“I’m married to this man. He didn’t do nothing,” said the loyal wife of one defendant, as a dozen men who were swept up in a prostitution sting made their case in court with the help of a prominent civil rights attorney (pictured).
The alleged johns were the first wave of arrestees caught in a prostitution crackdown initiated by the city’s new police chief on Aug. 15. As they showed up to enter pleas in New Haven Superior Court Friday morning, they gave their own take on a case that has sent their pictures plastered across TV news screens.
Their day in court Friday came on the heels of a second sting by the New Haven police department, this one targeting prostitutes themselves. As the “johns” sat in Courtroom A at the Elm Street court, seven women and one man were being arraigned in Courtroom B on charges of prostitution.
A group of the accused Johns, buddies from Fair Haven, sat together in a row in metal chairs, awaiting their turn before Judge Richard Damiani. Other arrestees hailed from Hamden, East Haven, North Branford and Bridgeport.
One of the accused, a tall Italian man from East Haven named Joseph, hired a civil rights attorney to defend his case. Attorney Michael Jefferson (in photo at top of story) said this is the first time his client has ever been arrested.
Jefferson blasted the sting and the associated publicity it has caused.
“I don’t think people should have their names dragged through the mud for patronizing a prostitute,” Jefferson said.
“He Didn’t Do Nothing”
As her husband awaited his fate inside the courtroom, one loyal wife stood in the atrium, fiercely contesting the charges.
“I know how he is,” said the wife, who declined to be named. The women gave a different version of what really happened that night:
Her husband was driving home to Lombard Street from a construction job on the Boulevard on the day of the sting. He was in the passenger seat of a truck. His coworker was driving. When they stopped at a stop sign on Chapel Street, a woman came up to the car.
The driver pulled down the window.
“How are you doing?” said the driver.
“You’re under arrest,” the woman — a cop disguised as a prostitute — supposedly said. Both the driver and passenger were put in handcuffs, according to the man’s wife.
How closely the wife’s story lines up with what happened that night remains to be determined. The whole sting was caught on video tape, according to Chief Lewis. Lewis wouldn’t release the tapes because they are evidence in a criminal case.
“I would like to hear the tape to find out what really happened,” said the accused man’s wife. She said she thought the tapes would prove that her husband didn’t speak to the supposed prostitute. She said she was hiring a private attorney to fight the charges.
This was the first time her husband had ever been arrested, she said.
“It sucks, ‘cause it’s embarrassing.”
As they milled around in the lobby during a break in court, several accused johns declined to engage in conversation about what they’d allegedly done.
“I live on that street, that’s all,” said a young man named Jose from Fair Haven.
“I don’t want to talk. I’m in enough trouble at home,” said Joseph, Jefferson’s client.
Like most of the other accused johns, he was granted entry into accelerated rehabilitation (AR), a program for first-time offenders. Under AR, defendants pay $135 and get a probation period of between one day and two years. If the defendant carries out the probation period on good behavior, then the case gets dismissed, Jefferson explained.
“My client is not admitting any guilt in this affair,” Jefferson emphasized. “He just wants to put this matter behind him.”
Michael of Branford, who told the Independent he was innocent of the charges, also declined to fight his charges. He was granted AR, too.
This time, he declined to comment. “I’ve had my name splashed across the papers enough,” he said. Following the men’s arrests, the police department released the names, photos, and addresses to local media outlets. They were published on TV and in the Register.
Prostitutes “Picked On”?
In a hallway conversation, Attorney Jefferson blasted the sting as misguided.
“Let’s be real about this,” he said. “We have some real issues around crime in this city – we shouldn’t be wasting precious resources on prostitution stings.”
While he admitted a sting “clearly will deter certain folks” from seeking prostitutes, he said the stings won’t solve the problem. “It’s not going to drive prostitution out of New Haven — it’s going to drive it into a different neighborhood.”
Over in courtroom B, the eight alleged prostitutes swept up in a second sting made their first appearance in court. Most were released on a promise to appear, according to court staff.
The sting ran from 10 p.m. Thursday into early Friday morning, according to mayoral spokesman Jessica Mayorga. The suspects were apprehended in Fair Haven and Dwight/Kensington by a cop posing as a john. They ranged in age from 28 to 56.
They found themselves a supporter in Jonas Magnotti, a tall tattooed ex-con returning to court Friday on drug charges.
“I live with five prostitutes,” Magnotti claimed. He said the women are all drug users. The needle-exchange van pulls up to his Ferry Street home every day, he said.
He said the women want to get help, but they have trouble finding methadone clinics to take them.
“They’re desperate,” said Magnotti. “They’ll suck a dick for a dollar. Why pick on them?”
Chief: No Excuses
Reached later by phone, Chief Lewis disagreed with Jefferson’s line of argument and blasted Magnotti’s claims as “absurd.”
“Picked on? They’re committing criminal behavior,” balked the chief. “They’re destroying neighborhoods.”
Lewis argued that he’s getting to the “root” of a problem that destroys quality of life for the women and girls who get mistaken for prostitutes, as well as the families with kids who “feel like prisoners in their own homes” because they look out the window and see prostitutes on the prowl.
“It’s an absolute excuse to say that [prostitutes] have all these other issues,” Lewis added.
“I sympathize and I understand that they have a tough life. That isn’t the same as condoning their conduct. If they continue to violate the law and disrupt that neighborhood,” they have to be stopped, the chief said.
Lewis asked what people like Magnotti are doing to help the women. If they’re left on the streets, they’ll continue a life of addiction and possible abuse, he said.
“They have to be gotten into the system,” Lewis said, “and this is the only way to get them into the system.”
Jefferson, the attorney, advocated coming up with “creative solutions” like establishing a red-light district in town.
“If they think prostitution should be legalized, they need to go to the legislature,” responded the chief.
Meanwhile, the chief vowed to proceed with the crackdown: “We are going to continue stings on any illegal behavior that is destroying these neighborhoods,” he said. “We are going to give the neighborhood back to the good people who live there.”