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2-14-13
Freedom of Access Act request, December 27, 2012
Second Freedom of Access Act request, January 20, 2013
On January 28, 2013 a response was received to my FOA request to Justina McGettigan, Deputy D.A. from D.A. Kathryn Slattery. D.A. Slattery provided the list of approximate 60 individuals charged. The request was for the remaining 150+ suspects charged.
FOIA – clarification, February 7, 2013
Why is it so difficult to get a response from the District Attorney’s Office to a FOA request? Why will the D.A. not uphold Maine statute and supply the list of the remaining 150+ suspects charged?
2.13.13
There have been many twists and turns in this case. Is this case headed to a selective prosecution and double standard of justice? Judge Nancy Mills scolded defense attorney Dan Lilley for defying a gag order, calls comments to media ‘unfortunate and unbecoming’.
Wouldn’t you agree that Attorney Jens-Peter Bergen, who knows, or should know, the law and pled guilty to violating state law is conduct unbecoming an attorney and in violation of BAR rules and professional conduct? He gets away with just a slap on the wrist and still practices law in Maine. This is NOT the only time Attorney Bergen has violated the law.
The trial of Mark Strong Sr has been halted. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court will take up an appeal by the prosecution.
Prosecutors are seeking to have 46 of the original 59 counts against Strong reinstated.
Justice Nancy Mills dismissed the 46 counts related to violation of privacy last week. The prosecutors appealed to the high court and asked for the trial to be stopped until a ruling is issued.
Jury selection for the trial was conducted behind closed doors Tuesday (January 23rd) with the public and the media barred from the proceedings. The Press Herald has filed an objection with the court saying the judge’s decision violates the First and Sixth Amendments. Jurors were dismissed for the day.
Sigmund Schutz, representing the Portland Press Herald appealed the ruling to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. The jury selection process continued on at the York County Courthouse on Wednesday while awaiting an opinion from the high court on the appeal.
Judge Mills resumed jury selection.
On Thursday (24th) jury selection continued behind closed doors over PPH’s objections. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court Thursday afternoon ordered the remainder of jury selection in the trial of Kennebunk prostitution defendant Mark Strong Sr. to be conducted in public. The court, in a 6-1 decision, ruled that Mills should not have barred the public from being present during voir dire, while potential jurors were questioned. Justice Saufley stopped the proceedings because of arguments that the secret jury selection in the case was improper.
The state’s highest court agreed with an appeal filed by attorney Sigmund Schutz, representing the Portland Press Herald and parent company MaineToday Media, that Superior Court Justice Nancy Mills erred by blocking access to questioning of jury candidates.
Justice Nancy Mills dismissed 46 of 59 misdemeanor counts against Mark Strong Sr., a day after the state’s highest court ruled the closed jury selection process had to be opened to the public.
Prosecutors appealed the dismissal, bringing the proceeding to an abrupt halt. Remaining members of the jury pool were sent home Friday, just as they had been the day before.
Trial in limbo pending appeal.
The state’s high court ruled Monday (January 28th) afternoon that the stalled trial can proceed while an appeal of dismissed charges against him is pending. The state Supreme Judicial Court, however, issued an order Monday authorizing the trial judge, Justice Nancy Mills, to decide whether to proceed with the trial with the 13 remaining charges against Strong.
The 46 counts against Strong that Mills dismissed were all for charges of violation of privacy and conspiracy to violate the privacy of Wright’s prostitution customers for recording their encounters with Wright in her Zumba studio.
The defense and the judge aren’t happy with delays in the trial of the business partner in a prostitution scandal at a Zumba studio. Prosecutors aren’t happy, either, after the judge dismissed 46 of 59 charges.
Maine’s highest court will expedite an appeal scheduling oral arguments on the matter for Feb. 13.
Judge Nancy Mills scolded defense attorney Dan Lilley for defying a gag order, calls comments to media ‘unfortunate and unbecoming’. Mills read segments of articles published by the Portland Press Herald and television station WGME-13 as examples of comments made Friday by Defense Attorney Daniel Lilley, in part that prosecutors must “fish or cut bait” and “get off their asses” in a trial that has gone in fits and starts in the past week.
“[Those comments are] just unfortunate and unbecoming for an attorney,” Mills told Lilley Tuesday. “Any further defiances of my order will be dealt with by me.”
Mills said she was alerted to published comments made by Lilley and his client on Monday by York County Deputy District Attorney Justina McGettigan in an email.
Up for the state’s highest court to decide is whether he will be tried on all 59 charges originally brought by prosecutors or just 13 counts of promotion of prostitution.
In a pretrial hearing on Jan. 25, Superior Court Justice Nancy Mills granted a defense motion todismiss all 46 privacy invasion charges against Strong.
On Tuesday, January 15th Atty. Daniel Lilley appeared in Cumberland County Superior Court before Justice Nancy Mills with a request to postpone Strong’s trial, which is scheduled to begin Tuesday, Jan. 22, in York County Superior Court in Alfred. Mills denied that request as well as a motion to change the venue of the scheduled trial.Since then, the trial of Strong has been on hold for more than two weeks as a prosecution appeal of that decision has worked its way through the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.
After the law court issues its ruling on the appeal, Strong will return to trial at the Superior Court level on either 13 or 59 charges, depending on whether the higher court upholds or overturns the dismissal of the 46 privacy invasion counts.
On Friday morning, January 18th, two hearings were held in Cumberland County Superior Court before Justice Nancy Mills. Open to the public was Lilley’s motion seeking to withdraw from the case. The second hearing, held behind closed doors, was for Strong and prosecutors to discuss possible plea deals with a judge.
Lilley filed a motion to withdraw based on the fact that he hasn’t been paid and the inability to prepare a case against the state’s unlimited resources. States Lilley “it is impossible for me to adequately prepare a case to defend this guy with a lack of resources and the fact that his business was destroyed and he has no income. Because of the publicity in the case, he has serious financial problems.”
Motion to Withdraw, click here.
Atty. Dan Lilley wants off the case.
Justice Nancy Mills denied Lilley’s request to withdraw. “We find ourselves in a ‘David and Goliath’ scenario against a state with unlimited resources, and which has brought most to bear,” Lilley told the court. “The devastation of the charges against my client and his … economic well-being have been substantial.”
Video, click here
No plea deal for Kennebunk prostitution case defendant. Mark Strong wants a deal with no jail time. To be acceptable to Strong, he said, the penalty “couldn’t be jail time, and it couldn’t be a big fine.” The plea deal talks were held with Justice Thomas Humphrey.
The case is scheduled to begin Tuesday, January 22th. It’s a case that has captured international attention and has been described by the lead defense attorney as an “over-the-top” misuse of government resources.”
Much more here:
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