By David Sharp
Associated Press

ALFRED, Maine — An insurance agent accused of helping a Zumba instructor use her fitness studio as a front for prostitution was convicted Wednesday in a case that set off a guessing game in a small Maine town over who was on her customer list.

Mark Strong Sr. controlled, supervised and managed the prostitution business and watched the sex acts live via Skype from his office 100 miles away, prosecutors contend.

The married businessman acknowledged having an affair with dance instructor Alexis Wright and helping her open the Kennebunk studio but contended he didn’t profit from her prostitution.

Wright is scheduled to stand trial in May, barring a settlement. Deputy District Attorney Justina McGettigan said the guilty verdicts vindicated law enforcement officials accused of putting too much time and money into the investigation.

“Prostitution is not legal in Maine. We don’t promote prostitution. We don’t want it in our communities,” she said. “The Kennebunk Police Department did a fabulous job investigating this despite all of the negative comments that were thrown out that it was a poor use of resources. In fact, it was a good use of resources because it makes our communities safer.”

Jurors deliberated for 4 1/2 hours before announcing that they had found Strong guilty of all 13 counts — 12 of promoting prostitution and one of conspiracy.

Strong, 57, of Thomaston, showed little reaction as the verdicts were announced. His wife buried her head in their son’s shoulder and quietly sobbed.

Later, Strong said his family needs to heal. “It’s not easy obviously,” Strong told reporters outside the courthouse. “It’s going to take time.”

Strong, who was released on personal recognizance, is due to be sentenced on March 19. Theoretically, he could be sentenced to up to 13 years in prison for the 13 misdemeanor counts but consecutive sentences are unlikely, especially since he had no criminal record, attorneys said.

Defense lawyer Dan Lilley said he was disappointed by the verdict but is now focusing on sentencing and possible appeals.

“I never argue with a jury. It’s a useless exercise. We’re going to look over the options we have now,” he told a throng of reporters gathered outside the courthouse. He said he anticipated a sentence ranging from a fine to “weeks and perhaps months incarceration.”

The scandal in Kennebunk, a village known more for its sea captains’ homes and beaches than crime, attracted international attention in the fall after it was reported that Wright’s ledgers indicated she had more than 150 clients and made $150,000 over 18 months.

Authorities then sent the town abuzz with word that they would be charging each of the johns, leading residents to wonder who they were. Residents, though, soon grew weary of the media attention.

Testimony and videos presented to jurors indicated Strong was familiar with operational details of Wright’s activities, chatting via Skype before and after her appointments and watching the sexual encounters from his office in Thomaston. Before each tryst, Wright took time to make sure her video camera was hidden and pointed at the massage table where the encounters took place.

The judge previously dismissed 46 invasion-of-privacy counts that stemmed from videotaping of prostitution clients without their knowledge.

Even as lurid details emerged in the courtroom, Strong’s wife of 30 years and several other family members remained seated several rows behind him. The verdict in the delay-plagued trial came more than six weeks after the start of jury selection, which was halted twice because of legal action that went to the state supreme court, leaving potential jurors in limbo for weeks.

Jurors left without talking to reporters. One thing that was missing from the trial was testimony from Wright’s accused clients. Eighteen of them were on the state’s list of witnesses, but none of them testified after attorneys stipulated that the encounters took place.

As for Wright, her attorney and prosecutors will hold a settlement conference next week, McGettigan said. Barring a settlement, Wright is scheduled to stand trial in May on more than 100 counts that include prostitution and tax violations.

Sarah Churchill, Wright’s lawyer, said the issues are different with her case. She declined to comment on settlement talks.

Raquel Maria Dillon
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Passengers reacted with shrugs but largely agreed with a new policy announced by the Transportation Security Administration that airline passengers will be able to carry small knives and previously forbidden sports equipment on planes.

“It’s common sense,” said Pat O’Brien, who stood at Los Angeles International Airport after arriving from Durango, Colo. “You can make anything into a knife so I don’t have a problem with it at all. You can sharpen a credit card to make a sharp implement.”

Aviation security consultant John L. Sullivan agreed with O’Brien, saying a pen or toothbrush can be sharpened like the “shivs” inmates sometimes make in prison.

“There are a lot of things you can use on an airplane if you are intent on hurting someone,” said Sullivan, co-founder of the Welsh-Sullivan Group in Dallas. “Security is never 100 percent.”

The changes announced by the TSA Tuesday take effect April 25. Box cutters, razor blades and knives that don’t fold or that have molded grip handles will still be prohibited.

The new policy also allows for souvenir baseball bats, golf clubs and other sports equipment to be carried on instead of checked, a move that brought a thumbs up from Dean Rhymer, who plays club hockey for the Junior Los Angeles Kings and strode into the terminal at LAX carrying his hockey stick.

“I think it’ll be helpful,” Rhymer said. “It’s easier to carry it on to bring it places.”

Sullivan, speaking as a passenger not a consultant, worried more about the sporting goods than the small knives, saying the “last thing I need is someone getting on a plane taking up valuable space with their pool cues and hockey sticks.”

The new policy conforms U.S. security standards to international standards, and allows TSA to concentrate its energies on more serious safety threats, the agency said in a statement.

The announcement, made by TSA Administrator John Pistole at an airline industry gathering in New York, drew an immediate outcry from unions representing flight attendants and other airline workers, who said the items are still dangerous in the hands of the wrong passengers.

