Anna Gristina, who is better known in the media as the notorious "Soccer Mom Madam," plead guilty on one count of promoting prostitution in a Manhattan court on Tuesday.
Gristina plead guilty in hopes of avoiding a trial. Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan scheduled a sentencing for November 20, where she will be sentenced with five years of probation.
Gristina was suspected of running a high-end brothel for wealthy clients from a Manhattan apartment on East 78th Street. The police had been investigating the prostitution ring for five years, but failed to find any concrete evidentiary support to make the arrest. However, Gristina was caught on camera speaking of the prostitution ring, and later in July 2011, she was caught red-handed when she arranged for two prostitutes for an undercover cop.
Assistant District Attorney Charles Linehan told Reuters, "We are left with a straightforward promoting prostitution case...That is all."
Gristina was arrested on 22 February and spent at least four months in prison on a $2 million jail bond. In June, her lawyer Nortman Pattis filed an appeal and her bond was lowered to $250,000.
Initially she refused to plead guilty due to fear of being deported to her native country, Scotland, on crime of moral turpitude. Gristina and her attorney Pattis attempted to get the case dismissed in August on grounds that the DA's office was "vindictively prosecuted her as a result of her failure to cooperate with investigators" during what he called an illegal interrogation," as reported by MSNBC. However, the court disagreed.
Gristina is 44 years of age and has four sons with husband Kelvin Gorr. She has been running the high-end escort service for around 15 years. According to reports Gristina made millions of dollars out of the escort service.
