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Robert F. Bukaty / AP file
Mark Strong leaves the Cumberland County Court House in Portland, Maine, on Jan. 18.
A Maine jury needed only a few hours Wednesday morning to convict Mark Strong in the so-called Zumba prostitution case, in which he was charged with helping to run a sex business with his fitness-instructor mistress.
Strong, 57, an insurance agent, faced 12 counts of promotion of prostitution and one count of conspiracy in the trial in Alfred, Maine. No sentencing date was set, NBC station WLBZ of Bangor reported.
In closing arguments Tuesday, prosecutors argued that Strong was heavily involved in running the sex business with his mistress, Alexis Wright, out of her Zumba fitness studio in Kennebunk, Maine.
During the trial, prosecutors played video that they said established that Strong knew Wright was charging clients for sex and that he used hidden cameras and Skype to watch the encounters himself.
Defense lawyers argued that Strong was simply a foolish 57-year-old businessman so in love with the 30-year-old Zumba instructor that he made morally offensive but not illegal choices.
Strong has alleged that he was targeted because of his research into misconduct in the Kennebunk Police Department.
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What can you say? Prostitution is a lot more threatening to 'traditional marriage' than gay marriage can ever be.
Doug-950479, #1- One could say....."Get a proper and appropriate context on". Just answerin' :)
"Defense lawyers argued that Strong was simply a foolish 57-year-old businessman so in love with the 30-year-old Zumba instructor that he made morally offensive but not illegal choices."
Nothing says love like watching your girlfriend get nailed by dozens, maybe hundreds of men.
Like there's anything about this worth spending a dime of taxpayers' money on.
How can we consider gay marriage acceptable when we're still prosecuting a guy who wants to get laid, and a woman willing to accommodate him for a few bucks?
How is one any more or less moral or legal? Stupid...
I know they got this guy for actually running a prostitution business, but who gives a flip? Let the men line up, tax the transactions, and let 'em have at it. It's a win-win apparently.
Exactly Carryingconcealed, this is one of the most stupid use of taxpayer dollars. I am sure Maine has some criminal elements far more threatening to the community than this man and the madam. Police really need to go after "real" criminals. I highly doubt Maine is free from real crime. Go after the murderers, rapists, assaulters, molesters, robbers, quit wasting our time and money. Legalize prostitution and tax it, pure and simple. Nevada has it legal and it works just fine. Wake up America you are living in the past.
Legalize prostitution
Here go the puritans, again.
Really think its none of the law's business what two consenting adults do. That said, this guy deserved to be convicted.
Filming other's without their consent, that was likely to lead to future extortion attempts, leaked videos, and just downright an invasion of privacy.
Doug
It would be hard for me to come up with a less relevant observation than the one in your post. What is it with some people and the gay agenda? Most people don't give a poop about gays, as a group, or their homosexuality, or gay marraige for that matter. I'm one of those people. Sorry, not a hater. Just not concerned about it one way or the other. But I am tired of it constantly being pushed into my face. The article was about a verdict in a criminal trial. It had absolutely nothing to do with homosexuality, or gay marraige.
Doug, You are right on target! Conservatives continue to rail against gay mariage, while turning a blind eye to prostitution! Why? Only they can anwer that, and they seem not inclined to do so! As the old Irish expression goes: "do the crime, do the time". Selling sex is against the law. Period. Mr. Strong will soon find out about the "time".
Kent, you may have just presented the single lamest argument I have heard on this worthless blog so congratulations.
I'm trying here . . . I mean I'm really trying, but I see absolutely no correlation between gay marriage and prostitution.
Epic fail, partner...try again.
Illegal tax-free activities such as prostitution, illegal betting, illegal drug sales, money laundering maintain the national debt and as long as these activities are promoted, the lowly tax-payer will keep on paying someone else. These activities also carry legitimate businesses that would otherwise not exist - maintain the good-old-boy network.
Personal achievement by a non-Jew, non-Italian, non-Influential Catholic, non-Black, non-Episcopalian WHITE MALE is only a dream.
The world is infested with these flakes.
Prostitution is already arguably legal.
