MYFOXNY.COM -
Anna Gristina, the suburban mom and so-called Millionaire Madam accused of running a pricey prostitution business in Manhattan, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a single count of promoting prostitution, sources said.
Earlier in the day, the New York Post reported the plea deal. Under a deal, Gristina, who sat behind bar at Rikers Island for four months after her arrest in February, will be sentenced to time already served and probation.
Assistant District Attorney Charles Linehan accused Gristina of making empty boasts -- picked up by surveillance before her arrest -- that she had connections in the FBI, New York Police Department and other law enforcement agencies who would tip her off when needed.
"We have no evidence to support any of these claims," Linehan said in state court. "(Gristina) ran a brothel for many years -- that is all."
Judge Juan Merchan also scolded Gristina for drawing needless attention to herself, including bringing her young son Nicholas to court on Tuesday amid a throng of news cameras.
"I can't see the benefit of exposing him to this," he said.
Gristina and her lawyer, Norm Pattis, left court without speaking to reporters.
On Wednesday, Pattis visited the set of Good Day New York where he answered several questions about the case.
"We were preparing for trial, it became apparent from discussions with the state that on its witness list were people that Anna loves. And the only way to win this case would be to destroy people Anna loves. There was no evidence that she ran some high fluting enterprise or that she had millions hidden. We kept asking for evidence and in the end the state had what it started with, nothing," Pattis told Good Day NY.
The judge warned Gristina, who is originally from Scotland and now lives in Monroe, N.Y., that she could also be deported.
"The equities are overwhelmingly in her favor," said Pattis.
Gristina has lived in the United States for several decades and her children live here.
Prosecutors had alleged that Gristina spent years running the hooker ring that catered to high-paying clients.
But the married mother of four said her business was simply a matchmaking service that catered to wealthy men, many of whom were married.
Pattis had sought to get the case dismissed by arguing that the district attorney's office "vindictively prosecuted" her because she wouldn't cooperate during an illegal interrogation.
In court papers, Gristina accused detectives of shrugging off her requests for a lawyer and telling her they'd let her go if she gave them information about five men -- not named in her filings, but described as a financier, an international banker and a member of a politically connected family, among others.
Authorities claimed they had years of wiretap evidence that Gristina had law enforcement connections and had laundered millions of dollars.
"There is evidence that an undercover cop got wired up, offered up money and said he needed to see two women in action…went to a hotel room.. and then left. Could we have defended that as a live peep show, yes, but Anna Gristina wanted to go home to her family," said Pattis.
But her arrest was on a sole charge that she and an alleged accomplice Jaynie Mae Baker arranged for two prostitutes to perform a sex show for an undercover cop posing as a client.
Baker -- a young and beautiful redhead whose appearances in court wearing high heels and expensive fashions became tabloid fodder -- and two alleged call girls apparently struck a deal with the D.A. to avoid jail time.
Gristina's sentencing date is Nov. 20.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
