'Scottish madam' pleads guilty to promoting prostitution in New York
A Scottish "madam" accused of operating a high class escort service from her home in New York has pleaded guilty to promoting prostitution.
Anna Gristina appears in State Supreme Court in New York
By Mark Hughes in New York
12:36AM BST 26 Sep 2012
Anna Gristina, 44, was arrested in in February accused of running a multi-million dollar brothel for the past 15 years while living a double life as a 'soccer mom' in Upstate New York.
She spent four months in prison before being released on a $250,000 bond in June.
Mrs Gristina previously denied the allegations against her. The New York Daily News reported that she had insisted she would not plead guilty just hours before yesterday's appearance.
The newspaper reported her as saying: "There will be no plea todayﾅIﾒm going to listen to the options. A trial is still a strong option."
However once inside Manhattan Supreme Court she told the judge she would plead guilty to the sole charge remaining against her. "I would gracefully like to take your plea," she told the judge Juan Merchan.
The paper also said that she will receive a six month sentence in November but because of the time she has already spent in jail she will not return to prison.
Prosecutors had said Gristina had a roster of wealthy, well-placed clients and boasted of law-enforcement connections during 15 years in a business that made her millions. She claimed she was simply starting a dating service.
She had been charged with a single count of promoting prostitution, stemming from a July 2011 tryst that authorities say she arranged involving two women and an undercover officer posing as a client.
Mrs Gristina's case had been littered with bizarre twists and turns. She has repeatedly changed her lawyers, at one point attempting to appoint Uri Geller's son, Daniel, a move which was blocked by the judge.
Mrs Gristina could be deported when she is sentenced later this year. She was born in Kirkliston, near Edinburgh, but is thought to have lived much of her adult life in New York.
Her husband Kelvin Gorr has stood by her since her arrest. He has attended many hearings along with her 9-year-old son, Nicholas, her 18-year-old son, Stefano, and her 23-year-old daughter, Suzie Pak.
Before she was released from prison in June her family launched a website appealing for donors to help pay her bail, which was at that point set at $2 million.
Her husband complained that the amount was unusually high and wrote: "Real criminals, such as alleged rapists, murders and child molesters have been required to pay less bail than she.
"Even more horrific are the conditions of the facility she is being held in. "As if this wife and mother was a war-criminal, Anna is kept in solitary confinement, in a room where the temperatures exceed over 100 degrees.
"Rats and roaches scurry all around her. The authorities humiliated her further by attempting to make her wear only a T-shirt and diaper."
Another section of the site, apparently written by her children, read: "There is never a day, a morning, an hour, a minute that goes by that we don't miss our Mother. To us, she is the woman who we call for when we are sick, who goes to our school plays and soccer games, who smiles in our eyes. She is Mom.
"Our small family cannot afford the huge bail amount set for her - 2two million dollars! We are hoping that you will donate to help us pay for her bail."
Mrs Gristina was accused alongside Jaynie Mae Baker, a 30-year-old accomplice. But Baker agreed to plead guilty to charges last month fuelling speculation that she was planning to testify against Mrs Gristina. But ahead of yesterday's hearing Mrs Gristina said she was not worried about that possibility.
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