You have the right to sell your time and do what you wish with your own body, same as any prostitute, if her right to practice the profession is diminished, so is yours.
Any jury can decide any case based on its assessment of the constitutionality of the law being enforced...
But did you know that it is illegal to inform a jury of its power to decide based on constitutionality?
And that so informing a jury constitutes a mistrial?
You can look it up for your self if you still think you are living in America.
Sorry, but homosexual sex used to be illegal, too! I am a fiscally conservative Republican but much more libertarian when it comes to social issues. I believe that if the US would legalize prostitution, regulate it and tax it (like in some counties of Nevada) there would be many fewer issues with underaged prostitution, and the spread of STD's. I also believe in the legalization of pot.
All that I am saying is that I am sick and tired of both sides hopping on their "moral" high horse and trying to paint the other as either puritanical or the next thing to a satanic orgy! People's choices in their own personal lives need to have as little governmental intrusion as possible. I do not mean NO regulations in prostitution or pot production, but, I am tired of seeing our government trying to worm itself into every avenue of personal lives!
That would have been one fun exercise class. I bet many people didn't miss. Dan M it should still be illegal.
What's all this about Zumbas becoming prostitutes?! Isn't it illegal to have sex with the dead? I thought all Zumbas wanted to do was eat your brains, but this is too much!
I think it's high time we rounded up all these Zumbas from the street corners where they ply their evil trade and...
What's that you say? Zumbas aren't the same as zombies?
Never mind.
Mark Strong is just a fumb ducker and I have no sympathy . . . he was in it for the money and got burned.
Did it work? Did your armchair activism legalize prostitution? No? Maybe you should petition your elected officials then; it would go a lot further than writing "Legalize prostitution" on a comment board.
Until you are successful, prostitution will remain illegal in Maine, no matter how hard you wish it wasn't.
apparently you are too stupid or too intoxicated to see that I've made a pretty good argument that prostitution is already legal because any law that limits a persons ability to charge money for time and services and to do whatever they wish with their own body is arguably unconstitutional.
But hey, don't let that stop you from sucking an a bong.
so this guy got found guilty of felony charges for doing what hundreds of people do everyday, paying money to watch people have sex over the computer? Thhat's a great legal system you guys have got maine and your citizens sound like real prudes if a jury unanimously decided this, and to that other guy this is of no threat to anyone's marriaiage wtf are you trying to make this into? it's just some old guy watching porn and then interacting with the actress, get over it.
Were the Johns aware of the filming? Are you okay with people putting video cameras in dressing rooms or restroom stalls?
I actually don't object if there is illegal activity going on in those dressing rooms and bathrooms.
if you're committing a crime then you've lost your right to privacy so yeah I'm fine that those idiots who were willfuly engaging in prostutitution were being filmed since the person who installed the video-camereas owned the building and therefore is allowed to put cameras wherever the f she wants inside that establishment. it's not like she was breaking into their homes and putting cameras in their bedrooms then having sex with them there, they came to her private studio to engage in lewwd acts and i'm glad that they got caught but there's no way in f that a guy watching 50 miles away should be found guilty of anything.
So this guy was not found guilty for doing what hundreds (?) of people do everyday.
I'm pretty sure that it is illegal to put cameras in restrooms, no matter who owns the building.
Really? What about due process?
What if someone was eating a pot brownie inside the stall (gross)? Does that give someone the right to look at that person's penis?
Alright Bob then have the police come to my apartment ttoday and arrest me for having a video-camera in my bathroom but I promise you that I'll win that case every f';ing time you freedom-hating scumbag. And yeah due process will come later but when a crime's captured on video it's generally indisputable evidence that you're a criminal dirtbag and then no one will care about how the evidence was obtained which is why my bathroom camera rolls all day long just in case someone breaks in through the window and does something lewd to my medicine cabinet again.
no one would be looking at that hippie's junk in that case but that video would never even be released because it would be impossible to tell what the makeup of the thing that the guy''s eating is just from a visual-picture of it, how did you learn how to type when you can't even figurre out simple forensic-sccience on your own?
