ALFRED, Maine — The chief prosecutor in the prostitution case against Mark W. Strong Sr. has asked the court to reject the defense request to drop the charges.
The prosecution expects that it will take another seven weeks to complete interviews with the remaining men expected to be charged as johns in the wide-ranging case.
Strong has been indicted on 59 counts that include promotion of prostitution, invasion of privacy and conspiracy. The 57-year-old Thomaston man has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Strong’s attorney, Daniel Lilley of Portland, had filed a motion with Justice Nancy Mills asking for dismissal, claiming that the prosecution has not provided evidence that his client needs to prepare for the case.
But Deputy District Attorney Justina McGettigan filed a response Thursday in opposition to Lilley’s request.
The prosecutor listed all the evidence presented to the defense and argued that the defense must show that Strong was prejudiced by the discovery violation to the point that it deprived him of a fair trial.
“Dismissal by the court is an extreme action and should be used for extreme cases. Here, there has been no failure by the state to provide discovery to counsel,” McGettigan stated.
Strong was arrested July 10 but that original charge was dropped by the district attorney’s office after a grand jury indicted him Oct. 3 on the multiple counts. He was arraigned on the 59 charges Oct. 9 and on that day the defense made a motion for discovery, meaning for the state to turn over the evidence it has in the case.
The state said it provided evidence on Sept. 21, Sept. 28, Oct. 5, Oct. 17 and Oct. 23.
The prosecution also filed a list of evidence it has turned over to the defense, which includes 4,238 pages of documents that have been paginated and provided in binders, 42 compact disks, 19 writable compact disc recordables, 13 digital video discs and an internal hard drive.
The district attorney’s office said that evidence yet to be provided to either Strong or Alexis Wright, 29, of Wells, is further reports of interviews with defendants expected to be charged with engaging a prostitute, a report on an analysis of cellphone records, reports from computer analysts and results of Facebook searches.
McGettigan stated in the Thursday court filing that the timetable for completion of the investigation would be “seven weeks to complete the interviews of remaining defendants expected to be charged with engaging a prostitute and provide reports to the counsel.”
Thirty-nine people have been charged thus far with engaging a prostitute. The Kennebunk Police Department is releasing the names of men charged every two weeks at the same time that it releases its regular police report to the media.
The state also listed items it has returned to Strong, which include tax records from 2004 through 2011, insurance agency paperwork, eight computers, two cellphones and a photograph of a Westbrook police officer.
Evidence returned to Wright include an iPod and a compact disc labeled “Yeah.”
But the prosecution also noted in paperwork filed this week that it has retained for trial seven computers, a scanner, two cellphones, a global positioning system, surveillance glasses, night vision glasses and various cameras and equipment.
Strong also has a private investigator’s license.
This leaves me to wonder how many months it takes to prosecute Hookers, Pimps and Johns in someplace like New York? I’m thinking they’ve probably got it down to a science and get through it fairly quickly. Of course things would be a lot easier if our lawyers and judges would simply follow the law rather than play games with it. Can you imagine if we had ten cases like this? It would shut down our entire court system for years.
I’ll bet the closest summer tourist towns to the Kennebunk area hope that this thing goes on for years. Unfortunately for Kennebunkport-tourists may forget the “port.” If you could choose summer destinations up and down the Maine coast for vacation would you pick this area if you were from another part of the country? No PR firm will fix this for a while. Maybe they could get the agency that handled The BP Spill.
it’s going to take a long time for them to paw through all those videos…
and the binders of women… whoops, that’s Romney.
I guess the divorce attorneys are ramping up for more clients.
….. unless they are on the list. ha!
Some of them are.
Aside from ” Oh gross, do you know how many men this prostitute hooked with?” or “Yuck, what in the world were you thinking?”, what more is there to ask?
The orgasmatron?
Reich
Ich denke, dass das mehr der Welt ist, was, die Sie verkünden
Ich bin mir nicht sicher, ob ich verstehen, warum wir in fremdsprachigen sind
Talk about “seconds”!
