Zumba Scandal: Prostitution Run Inside of Fitness Studio, Instructor Indicted [UPDATE]

Zumba Scandal: Prostitution Run Inside of Fitness Studio, Instructor Indicted  [UPDATE]

A popular Zumba instructor has pleaded not guilty to charges that she ran a brothel from her fitness studio and secretly filmed illicit encounters with clients.

Bangor Daily News reported:

Alexis Wright, 29, appeared in court today charged with 109 counts including prostitution and tax evasion. Miss Wright, of Wells, Maine, is alleged to have taped herself having sex with men who were unaware they were being filmed and kept meticulous books suggesting she made as much as $150,000 from prostitution. Police have issued summonses to Wright’s alleged 150 customers, some of whom are well-known, who visited the brothel at her Pura Vida studio in Kennebunk  

Some clients were expected to be charged next week after police conducted a five-month investigation into the illegal goings-on at the gym. Anonymous tip-offs led police to the scandal occurring after hours at Pura Vida, according to the Bangor Daily News. Mark Strong Sr, a 57-year-old insurance agent and Wright’s alleged business partner, also pleaded not guilty to 59 counts of promoting prostitution, invasion of privacy, and conspiracy at the Portland courthouse.

Here's the details on her indictment:

Wright has been indicted on 106 counts involving alleged prostitution and violation of privacy, as well as 15 tax-related counts. She faces multiple counts of:

• engaging in prostitution, a Class E misdemeanor
• and violation of privacy, a Class D misdemeanor

All of these offenses allegedly occurred between October 2010 and Feb. 13, 2012.

• The tax-related counts include failure to pay taxes and unsworn falsification, Class D misdemeanors. Class D crimes can carry a sentence of up to 364 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.
• Wright also faces two counts of theft by deception of greater than $10,000, a Class B crime, and evasion of income tax, a Class C crime. Some of the tax charges date back to 2008.
• A Class B crime carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. A Class C crime is punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Strong’s lawyer, Daniel Lilley, said his client loaned money to Wright in the belief that her Zumba studio was a good business venture.

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UPDATE on Oct. 15, 2012:  The police announced 21 names of men who were issued summons for engaging in prostitution with a 29-year-old Zumba instructor who's charged with turning her dance studio into a brothel in this seaside community and secretly videotaping her encounters.

The rumors are likely to continue in the weeks ahead as police release the names of other accused johns in police activity reports that are issued every other week listing people charged with offenses ranging from allowing dogs to run at large and marijuana possession to driving under the influence.

Police said more than 150 people are suspected of being clients and many of them were videotaped without their knowledge.

In town, residents heard the list could include lawyers, law enforcement officers and well-known people, heightening their curiosity.

The list of names was delayed Friday by legal action by an attorney representing two of the people accused of being johns. The lawyer, Stephen Schwartz, said releasing the names will ruin people's lives, even if they're acquitted of the misdemeanor charges against them.

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Long Island Substitute Teacher Kaitlin Grant Arrested for Sexual Relationship with Student

Long Island Substitute Teacher Kaitlin Grant Arrested for Sexual Relationship with Student

Report from ABC News:

A substitute school teacher is facing charges she had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old female student at a Long Island high school.

Kaitlin Grant of Elmont was arrested Friday morning. The 23-year-old woman is charged with criminal sexual act and endangering the welfare of a child. She is scheduled to be arraigned later Friday.

Nassau County police say the relationship with the Freeport High School student started in November 2011 and ended this month. Police said a member of the victim's family contacted authorities.

The Freeport Schools say Grant had no prior criminal record and passed all background checks; she will no longer work as a substitute.

Freeport Superintendent Kishore Kuncham said the school is cooperating with the investigation.

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Former HS Teacher Tiffany Webb Loses Job From Seductive Photos From 12 Years Ago

Former HS Teacher Tiffany Webb Loses Job From Seductive Photos From 12 Years Ago

Many say she is just too hot and sexy to be teaching and maybe that is why she no longer has her teaching job now.

