[ed. A story with a few angles, some quite humorous.]
For more than a year, the police have been investigating reports that the local Zumba instructor was using her exercise studio on a quaint downtown street for more than fitness training. In fact, the police say, she was running a one-woman brothel with up to 150 clients and secretly videotaping them as they engaged in intimate acts.
Now, the police have started releasing the names of her clients who have been charged with patronizing a prostitute. This has set the town buzzing because the list is rumored to be replete with the names of prominent people. (The Portland Press Herald identified one suspect as a former mayor of South Portland.) The first 21 people, whose names were released Monday, are to appear in court on Dec. 5.
The release of the names has stirred chatter everywhere here — in coffee shops, parking lots and the small shops along York Street, the main drag — about who was on the list. It has also prompted debate over whether the names should be released. And it no doubt has led to less academic discussions behind the closed doors of many homes across this region.
One local entrepreneur tapped into the zeitgeist and printed up T-shirts that read: “I’m not on the list. Are you?” They sold out instantly.
The case is somewhat complicated. The police say that by videotaping her clients, Alexis Wright, 29, the Zumba instructor, invaded their privacy and that the clients, in addition to being suspected perpetrators, are also thus victims.
That led to a convoluted court ruling that the names of the clients would be released but without further identifying information, like their addresses or dates of birth.
“People throughout New England are up in arms that their names might match,” Lt. Anthony Bean Burpee said in an interview.
When a list of the first 21 names was made public Monday night, it contained many common names. “Paul Main” was one, and the news whipped around town because Paul Main once worked for the sheriff’s department and even ran for sheriff himself a few years ago.
That Paul Main said in an interview Tuesday that when he saw his name on television, he started to laugh. But when he heard that a Boston radio station was identifying him as a client, he stopped laughing.
Mr. Main, 65, said that despite the mix-up, he has not suffered any real harm — but that other people could. He believes the names should be published, but only with identifying information. “There should be no ambiguity,” he said.
Late Tuesday, Justice Thomas Warren of Superior Court reversed himself and ruled that the addresses could be released; they were published Tuesday night.
Generally, women who were interviewed here seemed to applaud making the list public with as much information as possible. Men, on the other hand, generally thought that the crime was minor and that releasing the names would only harm the families.
by Katherine Q. Seelye, NY Times | Read more:
Photo:Robert F. Bukaty/Associated Press