LitterHater, what part of "he was charged with helping to run a sex business" do you not understand? I'm here to help; if you don't understand something you just read, tell me.
ignorantia legis neminem excusat
I'm a regular readder you tool so thanks anyway but you don't know exactly what were all the details behind this case so don’t act like you know everything, I happen to have insider-information that he ddidn't run anything other thhen his mouth to a few of the wrong people which is why the law came down on him to begin with so stop speculatting when you know that you havee noo where near all of the facts involvved in this case you moron.
It shows </sarc>
Do you now? For a second there, it sounded like you don't have any information whatsoever.
Inside information?
Inside who?
Zumba teacher?
To everyone discussing that prostitution should just be legal...The problem is a lot of prostitution doesn't involve two consenting adults, many times it is a minor being forced physically and emotionally to do said sex acts. Its not always a victim-less crime.
LitterHater, #2- "As Maine goes...." Following this Zumba story led me across another recent story from Maine, that being about a case regarding the "use" of a Sexual Offender Registry and a State Supreme Court "Declaration of Constitutionality" of "continued post-judicial punishment discrimination and persecution". I don't know about "Prudes" but they definately can't draw the line between when punishment ends and discrimination and persecution takes over from there. And it appears that it's because the entire middle ground of "rehabilitation" is missing, not to mention the United States Constitution, with all its petty little bothersome things like Due Process, Double Jeopardy, Cruel and Unusual Punishment, Fourth Amendment, Equal Protection, Full Faith and Credit, NO Self-incrimination, and its "Shall" not "May" language, just to name several. "As Maine goes....so goes the Nation". (I hear it's got one of those scheming, scamming "Lie"-back-and-spread-'em-'Open for Business'" Republican Governors, too):
"many times it is a minor being forced physically and emotionally to do said sex acts. Its not always a victim-less crime."
If it were a legal business it would be regulated, and they would be checked to make sure they we not employing minors. Plus, with a legal avenue to pursue, many Johns would go to the legal places, and the market for the illegal sex would plummet to the few sick freaks there are.
JROCKETMAN..... "To everyone discussing that prostitution should just be legal... The problem is a lot of prostitution doesn't involve two consenting adults, many times it is a minor being forced physically and emotionally to do said sex acts. Its not always a victim-less crime."
I would be interested, JROCKETMAN, to know how many cases of minors, or otherwise "sex-slaves" there are in areas of Nevada where prostitution is legal. My guess is pretty close to zero. Often, as in your case, making an activity illegal creates it's own new set of problems, ie a black market where since there are no "regulations" it creates a market for horiffic crimes such as sex slavery. Legalize prostitution, and I'd guess there would be FAR fewer cases of forced prostitution.
I would just say that if we legalized prostitution we also should make the pimping of underaged children a guaranteed life sentence! This would really slow down this issue!
How did that work out for you buddy? Dumba**
It's a crime. And now he will be punished. He's a grown man.....
beinga creepy idiot is not a crime it's just something that should make respectable women and people in general avoid him but it's not sometthing that you should get locked-up for. This woman obviosuly is not rspectable and entiehr is he so they go perfect together but why are they not getting the men who actually had sex with her in a prostitution-arraingment and isntead focusing on someone who was watching thea ctivities involved? so stupid justice system this time man, they're not supppossed to be the morrality-police and no one got hurt here.
Why should I care if some slut wants to charge pathetic losers for sex? Why is prostitution illegal?
I'll just copy/paste from above since you may have missed it. ...The problem is a lot of prostitution doesn't involve two consenting adults, many times it is a minor being forced physically and emotionally to do said sex acts. Its not always a victim-less crime.
By that logic liquor should be illegal because children might get a hold of it.
jrocketman, I agree that the forced prostitution of children is disgusting, but, I would also say that if we made pimping an underaged prostitute a mandatory life sentence offense we could really make it a non-issue! Legalized prostitution in the EU seems to work and the levels of STD infection has been dramatically lowered vs. the illegal prostitution in the U.S.!
Make me sick!!! Get a life you pathetic losers!