Reports say Tiffany Webb, who is a highly regarded guidance counselor at Murry Bergtraum HS for Business Careers downtown, was fired after 12 years with the Department of Education. Its all because photos of her in lingerie and bikinis from an early career as a model have still been floating around the Internet. It's kind of hard to imagine photos from before the turn of the century are making there way back into her life.

Tiffany Webb is now 37 and says she posed as a model for lingerie from ages 18 to 20, but stopped modeling several years before she became a city teacher in 1999. Her teaching career has included working in elementary, middle and high schools.

But the photos — virtually all Photoshopped or altered, she says — kept popping up without her permission on sleazy sites such as “Mo Girls Entertainment” and “Showgirlz Exclusive,” even though she demanded their removal.

We can tell the photo above and some online are altered.

Webb disclosed her former career when first hired. Yet she was investigated by the DOE three times — and twice spent a year in the “rubber room” — while officials probed the photos.

Each time, she was cleared to return to work with students.

Though she received good ratings, and was respected at Murry Bergtraum HS, her ex-principal Andrea Lewis claimed that a student showed her photos of Webb.

It was last year on Dec. 23, just days before Webb was to get tenure as an $84,200-a-year guidance counselor, is when she was dismissed for “conduct unbecoming” a DOE employee.

“The inappropriate photos were accessible to impressionable adolescents,” a three-member chancellor’s committee ruled by 2-1. “That behavior has a potentially adverse influence on her ability to counsel students and be regarded as a role model.”

Some former fellow employees state she should not be punished for her actions years ago.
Consequently, Tiffany Webb has changed her name and taken a teaching job in New Jersey but she's not done with the DOE. She is now suing the DOE in Brooklyn Supreme Court, charging:

• wrongful termination
• sex discrimination
• violation of First Amendment rights

She seeks reinstatement, back pay and punitive damages.

“I am a dedicated professional and enjoyed being a guidance counselor,” she told The Post. “I did my job well, and my students and parents thought very highly of me. I would love to return to the DOE and resume the career I have chosen to help and guide students.”

Well, we can understand if its true that the photos are resurfacing without her permission that this would be an issue. If she has left that life behind her and has proven this by her work as an teacher, then she should not be punished. But had she really left that kind of life completely?

Hiphopwired.com reported:

After a quick search on the Interwebs, however, it appears that the counselor was also known as Tiffani Webb and was talking about modeling as recently as 2008. Writing for The Black Urban Times, she did admit that she was finished with modeling work and wanted to serve as a role model for young women who aspired to enter the profession. Webb is also the host of YouTube talk show series "Girl Talk NYC."

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Former Assistant Coach Mike McQueary and Whistleblower Sues Penn State $4 Million

(Mike McQueary suing Penn State for $4 million)

Former Assistant Coach Mike McQueary and Whistleblower Sues Penn State $4 Million

If we all remember what happened in the beginning that busted the Jerry Sandusky case wide open but quietly, it would be Penn State's former assistant coach, Mike McQueary. McQueary's concern about what he saw Sandusky doing in the showers with a young boy was heard on deaf ears but it spiraled into why things weren't handled correctly back then.

Mike McQueary is now suing Penn State for $4 million. He's suing over the way he says he was treated in the Jerry Sandusky sex-abuse case, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. The former assistant football coach's whistleblower suit says 'the university fired him for cooperating with authorities and cast doubt on his credibility by publicly supporting two school officials he singled out for a failure to act.'

McQueary has been criticized for not doing more at the time. He is  seeking $4 million to cover the amount he would have made had he remained at the university his entire career.

He says the university has caused him "much distress, anxiety and embarrassment" since Sandusky's November arrest. Meanwhile, Sandusky's sentencing is scheduled to take place next Tuesday.

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Brooklyn Assistant Principal Under Investigation For Exchanging 3,000 Texts with Student

Brooklyn Assistant Principal Under Investigation For Exchanging 3,000 Texts with Student

A Brooklyn assistant principal Christian Del Re may lose his job for “inappropriate contact” with a high school student, On Tuesday, investigators found he exchanged an astonishing 2,919 text messages with her over 91 days.

