A contrite Cambridge city councilor apologized for causing “pain” to his family after being identified as one of the high-profile brothel “johns” accused of paying for sex in a Boston-area ring busted by the feds.
This came at the end of a day for a second round of probable cause hearings for the accused sex buyers. In all, 23 men have been called out of an expected 28, leaving five more to go next Friday.
City Councilor Paul F. Toner, like all but two of the alleged high-rolling risk-takers, did not show up to court but his attorney did.
“I’ve known Paul Toner my entire life and, in my view, he is a man of high character. He loves his family and his family loves him. None of us are perfect. He is a hard-working city councilor and the city of Cambridge is lucky to have him,” said attorney Tim Flaherty.
Flaherty addressed the media outside court after Cambridge District Court Clerk Magistrate Sharon Casey found sufficient evidence to level criminal charges against his client and he’ll be ordered to appear for his arraignment.
Casey has found sufficient evidence for a criminal charge of sexual conduct for a fee against every man called so far. The criminal complaints state that if convicted, the men could spend as much as a year in jail, pay a fine of up to $500 or both.
Toner did not respond to a Herald call to his cell phone, a number that was partially stated in court, but he did release an emailed statement: “I caused pain for the people I care about most. For that, I will be forever sorry. This is an ongoing legal matter and I will not have further comment at this time.”
The city councilor is in his second term after being first elected in November 2021, according to his city biography. He is the former president, from 2006 to 2014, of the Massachusetts Teachers Association. His teaching career started as a seventh- and eighth-grade social studies teacher at Harrington Elementary School in Cambridge before he became president of the local teacher’s association.
Toner is accused of agreeing to pay $340 for a “date” with a prostitute using the stage name “Tulip,” according to the police report partially read in court by Cambridge Police Lt. Jerrod Cabral.
Other men are accused of paying almost $1,000 for brothel prostitutes and they also did not show for their hearings Friday.
The names were being called out, but not spelled out. Only two alleged “johns” showed up last week.
The probable cause hearings were held in quick succession in East Cambridge in a large courtroom in Cambridge Juvenile Court — with some details being shared of the hundreds of dollars accused sex buyers reportedly paid for unprotected sex or a “girlfriend experience” with the brothel sex workers.
In one example, an alleged john spent $940 for one sleazy “bareback full service” unprotected sex romp.
The first six men called during Friday’s hearing were each represented by attorney Lorraine Belostock. None of them showed up.
“These are mere allegations and all my clients are presumed innocent under the law and we look forward to vigorously defending them under the law,” she said outside the court.
The names read out in court today were, in order of being called and with spelling confirmed by the criminal complaints: Steven Riel of Laconia, N.H.; Nathaniel Welch, of Concord; Jeffrey Henry, of Exeter, N.H.; Frederick G. Rosenthal, of Marblehead; Timothy Ackerson, of Waltham; Matthew E. Fulton, of Belmont; Anurag Bajpayee, of Cambridge; Howard Redmond, of Tewksbury; Paul F. Toner, of Cambridge; Paul E. Grant, of Charlestown; and James C. Cusack, Jr., of Boston.
Some details are being shared of the alleged “johns,” including the last four digits of cell phone numbers, hometowns, how much they allegedly paid for sex workers, like “Zora” and “Allison.”
Lt. Cabral read out pertinent details of the police report and indicated that the police identified their suspects by matching phone numbers that communicated with a “brothel phone” that was searched on a federal warrant. During the investigation, the police would match Registry of Motor Vehicle photos to the men seen on surveillance video entering and exiting the apartment building in Cambridge where the network ran women out of three apartments.
Other details investigators in court are sharing include allegations that some of the men wanted an “extended menu” of services that the women, some going by “Yumi,” “Adi” and “Ren,” could provide.
In one case, one hour with “Tiki” cost the alleged sex buyer $540 for a “two pop,” according to today’s testimony.
While Belostock said very little while appearing for her six clients in the morning session, some lawyers for accused johns in later hearings in the day did push back against the allegations.
Defense attorney David Gaudet, who represented Bajpayee, who told reporters after court is client is “not anyone you would have ever heard of,” said that the information identifying his client is “not enough,” and that a “‘fairly consistent’ matching of an RMV photo to surveillance video is not the same as being “consistent.”
Cambridge Police Det. Michael Alpers said on the record that these hearings are not supposed to contain cross-examination but otherwise did not challenge the questioning.
Magistrate Casey appeared to agree.
“I am not the fact-finder here. I am here to determine probable cause,” said Cambridge District Court Clerk Magistrate Sharon Casey.
Casey found probable cause and said a summons would be issued for arraignment at Cambridge District Court.
The next man up didn’t show and neither did his attorney.
Last week the names read in court were: John Doran, of Wellesley; David LaCava, of Waltham; Pablo Maceira, of Boston; Peter MacGillivray, of Boston; Kerry Wu, of Natick; Boya Zhou, of West Roxbury; Patrick Walsh, of Swampscott; Pinhao Chao, of Allston; Jonathan Lanfear, of Winchester; and Yihong Zou, of Boston.
Two of the accused, Jason Han, of Roxbury, and Mark Zhu, of Lincoln, did report to face the magistrate in court a week ago. They left without speaking to the media outside.
The madame of the brothel network that operated in Watertown, Cambridge and the Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C. was Han “Hanna” Lee, 42, of Cambridge. She was sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Boston to four years in prison for charges of coercing people to engage in prostitution and money laundering conspiracy.
Her fellow operators and employees, Junmyung Lee, 31, of Dedham, and James Lee, 69, of Torrance, California, have also pleaded guilty to their roles and will face sentencing later.
Update: 400-plus texts
Attorney Kevin Mahoney, who declined to further identify his client at last week’s first hearing, told the Herald the feds have “verified” 2,800 brothel clients and focused on the 28 defendants who sent “400 or more” texts or otherwise communicated with the brothel purveyors. This means any clients who texted less than that have escaped prosecution, he added.
Photo By Matt Stone/Boston Herald
Cambridge District Court Clerk Magistrate Sharon Casey at Middlesex Juvenile Courthouse during a hearing for men accused of buying sex from high-end brothels in Cambridge and Watertown. (Photo By Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
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