That's it , no more Zumba Bumba for me!!!!
There are loads of long time residents in the area who post and twitter "Kennebunk" related stuff all the time. This situation has generated more classic "Mainer" type jokes and comments than you could possible ever imagine. Most of them are inside jokes, so there is little point in sharing them. But if I did, boy would I ever have a price on my head in the Kennebunks.
What exactly is the difference in paying cash for sex, or paying for dinner and a movie and sex?
It's only illegal because the government can't tax it.
The first one in this case is more wrong on two levels because it's a gamble whether or not you'll even have sex to begin with and since the moral-pollice would also tell you that gambling's wrong you're damned if you do or don’t. also if you win that gamble and have sex how do you know what value to put on it so taht you can claim it as "gambling winnings" for tax purposes? either the i.r.s, needs to put out the exact dollar-value of sex on a sliding scale from having sex with a 10 all the way down to a 1 or else i will never be ablke to take them seriosuly on this issue.
Glad the jurors saw thru his lies. He's a weasel and needs to pay for his crimes. Enjoy prison loser!!!
So he's an insurance agent - what's the difference between screwing your clients and watching your clients do it?
Are the men in the videos being charged...
Yes they have been
I used to date a zumba instructor from Maine..... but I never got to Bangor !
This is such a pathetically sad story. Doesn't the law enforcement and legal system have anything better to do? Sheesh..........
I believe you were targeted because you broke the law and are a moron. He should have known that pussy corrupts, and absolute pussy corrupts absolutely.
Especially with corrupted pussy!
Go to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200.
Just Zumba with a partner turned sideways. Sexercise!!!!
Come on....Zumbas good for you, sex is good for you. Here is a girl who loves her work. Everyone benefits from what she does. It she didn't charge, she wouldn't be in trouble.
Why don't you spend your time and money chasing down some real bad guys, maybe some gang bangers. It won't be as much fun for you, but then your are not suppose to have fun, are you.
You're a funny man BillH-1430012! SHE WAS A gang banger! I guess the cops were doing their jobs...MORON!
If there's money in it and lobbyists have taken notice, it'll be legal pretty soon (or it might already be). Gambling is already legal, drugs are legal, and sex is legal. the Government should leave people alone and let them mess up their lives if they want to as long as they don't come begging for bail outs and handouts when they are rock bottom. Go jump off a cliff when you can't think what to do next or you have some incurable disease and no health insurance. If you don't want government intervention, FINE! Don't ask and don't expect anything. We'll all agree to it. Just don't reneg on the deal. The only thing I see as objectionable in this case is the cameras. Nobody, and I mean nobody deserves to get filmed without their consent.
I can't believe nobody here sees what this conviction really is.
"Promotion of prostitution" ==> PIMPING
If he was black and wearing a purple suit and had gold teeth - people would be screaming for the death penalty!
^^^^nailed it
If the prostitutes look any thing like the mistress Alexis Wright I wouldn't mind spending some time with them. Alesis is beautiful.
Over and over - proof men will F anything.
Look at Arnold S. in CA. WTF?
Look at this zumba womans skin! ugh and double ugh.
If the GOP can take money from donations and go to bondage clubs and hire "rent boy"....he should be able to do anything he wants
When he is sentenced and goes to Prison he will have all the sex he needs behind bars. Even if he has to take matters in his own hand
He will never see prison, possibly a county Jail but unlikely as these are misdemeanor convictions and I can't think of anyone in Maine ever being jailed for Promotion so.....,
Perhaps Maine Transplant, you shouldn't think. I guess only time will tell what the judge decides.
This idiot is already in dire straights financially and his career is ruined. Hopefully his wife takes the rest of what they own, divorces his pathetic azz and tosses him to the gutter with his whore so they can F*ckoff into the sunset.
