‘Soccer Mom Madam’ Pleads Guilty

Monroe, NY – A suburban mother who was accused of running an upscale escort service (read: prostitution ring) in Manhattan pleaded guilty in criminal court on Tuesday. Media outlets have taken to calling her the “Soccer Mom Madam,” and, though she has entered her plea, she still insists that she was merely running a dating service.

Anna Gristina, a 44-year-old mother of four, pleaded guilty to a single count of promoting prostitution after her July 2011 arrest for arranging a tryst involving two women and an undercover police officer. The Soccer Mom Madam will be sentenced on November 20 and will be ordered to serve five years probation. Her four months in prison will count toward her sentence, and she won’t have to serve any additional time, reports MSNBC.

Prosecutors said that their five-year investigation of the Soccer Mom Madam revealed a list of wealthy, well-connected clientele collected over 15 years in a business that made her millions of dollars.

The defense, and Gristina herself, argued that the Soccer Mom Madam was merely running a dating service and that her 15-year proclivities were merely part of her plan to launch a dating website that would rival Match.com. According to the Huffington Post, the prosecutors in the lengthy and complex case called the proposed “dating service” merely “another business venture on the internet that involves matching up male clients with female prostitutes.”

The Soccer Mom Madam reached a plea deal sparing her a conviction that could have put her behind bars for up to seven years.

Here’s a video report of Gristina’s earlier release:

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