Cambridge city councilor named in Greater Boston brothel case

A Cambridge city councilor was among the men named publicly in court Friday as initial hearings continued for alleged sex buyers accused of frequenting a Greater Boston brothel ring.

Paul F. Toner did not appear for his hearing in Cambridge District Court, where authorities alleged he exchanged messages with brothel operators and at one point agreed to pay $340 for an hour with a sex worker by the stage name “Tulip.” Those messages occurred April 17, 2023, and police alleged Toner made multiple such arrangements with brothel operators between Jan. 1 and Sept. 28 that year.

“I caused pain for the people I care about most. For that, I will be forever sorry,” Toner said in a statement obtained by The Boston Globe. “This is an ongoing legal matter and I will not have further comment at this time.”

His lawyer, Tim Flaherty, said he’s known Toner all his life and views him as a “man of high character.”

“He loves his family and his family loves him. None of us are perfect,” Flaherty said in a statement. “He’s a hard working city councilor, and the City of Cambridge is lucky to have him.”

Toner did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon. A onetime Cambridge social studies teacher, he was elected president of the Cambridge Teachers Association in 2001 and went on to serve as vice president and then president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association from 2006 to 2014, according to his profile on the city’s website.

He was first elected to the City Council in November 2021 and won another term in 2023. Speaking to The Harvard Crimson ahead of his reelection, Toner billed himself as a “practical progressive,” adding, “I’ve kind of been described as the adult in the room. It’s great to be passionate about a subject, but we also have to be practical about a subject.”

Toner is among several men who have been identified as alleged clients of the high-end brothel network that operated out of apartments in Cambridge, Watertown, and the Washington, D.C., suburbs. Authorities are pursuing charges against a total of 28 men, 12 of whom were previously charged in hearings last week. 

More are due in court next week.

The hearings mark the first public disclosure of the alleged sex buyers’ names. Speculation has swirled around their identities since federal authorities arrested the brothels’ operators in November 2023; all three have since pleaded guilty, and the ringleader, Han Lee, was sentenced Wednesday to four years in prison. 

In announcing the bust, then-U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Joshua Levy prompted curiosity when he said the “wealthy and well-connected clientele” included politicians, military officers, and business executives. However, several of the men charged in the March 14 hearings in Cambridge came from more quotidian backgrounds, including a software engineer and a hospital radiologic technologist.

So-called “show-cause” hearings determine whether probable cause exists to issue a criminal complaint and allow prosecutors to continue pursuing the case. While the hearings are typically closed to the public, Clerk-Magistrate Sharon Shelfer Casey opened the alleged sex buyers’ hearings following requests from several local media outlets, and the state’s Supreme Judicial Court later denied an appeal from the accused to keep the proceedings behind closed doors. 

Just as he did in last week’s hearings, Cambridge Police Lt. Jarred Cabral read through a series of similar police reports for each of the accused, breaking down terminology he said was common slang in commercial sex work. Daniel Gaudet, an attorney for accused sex buyer Anurag Bajpayee, questioned the evidence supposedly pointing to his client’s involvement.

“The biggest issue that I have with the presentation today is that the evidence that would support or bolster probable cause is missing,” Gaudet argued, alleging a police report described Bajpayee’s appearance as only “fairly consistent” with surveillance footage from one of the brothel sites. 

“Where we have ‘fairly consistent’ as the officer’s opinion, I would suggest it’s not enough,” Gaudet asserted. “I would suggest it is not enough in a day and age where it is easy enough to access a phone number or cellphone. I would ask that you deny the complaint.”

Casey declined to do so, finding probable cause to issue the complaint against Bajpayee, who did not attend the hearing.

Below are the names of the accused whose probable cause hearings were held Friday: 

1. Steven Riel, 70, from Laconia, New Hampshire
2. Nathaniel Welch, 70, from Concord
3. Jeffrey Henry, 48, from Exeter, New Hampshire
4. Frederick G. Rosenthal, 74, from Marblehead
5. Timothy Ackerson, 46, from Waltham
6. Matthew Ellis Fulton, 64, from Belmont
7. Anurag Bajpayee, 40, from Cambridge
8. Howard Redmond, 40, from Tewksbury
9. Paul F. Toner, 58, from Cambridge
10. Paul E. Grant, 51, from Charlestown
11.  James C. Cusack Jr., 65, from Boston

Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between.