What was the estimated value of the secret videotapes? Who ordered them? Were any of them used to extort certain outcomes, ie planning board in Portland etc
How many millions is the state going to waste over someone paying for sex. Lets fill the jails with johns and keep the child molesters out on the streets. This makes alot of since. NOT
The customers are not going to jail. The funny thing here is that the customers are actually the victims: they were secretly videotaped, those tapes ended up on the net, they were probably being blackmailed, etc. if the allegations are proven I’d say Strong and Wright are dangerous sociopaths and should be locked up. They are the same kind of people that would enslave young women in the flesh trade. By the way, I have no problem with the customers getting what they deserve from their wives and girlfriends. They broke that trust (unless they didn’t.. its possible some knew), put those ladies in harm’s way (even if they were prepared) and deserve what they get.
Yes you are right. But this state has alot more problems then worring about who slept with who. I so chose to stay home and do not need to join Zumba. There will not spend one day in jail because of lawyers involed.
I still can’t figure out who is the victim here and who are we protecting with all this investigation time and money. Don’t we have more important things to spend our resources on?
I would think so
Try making a $150,000 tax free money in any other line of work and see what happens. This is a major crime in regards to tax evasion, as well as violation of privacy rights with videotaping just for starters. Glad to see most posters have missed this point and many think this isn’t a big deal. Legalization and taxing it going forward is another issue, a crime none of us could get away with is apparently no big deal. People should really think before they post their “lofty” thoughts. Case closed!
Police said she kept meticulous records suggesting the sex acts generated $150,000 over 18 months.
http://news.yahoo.com/release-names-prostitution-case-stirs-debate-202420189.html
Oh, I think the questioning of these Johns will last far beyond seven weeks from the soon to be ex-wives and former employers!
Lets see …………………………………….. fine of $200 (same as unlicensed trailer) times say the whole 121 johns = $24,200 ………………………………………… now they have 3 detectives working full time on this case, plus the DA, court time etc………………………………… big profit here
Glad that the Kennebunk taxpayers are picking up the tab …………………….. well at least they’re getting free advertisement.
Huh, I didn’t think the justice system operated as a profit center for the state. I guess you learn something new every day.
So how much money do you think is appropriate to spend on a $200 case?
Its not a 200 dollar case. Strong is not a John, nether is Alexis,
If the previous charges were dropped and a seceret grand jury charged him with 59 counts on evidence gotten from the search warrant from the first charge that was dropped then how can they use that evidence at all? Without the first charge there would be no search warrant..
WHO REALLY CARES THAT SEX WAS USED TO PROFIT AGAIN! I AM TIRED OF TAX DOLLARS WASTED OVER & OVER!!! Honestly how much money did she get with out it being taxed, not much more then the ones we put in office. The waste of “the peoples” money now with a big trial and we need to do a big change in this election or nothing is going to change.
With the involvement of a PI, secret video recordings of Zumba routines (yeah, ok..); I think there’s a lot more here than just simple prostitution……
Release the videos!!
if you look for them, you will find them. Since I’ve heard that at least one of them includes a 4-legger, well that’s just icky.
I’ll just take your word on this….no sense involving oneself in the icky factor…..
No, because you will see me…. I use to do porn and they will know who I am..
Anybody running for office doesn’t get their name released until after the election……….
Makes one wonder about the timing of the bust, huh?
This is why I don’t vote early!
what if the people you voted for were arrested one day before the election on child porn charges?? and your vote allowed that person to win. I never vote early because to many things change..
I know my husband wasn’t involved. That’s one good thing about being a widow. My husband may not be home nights, but I darn well can swear to where he’s spending his nights.
Keep the man sexually satified and he shall not wonder..
That’s not always the case you know – there could be other circumstances to make them “stray”.
You are correct.. My buddies wife has no ovaries and no sex drive at all, so he goes somewhere else.. He loves his wife but still requires sex..
