eyewitness........

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