Transport Workers Union Local 556, which represents over 10,000 flight attendants at Southwest Airlines, called the new policy “dangerous” and “shortsighted,” saying it was designed to make “the lives of TSA staff easier, but not make flights safer.”

“While we agree that a passenger wielding a small knife or swinging a golf club or hockey stick poses less of a threat to the pilot locked in the cockpit, these are real threats to passengers and flight attendants in the passenger cabin,” the union said in a statement.

The new policy permits folding knives with blades that are 2.36 inches or less in length and are less than 1/2-inch wide. The policy is aimed at allowing passengers to carry pen knives, corkscrews with small blades and other knives.

Passengers will also be allowed to bring onboard as part of their carry-on luggage novelty-sized baseball bats less than 24 inches long, toy plastic bats, billiard cues, ski poles, hockey sticks, lacrosse sticks and two golf clubs, the agency said. The policy goes into effect on April 25.

Security standards adopted by the International Civil Aviation Organization, a U.N. agency, already call for passengers to be able to carry those items. Those standards are non-binding, but many countries follow them.

There has been a gradual easing of some of the security measures applied to airline passengers after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

In 2005, the TSA changed its policies to allow passengers to carry on airplanes small scissors, knitting needles, tweezers, nail clippers and up to four books of matches. The move came as the agency turned its focus toward keeping explosives off planes, because intelligence officials believed that was the greatest threat to commercial aviation.

And in September 2011, the TSA no longer required children 12 years old and under to remove their shoes at airport checkpoints. The agency recently issued new guidelines for travelers 75 years old and older so they can avoid removing shoes and light jackets when they go through airport security checkpoints.
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Associated Press writers Joan Lowy and Eileen Sullivan in Washington and David Koenig in Dallas contributed to this report.

DORAL, Fla. — Cheering Venezuelans in the U.S. waved their country’s flag and expressed hope Tuesday that change would come to their homeland after the death of long-ruling populist President Hugo Chavez.

“He’s gone!” dozens in a largely anti-Chavez community chanted after word spread of the death of the 58-year-old leftist. Many said they were rejoicing after nearly a decade and a half of socialist rule heavily concentrated in the hands of Chavez.

“We are not celebrating death,” Ana San Jorge, 37, said amid a jubilant crowd in the Miami suburb of Doral. “We are celebrating the opening of a new door, of hope and change.”

Wearing caps and T-shirts in Venezuela’s colors of yellow, blue and red, many expressed cautious optimism and concern after the announcement of the death.

“Although we might all be united here celebrating today, we don’t know what the future holds,” said Francisco Gamez, 18, at El Arepazo, a popular Venezuelan restaurant in Doral.

Chavez, though cancer-stricken in recent years, had led the oil-rich Latin American nation for years while espousing a fiery brand of socialism and bickering with a succession of U.S. governments over what he called Washington’s hegemony in the region.

Many in Florida’s large Venezuelan community and other such pockets around the U.S. are stridently anti-Chavez and had fled their home country in response to the policies his government instituted.

Doral has the largest concentration of Venezuelans living in the U.S. They transformed what was a quiet suburb near Miami’s airport into a bustling city affectionately known as “Doralzuela.”

El Arepazo is at the heart of the community and sells arepas, corn flour patties stuffed with fresh cheese and other fillings. Hundreds of Venezuelans gathered at the restaurant with family and friends to watch news broadcasts covering the death.

Doral Mayor Luigi Boria said 30 police officers were assigned to monitor reaction, but said all was under control late Tuesday.

An estimated 189,219 Venezuelan immigrants live in the United States, according to U.S. Census figures. In addition to Florida, there are sizable Venezuelan communities in Los Angeles and New York.

A large number of professionals and others left their country beginning after Chavez became president in 1999. Many did not agree with his socialist government, became frightened of soaring crime or simply sought better fortunes abroad.

At Mil Jugos restaurant in downtown Santa Ana, in Southern California’s Orange County, the Briceno family rejoiced. Daughter Norah Briceno left her country 14 years ago after struggling economically under Chavez despite a master’s degree in finance and a popular restaurant. She sold her business to a friend and opened an identical restaurant in California.

“When Chavez won, if you weren’t with the Chavez revolution, you were out and you barely had enough money to eat,” she said. “Finally, he’s died. He’s the reason we had to leave home and we’re all here.”

Her mother, Solange Briceno, is nervous about her son who remains with his family in Venezuela. The 73-year-old called him Tuesday in between serving customers steaming cachapas — Venezuelan sweet corn pancakes.

“I am very worried,” she said.

In Washington, President Barack Obama said in statement the Chavez’s death marks a challenging time for Venezuela. He said the U.S. is committed to promoting democratic principles, human rights and the rule of law.

Chavez’s inner circle has long claimed the U.S. government was behind a failed a 2002 attempt to overthrow him, and he has frequently played the anti-American card to stir up support.

Others, meanwhile, mourned Chavez’s death.

Former U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy II recalled that Chavez and the people of Venezuela donated 200 million gallons of heating oil to Citizens Energy, which distributes oil to lower income families in 25 states and Washington, D.C.

Kennedy, who heads Citizens Energy, said Chavez cared about the poor. A nephew of President John F. Kennedy, he said his prayers go out to Chavez’s family and the Venezuelan people.