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US may deport madam charge Briton
A British mother accused of running
a multimillion-dollar escort service in New York City could face deportation
after admitting a charge of promoting prostitution.
US prosecutors said Anna Gristina,
who is originally from Edinburgh but now lives in Monroe, New York, as a legal
US citizen, was the madam of a Manhattan sex service for 15 years.
The 45-year-old has said previously
that she was merely starting a matchmaking service, not peddling call girls,
and admitted the single charge of promoting prostitution as part of a plea deal
at Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday. World Hot Topics Blog
It stems from an incident in July
2011, in which authorities say she arranged a tryst between two women and an
undercover police officer posing as a client. Gristina spent four months in
jail before being released on a 250,000 US dollars (£154,000) bond in June. The
judge said she will be sentenced on November 20 and that she could also be
deported.
Gristina lives on a 12-acre property
in Monroe, which is about 50 miles (80km) north of New York City, and is said
to have spent time helping abandoned pet pigs find new homes. Prosecutors
alleged that she made millions from the business, which was said to have had a
roster of wealthy clients.
Co-accused Jaynie Baker, a former
matchmaking recruiter charged with helping Gristina set up sexual encounters,
reached a deal to resolve her case. Baker, 31, is due back in court on October
2.
Gristina was arrested on February 22
as she left a friend's office after a fundraising meeting for her business,
prosecutors said. World Hot Topics Blog
In trying to get the case dismissed,
her lawyer, Norman Pattis, wrote that the district attorney's office
"vindictively prosecuted her as a result of her failure to co-operate with
investigators" during what he called an illegal interrogation.
Gristina said in court papers that
investigators shrugged off her requests for a lawyer and told her they would
let her go if she gave them information about five men - not named in her
filings, but described as a financier, an international banker and a member of
a politically connected family, among others.
The district attorney's office said
in court papers that Gristina "has not produced a shred of evidence of
actual vindictiveness".
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US may deport madam charge Briton
http://www. donsidepiper.co.uk/news/scottish-headlines/us-may-deport-madam-charge-briton-1-2546899
