PORTLAND, Maine — A lawyer for two alleged clients of a Maine woman accused of running a prostitution business out of her Zumba dance studio in Kennebunkport and secretly videotaped the encounters has filed a motion to block the release of names of the men suspected as her clients.
Stephen Schwartz told The Associated Press he filed the motion in court Thursday, a day before police were expected to possibly release the first batch of names.
Schwartz said the release of the names has a great potential to ruin people’s reputations, families and businesses and to prejudice any potential jury.
“All it does is appeal the most prurient interests of the public,” he told the AP.
Townspeople have said they’ve heard that lawyers, doctors, law enforcement officials, a television personality and other well-known people in town are included in a detailed clientele list police found.
Alexis Wright, 29, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to 106 counts of prostitution, violation of privacy, tax evasion and other charges for allegedly providing sex for money at her fitness studio and a nearby office. The man police say was her business partner, 57-year-old Mark Strong Sr., pleaded not guilty to 59 counts of promotion of prostitution and violation of privacy.
The Portland Press Herald first reported the filing of the motion.
SHOCKER!!!
C’mon, release the names or let her go.
I wonder what Angus Kings position is on this affair.
Release or holdback?
Watch and wait?
Yeah! Release the names, we want to see what some of our important people of Maine do for fun these days.
Schwartz said the release of the names has a great potential to ruin people’s reputations, families and businesses and to prejudice any potential jury.
You took part in ILLEGAL activity, therefore you gave up all of your RIGHTS to keep your name out of the papers and out of the public interest in it. If you didnt want to be OUTTED, then maybe you should have kept it ZIPPED up and the money in your wallet??
Not charged or found guilty yet.
So only the poor and unimportant people get their names in the paper when they commit a crime?
Great point Jerry!
Until the alleged is convicted of prostitution, then no one on that list has committed a crime. None of them has been charged at this point. What is those people she videotaped were just having consensual sex with another adult? Unless money is paid on camera, they have no idea if it was prostitution or just adultery, which is not a crime.
Didn’t you know, we have two sets of laws in this country. One for us commoners and another for the elite.
Embarassment be dammed, if Judge Mills wants to get this case thru then she had better start controlling it, on both side’s, by getting the State and the defense counsel’s focused on the case and their client’s, not their press image. Sarah Churchill’s news ‘blurb’ last night was a joke and designed to do nothing more than predjudice the jury pool. The State, on the other hand, screwed their own pooch when they made these arrest’s before they were ready to. Once the arrest has been made the Speedy Trial clock start’s. And the stalling of releasing the defense’s Brady material isin’t helping either. Judge Mills needs to get both Counsel’s in chamber’s, read them the riot act about professional conduct, then order the State to comply with the defense’s Brady Motion. And then put a Gag Order on both Counsel’s about saying ANYTHING relating to the evidence until trial, not jury selection. Then, maybe, this whole thing can start moving forward. Maine has already run through 3 Judge’s so far on this case. Enough is enough unless someone can publicly show why this train needs to change engineer’s a 4th time…….
Just proves to you that the elite are treated different then the averge joe.. These evil criminals need to be exposed.
Has Ms. Zumba been tested for STD’s? Wonder if the 150 or so “Johns” were aware that so many others had come and gone before them!
…………………………………………………………
Judge rejects motion:
http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=NEWS19
“Come and gone.”
You’re funny.
That visual should make it impossible to………
That’s the way. Protect the elite who can afford to buy their sexual activity and their way out of truly paying society for their wrongs. Rich americans working for each other.
Didn’t you know, we have two sets of laws in this country. One for us commoners and another for the elite.
There wouldn’t be prostitution if people weren’t buying.
It’s a service and with some people paying for it is the only way they will ever have that form of intimacy. It has a health care benifit.
H-m-m-m, health benefits?
It is absurd that sex, a most ubiquitous natural process, is considered illegal and disreputable. The absurdity is compounded by our judicial system prefers secrecy to truth and knowledge. Make the list available to anyone who is curious. If Mr. Schwartz’s well-connected clients felt it was appropriate to buy sexual pleasure from Ms Wright, they should acknowledge their activities, and spend their money in efforts to legalize sex-work. If, as Mr. Schwartz suggests, they are embarrassed by their purchase of Ms Wright’s favors, they should not have been shopping.
Doesn’t George W. Bush have a home in the area?
Show me the names
“But your Honor, I wasn’t paying for the sex. I was paying her to leave!!!”
The lawyer wants to use it as leverage, There will be nothing to lets to use durning a plea deal..
Sex must be the only thing in this country you can give away 10 times a day, but if you charge one dime for it, It becomes a crime. And we live in a free country.
Bull crap!!!! release the names… Pot growers have their names in the paper for days.