A few "facts" so that you may better criticize the decision/case
The Maine Law (Supreme) Court ruled that Strong (Defendant) could not be charged with violation of privacy as all of the "Johns" gave up any right to privacy when they engaged in a criminal act, prostitution
He was convicted of misdemeanors only, promotion of prostitution…. No felony charges which is why most people think this is insane
Strong, the Insurance salesman/Private Investigator has asserted from day one that the entire charge was brought because Wright (The prostitute) hired him to investigate the Kennebunk Police department for harassment
To make matters even more comical, the State Police were brought into investigation to help as the Kennebunk PD thought they had stumbled on major crime ring
When the MSP and KPD raided the office of Strong, there was much concern by Strong and his brother (An attorney) who was present that the Kennebunk PD and Officer Audra Presby who was subject of Strong's investigation would somehow get possession of Strong's computer seized in thee raid and somehow tamper with evidence. It was brought up in court by the State Police detectives that the computer that Strong had stored all the evidence of his investigation into the Kennebunk PD somehow, accidentally on purpose was left in the custody, are you ready....drum roll...of Officer Audra Presby and then returned to Strong's lawyer with no information on the hard drive (I know, most people keep computers with no information on their hard drives). Surprise, this was ONLY evidence that was left with Kennebunk PD and did not make it to State Police Lab????
Oh well, small Town Maine politics but I thought some of you might want some info from someone who was there :-)
"
Maine Transpant...Perhaps YOU think it's "comical". But people who were cheated on and betrayed don't feel that way! And if you are any indication of what the cat drags into this state, I suspect you'll be real popular and welcome...NOT!
Lady--please explain what duty Strong had to spouses of those men. Sure, the "johns" may cheated on their wives and caused pain in their families, but that's between the johns and their wives. We don't criminally prosecute people who sleep with married men or women without the exchange of money (referred to as extramarital affairs) even though those would be just as damaging to a marriage, if not more so, as someone is far more likely to leave their spouse for an affair partner where feelings are involved than to leave their spouse for a prostitute.
I'm not saying that married men sleeping with prostitutes or with others outside their marriage is any way noble or morally defensible. Just that it's not any of the state's business.
AmericanLady, there's a lot to be said for choosing a spouse carefully!!! Too bad hind-sight is 20/20, and some choices are poor ones!!
I live in Maine and frankly, these two are ... He was so in love??? I bet his wife is just tickled (and not as in in by a french tickler!...or would that be trickler??) and embarrassed beyond belief, not to mention the rest of his family...like his Mother and kids!
So some of you think it's ok to 'watch', one likening it to watch porn online. But what about all those people who get an email, or phone call, or worse yet mail(that may be opened by an unaware spouse) with pictures and threats of blackmail & extortion?? How would you all react?? What if your kids opened the envelope??
Yeah... Now all of a sudden it's YOU who have this hanging over your head... Your kid freaks out, texts her bestie for support and all of a sudden, half the population of AnyMaine Junior or Senior High knows that daughter (we'll call her) Ashley's Dad's new name is "John". It's in the papers. The teasing & Bullying starts, to the point where it becomes a distraction & problems in school.
The community feels pity for those "poor wife & kids", and the church they attend looks sideways at those same poor wife and kids. At the grocery and in church, people stare and whisper. The news journalists want to talk to the wife to ask how she feels. Or talk to the kids and asks intelligent questions like; how do you think this will affect your family, does this cause you any embarrassment or did your mother kick your father out, or are they getting a divorce?
Then there's the bank, places of employment... But I'm sure this all has to do with the 'puritanical' mindset that Shipwrecked alluded to... But maybe Shipwrecked's three teenage daughters look at their father with disgust and breakdown in tears when one of them tells him all that they have had to deal with in school and around the community, not to mention that the only guys who are now interested in them, want to know if they'll "put out". Or the really mean girls tease them telling them that they are pigs because their father is a pig.
Of course, guys like ShipWRECKED don't care. His so called friends think it's cool! Too bad he got "caught" Prostitution should be legalized. Of COURSE they HAVE TO ASK...How was she man?? Was she ANY GOOD? if they have really big gonads they'll ask Shipwrecked what did the broad do to "John" and how much did she charge?