I understand that in situation such as what you described, it’s understandable as long as there is no hiding the fact that he goes outside of the marriage. I do understand that in cases of cancer and other types of health problems that would make for those extra-marital affairs. Sex is part of living a healthy life, our bodies do require it BUT, when you are going out on your wife or husband out of selfishness, that is not ok.
Still think this is a lot to do, about nothing. Girls have been selling it for a couple of days now, and its not going to go away. But, having said that, if the authorities are going to charge some, lets see the entire list, not just the cleaned version. Also, if that product is still available, and she gives group rates for seniors, they can put me on the list too. Nothing wrong with consenting adults taking pleasure with what God has provided.
“Strong was arrested July 10 but that original charge was dropped by the district attorney’s office after a grand jury indicted him Oct. 3 on the multiple counts”.
this definitely sounds to me like they used the original charge as a way to search his home…if the charge is dropped how can any of the evidence be used, since they would not have been given the search warrant but for the original charge?
Somehow, I am not sure, as to, how did Mark Strong and Alexis Wright hook up, the whole damn mess seems stranger as the days go by, seems almost like a set-up, well not sure.
Now you’re thinking outside the box. Exactly. A setup by whom though? LEO? Strong by himself? Strong & Alexis? Word is that Strong did the surveillance/info gathering on the guys, even if they did try to use a fake name. Hard to see a purpose for this outside of some type of black mail down the road or simply self preservation or very simply, a weird voyeur thing going on. I was amused by this thing @ first, but 150+ guys (ages & aged) or so? One woman? That gets to another level of strange although it could just be about the money so it makes perfect sense.
Strong said they met online.
she modeled for him…photography is just one of several professions of his.
you have the rights to be an attorneys
My question this morning is, why, after the naming of 38 persons named as “johns”, is the picture shown with this appalling story of Mark Strong? Get busy, find some pictures of the participants, give this man a break.
Just more of the DA’s office and the Kennebunk PD trolling for BRIBES to ‘omit’ a few names from public disclosure.
“…filed a list of evidence it has turned over to the defense, which includes 4,238 pages of documents that have been paginated and provided in binders…”
Binders of men. LOL.
Meanwhile we have 4 Americans who were killed in Lybia as our pathetic commander in chief sat by and watched all while refusing to send in help, and the media largely ignores it — this story is nothing more than fodder to keep the sheep full while the barn burns, complete waste of time and resources.
That sort of remark (pack of lies) is inflammatory and doesn’t belong here.
Just curious what you consider to be a “pack of lies”? The drone video feed which was fed into the WH in real time? The 3 RECORDED radio requests for assistance from operators, who eventually died, which were denied? The sad reality that on 9/11 we did not have fighter aircraft ready to respond within 7 hours in north Africa? The fact the administration tried to blame this on a youtube video for 14 days? Really, what do you claim to be a pack of lies???
DID you miss the report that it was the military who made the call NOT to go in??
Are you not aware that the President serves as the Commander In Chief ? As such it is his call.
I agree. And misleading.
OFF TOPIC
Actually my point was the fact that this “juicy” story which is simply about people who make stupid choices, continues to make the media day after day, but a terrorist attack on 9/11 , with international consequences, fades from the media reporting. Thanks for confirming what I said about fodder.
Its appears BDN doesnt feel what is going on in AMERICA to be important enought to be on the front page newspaper. JAFMO your not off topic as far as I’m concerned. Definitely a violation of public trust. Hopefully, the impeachment process will be considered. However in my opinion this does not qualify Mitt. This is a sad day for America.
In summary,(pertaining to this forum) crimes were committed and need to be proscecuted. If we pick and choose than there is no justice system in place.
I completely agree that the failure to act on the part of Obama could ever qualify Romney, my contention is with the media that is failing to report on what has happened and dig into the reason why. If a Republican administration had done the same thing I suspect the media would not stop screaming, it is the bias and hiding of the truth that undermines us.
