KENNEBUNK (AP) — A judge ordered separate trials for a Zumba fitness instructor accused of turning her dance studio into a brothel and for a man accused of being her business partner, an attorney said Tuesday.
The man, Mark Strong Sr., will go to trial first. Strong’s lawyer said the judge put Strong’s case on the January trial list while dance instructor Alexis Wright will be tried later.
Strong, of Thomaston, has pleaded not guilty to 59 misdemeanor counts of promotion of prostitution and violation of privacy. Wright, of Wells, has pleaded not guilty to 106 counts including prostitution and invasion of privacy.
Strong, an insurance agent who says he provided money to what he thought was a legitimate business venture, is looking forward to having a jury scrutinize the evidence, attorney Daniel Lilley said Tuesday.
The website for the Portsmouth Herald reported that four men have pleaded guilty to engaging a prostitute and were not included on the three lists of names of john suspects released by police in Kennebunk, a seaside town of about 10,000 residents. That brings the total number of men charged with engaging a prostitute to at least 58, including some from New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
A lawyer who’s seen the client list said it contains the names of more than 150 men, some of them prominent. Those accused so far have included a former mayor, a former minister and a high school ice hockey coach.
The town, next to Kennebunkport, home to the Bush family’s Walker’s Point summer compound, made international headlines when Wright was charged last month. Police said she videotaped many of the encounters without her clients’ knowledge and kept meticulous records suggesting the sex acts generated $150,000 over 18 months.
The scandal has hit the small community hard, with unwanted publicity, rampant speculation over who’s on the list and fears that families will be torn apart.
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