Guilty plea in Spitzer prostitution probe
NEW YORK (AP) - May 14, 2008 Temeka Rachelle Lewis entered pleas in U.S. District Court in
Manhattan to promoting prostitution and money laundering while her
mother and sister looked on from the gallery.
The 32-year-old is among four defendants in the case involving
the Emperor's Club VIP call girl ring that brought down New York's
crusading governor after just 14 months in office.
Her attorney, Marc Agnifilo, said his client, an English major
at the University of Virginia, is eager to put the case behind her.
"She's basically a very good person," he said. "Sitting at a
defense table in a federal courthouse is the last place she
imagined she'd be. I have no doubt she'll never be in trouble
again."
Under federal sentencing guidelines, Lewis could face around 16
months in prison, her lawyer said. The maximum penalties are far
higher, up to 25 years.
Left unsaid during the brief court proceeding was whether Lewis
has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in cases against the other
defendants, or provide evidence against Spitzer.
Agnifilo took the unusual step during the hearing of requesting
that the written copy of Lewis' plea bargain be sealed by the
court.
"It is no secret that there is an ongoing investigation," he
told Magistrate Judge Theodore H. Katz. "There should not be
speculation about where this case is going."
Members of the news media objected and Katz said he would delay
a ruling until later Wednesday afternoon.
The federal investigation into the high-end prostitution ring
apparently began last year as a routine financial probe by the
Internal Revenue Service. The investigation was referred to the
U.S. attorney's office last fall.
Court papers say the FBI secretly recorded conversations between
Lewis and Spitzer about a Feb. 13 tryst with a prostitute in
Washington named "Kristen." The former governor, identified in
court papers only as Client No. 9, allegedly paid $4,300 for her
services.
Just days after reports identifying Spitzer as Client No. 9, the
married governor and father of three teenage daughters resigned. He
has not been charged.
The real name of the woman identified as Kristen is Ashley
Alexandra Dupre, a 23-year-old high school dropout from Beachwood,
N.J. She has not been charged either.
The other defendants are Mark Brener, 62, of Cliffside Park,
N.J., who is accused of running the ring. Brener, a native of
Israel, has lived in the U.S. for 20 years. Also charged were Tanya
Hollander, 36, of Rhinebeck, N.Y., and Cecil Suwal, 23, who lives
with Brener.
Investigators say the prostitution ring made more than $1
million for its operators. A three-diamond prostitute cost $1,000
per hour; a seven-diamond prostitute could fetch $3,100 and the
highest paid, $5,500 an hour.
The bookers arranged meetings between clients and more than 50
prostitutes in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Miami, London and
Paris, prosecutors said.
Investigators described Spitzer as a repeat customer who spent
tens of thousands of dollars on prostitutes. The scion of a
Manhattan real estate developer, Spitzer is very wealthy, reporting
$1.9 million in income to the IRS in 2006.
According to a federal affidavit, wiretaps enabled government
investigators to listen in on instructions that Kristen should take
a train from New York to Washington for the tryst with Client No. 9
at the Mayflower Hotel the day before Valentine's Day.
An Emperors Club employee was quoted in court papers as telling
Kristen that Client 9 "would ask you to do things that ... you
might not think were safe." Kristen responded by saying: "I have
a way of dealing with that. ... I'd be, like, listen, dude, you
really want the sex?"
A law enforcement official said the discussion had to do with
Spitzer's preference not to wear a condom and the call girl's
insistence that he use one.
Spitzer, who was New York's attorney general before he became
governor, built a reputation on Wall Street as a crusader against
shady practices and overly generous compensation.
The U.S. attorney's public corruption unit got involved in the
case after the IRS looked into a complaint of a potential violation
of the Bank Secrecy Act, the government's main tool against money
laundering.
Financial institutions are required to have anti-money
laundering programs in place. Those programs help the government
catch terrorist financiers, drug lords and other criminals.