Oh hell... Maybe now it's not so much puritanical Shipwrecked! Maybe it's just wrong! Maybe just maybe, if YOU married a woman, and vowed to forsake all others til death parted you, brought kids into the world with you, shared a house and bank account, that woman just might begin wondering how ELSE you cheated?? Money? Were there others?? So called fishing trips or hunting trips? All of a sudden, that spouse is looking at someone she doesn't know!
What she does know is that her kids have been betrayed and hurt and humiliated. She knows that he has lots of questions and she is just too damned hurt to ask because she's not sure she wants the answers. She knows that the trust is gone. And she knows that not just his name, but their whole family name was put on the internet for ALL THE FREAKIN WORLD TO SEE! And that's all BEFORE this trial!
But then, from the sounds of it, Shipwrecked probably isn't married. And if he is, he's just another one of those "John's" who is so selfish and self-centered that everything and everyone is not important as getting his piece of ass from a rather unattractive, smarmy, whore who would screw anything or anyone.
Now Shipwrecked... What if that puritanical wife decided she could never trust you again, divorced you on the grounds of adultery with a prostitute, took the house, the car, the bank accounts and the kids (who want nothing more to do with you-not even your two sons -18 & 22) and moved someplace where Mom used her maiden name and got a new job, and they had no association with that self absorbed "John" who was cheating on his family and lying every time he said he loved them? The family has been scarred, torn apart and embarrassed beyond belief. The daughters have been taught the lesson of insecurity, doubting every guy because no matter how great, honest and caring a wife/partner you are, ANY MAN may cheat.
Was it worth it??
I wonder how you'd live thru this, all of you who aren't one of the families who have been affected?
Just because prostitution can have a negative impact on the family does not mean it's the state's job to police it. If no money had changed hands in this situation, but other than that it played out exactly the same as in your scenario, the state wouldn't care. No one would be going to jail for this, but the family would be just as distraught to learn of the father's infidelity.
Consensual sex occurs for all kinds of reasons. Sure, in the context of a monogamous committed relationship is the preferred social model, but that's hardly the only one. People exchange companionship, committment, friendship, meals, movie tickets, sympathy, anger, kinks, all manner of things valuable to them for sex with someone else. So why is that an exchange of money is prohibbited, where all other exchanges are allowed?
Drugs are exchanged for money and some are legal, others are not. Better question justross is...If you are so unhappy or dissatisfied, WHY STAY IN THE MARRIAGE?!?!?!?! And kindly, don't say for the kids. Because in the scenario I mentioned, the kids get hurt far worse than being honest and saying you fell out of love, or lusted after another and wanted to be with them. With gonorrhea becoming a greater problem as well as many other sexually transmitted diseases in recent years, frankly I think stiffer penalties should be in order.
Better question: And this would be ok for you if your wife paid for a male prostitute?HMMM...I wonder
Lady--you're really up high on that horse, aren't? Apparently so high up there that you can't even see down far enough to see the question that I was asking.
I never said that seeing prostitutes or otherwise having sex outside your marriage was good thing. All I want to know is why is that it's only the state's business when money is exchanged? If the harm that you are so concerned about in this case is the damage to the wife and kids(and I am not denying that they suffer here), that harm is a result of the extramarital sex, and exists whether it was for money or not, correct? And yet only one type of extramarital sex warrants police investigations, prosecutors, a trial, and court reporters reporting every sordid detail. What is about prostitution that raises the stakes to where now the state cares, not just the family? STDs are spread just as easily by other extramarital affairs as they are by prostitution.
Oh, and again, if the harm you are so concerned about here is to the family, why have none of the johns, you know, the ones who actually made the wedding vows and who are actually responsible for raising their children, being charged in this case? Why aren't they doing any time for the harm they did to their families?
Or are you are you one of those New Englanders who is upset that you can longer stitch letters to their clothing like was once done there to Hester Pryne? Would you criminalize all extramarital affairs?
Wow, what an active imagination, American Lady! I'll keep it simple for you so you don't go off on everyone again: DON'T cheat on your wife, the one to whom you promised fidelity, the mother of your children... See??? Wasn't that EASY???
What I think is laughable is that this guy TRULY thought he wouldn't get caught. I mean, a 5-year-old has more smarts than this guy does!! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA