ALFRED — In the final chapter of a saga that has consumed the Town of Kennebunk for more than a year, Alexis Wright ”“ the Wells native who converted her Zumba Fitness studio into a high-tech prostitution venture with business partner Mark Strong ”“ was sentenced Friday to 10 months in prison at the York County Jail, and ordered to pay nearly $60,000 in fines and restitution to the state for tax evasion and other fraud.

The sentence was the result of a plea deal reached between Wright’s attorney, Sarah Churchill, and prosecutors from the state Attorney General’s office, who in March successfully convinced a jury to find Strong guilty of several charges relating to the promotion of prostitution. Strong, of Thomaston, watched sexual acts between Wright and her clients live via the Internet, and saved several videos and still pictures of the encounters to his computer hard drives. He served 20 days in jail and paid about $3,000 in fines.

Documents released prior to Wright’s sentencing at York County Superior Court in Alfred suggest that Strong, a former private investigator, had coerced her into pursuing the illicit business, telling her that she was an “operative” working for the state “to investigate all manner of sexual deviants.”

A memo drafted by the defense acknowledges the far-fetched nature of the supposed ruse, but Churchill ”“ both in writing and in court on Friday ”“ suggested that her client’s traumatic past may have resulted in her gullibility, and her willingness to find plausibility in the scheme.

Churchill told the court that Wright, as a child, witnessed the domestic abuse of her mother at the hands of her father, and that her father also sexually abused Wright. Wright went on to graduate from high school, and earned a degree at the University of Southern Maine in natural and applied sciences, but her relationships with men, said Churchill, were sufficiently warped by her past traumatic experiences. In her early 20s, Wright worked as an exotic dancer to pay the bills and to support a former boyfriend.

She met Strong in 2005, said Churchill, five years before the launch of the illicit prostitution venture.

That business lasted from late 2010 to February 2012, when Kennebunk and Thomaston police, along with federal law enforcement agencies, raided the Pura Vida Studio in Kennebunk, as well as Strong’s home and insurance agency, discovering computer hard drives riddled with incriminating pictures and videos.

Churchill said that, for Wright’s part, “there was actually a great deal of relief ”¦ when the search warrant was served.

“She’s going to have to deal with this for a long time,” said Churchill. “The emotional baggage, the fallout from this case, is going to last forever.”

Wright addressed the court a final time before starting her sentence, placing most of the blame on Strong for his coercion, and telling Justice Nancy Mills that the 2012 raid on her business was “the happiest day of my life.”

“I’ve spent my life hiding my abuse ”¦ because there’s a sense of shame that comes with these experiences,” said Wright. “I’m (now) free from this and have an incredible amount of strength within me.

“I would never wish this life I have had on my worst enemy.”

As part of the plea deal, several counts against Wright were dismissed, and of those remaining, the ones pertaining to evasion of income tax and theft by deception were reduced from felonies to misdemeanor charges. Wright did not report her illegal cash earnings to the state during the tenure of her business, and collected food stamps and other state aid over that time.

While Mills called these “serious offenses” ”“ more serious, criminally speaking, than the counts pertaining to prostitution ”“ she said that Wright’s young age, her background and her apparent willingness to accept responsibility served as mitigating factors. Wright will pay just shy of $58,000 in restitution to the state.

Deputy District Attorney Justina McGettigan acknowledged that Wright appeared repentant for her crimes.

“She has accepted responsibility, and we credit her with that,” said McGettigan.

Initially, Churchill was hopeful that her client would be able to serve her sentence at the Cumberland County Jail, due to that facility’s policy on visitations, which would allow Wright to spend more frequent time with her young son during her sentence.

Mills denied the unusual request, saying that Wright’s very qualification for that visitation program is “speculative at best.” Wright will spend the next 10 months in Alfred.

In tears while addressing the court, Wright appeared genuinely relieved to be at the end of a long ordeal.

“I can finally move on with my life,” she said.

— Staff Writer Jeff Lagasse can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 319 or jlagasse@journaltribune.com.