I like this story, good fodder for the sheep. Yet you are one hundred percent correct. The intent was to create a different crisis then what accured, It was supposed to be a kidnapping then we were to exchange terriost prisoners for them. Most people don’t know what your talking about because they are followers of media hype.
changing the subject are we? And where was BUSH as Osama bin laden was planning 911… on vacation for a month in Crawford Texas looking for a different kind of varmints.And just why did he stop looking for him?? HMMM???
The planning of 9/11 began after the failed attempt to take down the WTC in ’93, you can google who was in the white house from then until ’00. It was the same president who refused BinLaden when the Saudi’s offered him to us. If you actually read what happened we never stopped looking for Bin Laden, it was a 10 year effort.
Bill Clinton
How simplistic-minded. I’m sure there’s more going on with the Lybia situation than we know, afterall, I’m sure it’s an investigation in progress. I think Americans like Mitt Romney who attack the president while he’s actively engaged in a potential national security threat are not doing this country any favors. A tragedy such as the one you speak of requires rallying and supporting, not pointing fingers and criticizing, like you know everything that’s going on. Please.
Odd there is no PIMP involved; could Alexis be nominated as Maine’s business woman of the year?
….I always wondered where Miss Kitty got that money she kept loaning out?
These comments are hillarious. What does this have to do with Libia? It is obvious Alexis and cohorts were planning to extort money or protect themselves otherwise they wouldn’t have video taped and kept immaculate records. I’m amazed that she got away with it for so long. It’s a small community; lots of people must have known. Hope the families are adjusting well. Can’t imagine the fallout.
These men, supposedly intelligent, competent, movers & shakers.. how dumb could one be to use
their real name!!
These men, supposedly the movers & shakers..smart and educated. How dumb could one be to use their own name? Arrogance with a touch of ‘I am above the law’ attitude.
Having said this, I believe far too much time and print has been used. Stop the presses. It’s old.
You need to start over….read the story from the beginning. Strong was getting names from license plates.
They were dumb enough to cheat and dumb enough to break the law, but not dumb enough to give their names!
and, obviously dumb enough to use their own vehicle :)
How is all the busy bodies doing today….. Amazing how nosey people are… Keep your man satisfied and this wont happen..
Stevey, Keep your mind satisfied and you would not have so much trouble with your grammar
You keep your nose in the business of others that way you dont have to worry about your hubby….When you come back with a grammar comment that just means you have no come back or comment.
I am lucky. I have a wife who likes me and I like her.. Love comes 2nd. I have seen people who love someone they did not like.. Never tried to change her and she never tried to change me. We like each other for who we are… So I never thought of straying and never will. She is fun to be with. amazing isn’t it. (-;
I have no sorrow for the johns, and no I don’t want to watch their videos. There is plenty of really lousy porn on the internet if you want that and I can assure you that none of these amateur porn stars around going to be doing anything that you want to watch. Lets face it most guy are pretty lousy at sex, except in their own minds. The surprising thing about prostitution is how little of the time is about sex. Do you really want to hear some guy tell a prostitute how his wife, or girlfriend, doesn’t understand him and then see the reason why when the sex starts? In the old house of prostitution days a prostitute tried to be finished with each client and cleaned up for the next one ever fifteen minutes. Remember this is just a business and the girls want to make a lot of money while they are young enough to make money. Hardly a lifetime profession with retirement benefits.
Older women are much better at love making then younger women. but this is not about passionate sex, it’s about quick sex durning a lunch break
You are correct, I just spent 4 days with a 20 yr old woman, Im 45…But Im training her, she gets better every time…
I guess Mr Strong should have investagated the investagaters.. I think knowing the johns is good for the public. I also believe Mr Strong will walk.
I believe community involvement is important in
todays judicial system and the search for justice.
I will help by volunteering to review some of the
videos for this case.
I can’t picture Mr. Strong being interested in Zumba!