Christian Del Re, 32, has denied any wrongdoing but the assistant principal's copious text messages and after-midnight phone conversations with the 18-year-old student, raised enough red flags to get him suspended from Leon M. Goldstein High School for the Sciences, officials said.

On Sept. 6, he was reassigned to duties with no contact with students but he still collects his $101,056 annual salary as he fights the charges.

“We are moving forward with disciplinary charges against Christian Del Re and will be seeking his termination,” said Education Department spokeswoman Connie Pankratz. “He has been reassigned and is no longer at the school.”

The investigation begin in January when a student came forward to a staffer at school and told them of a possible relationship with a classmate. In fact, other students had witnessed some questionable behavior of Del Re.

Though students claimed they saw Del Re playing with the young woman’s hair and leaving the school’s parking lot with her in his car, both Del Re and the student in question told investigators that their relationship never went beyond texting and talking.

“Del Re said that he never touched” the student, according to Condon’s report.

The report further states:

Investigators examined Del Re’s cell phone and found he had texted the girl 1,442 times between Nov. 2, 2011, and Jan. 31, while the student texted him 1,477 times. It averages out to 1.3 text messages per hour between them for 91 days.

When they weren’t texting, they were on the phone with each other. Numerous phone calls between them occurred after midnight and ranged from 49 to 163 minutes, officials said. On at least two occasions, he called her about 3 a.m.

Del Re, who married his high school sweetheart, Gina, in 2005, claimed he was just helping the student cope with problems. He told investigators she “would talk to him about problems at school, problems with other students and problems with her boyfriend,” according to Condon’s report.

It's apparent Del Re has the backing of many of his students as they support him 100%:

A dozen students interviewed outside the school Tuesday claimed Del Re is being railroaded.
“He’s a good man and he was always very involved with the school and very helpful. He knew how to offer students advice,” said senior Carolina Guarrella.

Guarrella and other students insisted the student who first squealed on Del Re had a beef with the educator’s alleged paramour.

“There could be 3,000 text messages, but it doesn’t mean there was anything sexual,” Guarrella said. “I don’t believe it.”

We are not sure of the exact relationship that has gone on with the student and principal but we do believe there were too many texts exchanged between them.

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Bronx Daycare Teacher Joshua Conde Charged on Distributing Child Porn

Bronx Daycare Teacher Joshua Conde Charged on Distributing Child Porn 

A Bronx daycare teacher Joshua Conde was arrested and accused of possessing and distributing child porn. While Conde appeared in court, investigators released details about how they tracked him down. Joshua Conde worked in the Bronx House day care center. The feds infiltrated a child porn site and traced Conde's screen name to an 11th floor apartment in a high-rise in the Soundview section of the Bronx, where he was arrested on Thursday.

According to court papers, Conde told agents, "that he downloads pornographic materials from the internet, and that we would find child pornography on an external hard drive attached to his computer. They depict minors engaging in sexually-explicit conduct."

Conde worked at Bronx House for nearly one year, caring for children ages five through twelve. Officials say he passed a background check. "He was fingerprinted and put through a central registry and cleared. He was clean," the executive director told Eyewitness News.  

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NJ Teacher King Jamol Perry III Charged with Sexual Assault of Student

(King Jamol Perry III, arrested on sexual assault of student)

NJ Teacher King Jamol Perry III Charged with Sexual Assault of Student

A New Jersey high school coach is charged with sexually assaulting a student in 2006.

Prosecutors say the 38-year-old  special education teacher and cross country/track coach, King Jamol Perry III assaulted the now a teen girl while he was an assistant coach of the school's track team. The now 22 year old woman was a promising sprinter at the time.

Perry surrendered to SVU detectives at the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office in Totowa, New Jersey.
He is charged with:

• sexual assault
• endangering the welfare of a child
• and official misconduct

Perry faces a maximum sentence of ten years in New Jersey State Prison.
He was released Thursday afternoon on $100,000 bail.

Anyone with information about this investigation can contact Chief Assistant Prosecutor Joseph A. Del Russo of the Passaic County

Prosecutor's Special Victims Unit at  973-837-7626.

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