Monroe woman charged as madam for high-powered clients

By Nancy Kriz MONROE — The Monroe community continues to be intrigued by the notoriety it has, now that a New York City judge has denied a reduction in bail for a Monroe woman accused of running a prostitution business for high-powered patrons from a Manhattan apartment.

With conversations taking place in homes, stores, the workplace and even on social networking sites, the Feb. 23 arrest of 44-year-old Anna Gristina after a five-year investigation by a unit of the Manhattan district attorney’s office that investigates police and other uniformed city workers, is a reinforcement that the immediacy of news - travels faster than lightening and the details of one’s life can be secured almost instantaneously.

Gristina’s handcuffed appearance in State Supreme Court the past Tuesday was to seek a reduction in her current bail of $1 million in cash or a $2 million bond - an amount she is currently unable to make - for allegedly running a brothel in an apartment on East 78th Street for wealthy clients.

A New York Times report described the apartment as a “modest, narrow brick walk-up just east of Second Avenue ... near an Indian restaurant, a dry cleaner and the historic bakery Orwasher’s.”

ABC News reported prosecutors said Gristina - who pleaded not guilty and is in Rikers Island - would be a flight risk if released. She is awaiting trial on a charge of third-degree promoting prostitution.

Gristina and an unnamed person were listed as co-defendants in an indictment issued last Friday by the New York City District Attorney’s Office.

Gristina allegedly promoted prostitution under the name Anna Scotland for 15 years, netting millions of dollars as women - some of them allegedly underage - and wealthy men came and went “from an unassuming brownstone on Manhattan’s Upper East Side,” ABC News reported.

Her list of clients allegedly included politicians, bankers, executives, top law enforcement officials and other powerful individuals, according to the New York Post.

‘Boasted of connections’ Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Charles Linehan said on Tuesday that Gristina “had boasted before her arrest that she had law enforcement contacts who would tip her off if she was in danger of getting caught,” The Times said, adding she spoke of “connections in law enforcement who are poised to help her out, to let her know if there is trouble on the front that she needs to be concerned about.”

Linehan added wealthy clients and others may have “an interest in not allowing this case to go forward,” said The Times.

ABC News reported she spoke on wiretaps about a prominent lawyer friend and the precautions he helped her take in the event of her arrest, according to prosecutors.

“He’s (the friend) basically locked money away for her should this ever happen so she will have money when she comes out of it,” Linehan said, according to a transcript of the Feb. 23 arraignment obtained by DNAinfo, a Manhattan news site and reported by ABC News.

The Times reported Gristina had been arrested Feb. 22 at the offices of Morgan Stanley at 53rd Street and Madison Avenue while meeting with a banker about possibly investing in an expansion of her business online, according to a court transcript.

Peter J. Gleason, one of Gristina’s attorneys, said “she is simply an entrepreneur who held business meetings about setting up a legitimate dating Web site that ‘would have rivaled Match.com,’” The Times said.

The New York Daily News reported Gristina’s defense lawyer, Richard Siracusa, said she’s not a flight risk, noting she “has four children and a slew of rescue animals” kept at her Monroe home and should be outfitted with an electronic ankle bracelet.

Siracusa asked for a bail reduction so Gristina could see her four children.

“She faces one low-level felony charge and has a clean record,” he said in the Associated Press report.

According to The Times, Linehan said he had a strong case based on 50 or more hours of audio and video recordings from surveillance and Gristina had money “squirreled away” in case she had to flee.

“We have had at least one eyewitness account of someone that has been obviously present for a sexual encounter arranged by (Gristina) for one of her clients in which minors were involved in the encounter,” Linehan said at her Feb. 23 arraignment, according to The Daily News.

12 acres in Monroe The Daily News said Gristina was born in Scotland, adopted at age five months and grew up in a small town named Cheesetown, near Edinburgh. She came to the U.S. as a teen, holds a British passport, lives legally in the U.S. and owns property in Canada.

A Times Herald-Record report said she and her family live at 881 Lakes Road in Monroe, on with a flier about a “200-acre luxury pet resort” named Nick’s Pet Resort taped to the door with other signs warning of pot-bellied pigs. The Associated Press reported the house and the 12.2 acre lot were purchased by a limited liability corporation called 881 Lakes Road in 2000 for $305,000. David Jaroslawicz was listed as a managing member. Gristina’s name doesn’t appear on records.

The Daily News reported her husband as Kelvin Corr, who lists the Monroe address for his real estate business. He told that paper they have been married for 10 years and he was “heartbroken” by the charges.

“We are just a great family,” he reportedly said Tuesday. They have one child.

The Daily News also reported her ex-husband as Dario Gristina, who is running for State Assembly from Putnam County. They have one son.

“We divorced a long time ago,” he said in that report. “I was surprised.”

The first of her husbands was Fernando Pak, according to The Daily News. They have two daughters.

Various media outlets provided even greater and sometimes spicy detail on Gristina’s background. Comments varied throughout the community and on social networking sites, but the one common thread was concern for the emotional wellbeing of Gristina’s four children.

If convicted, Gristina could face up to seven years in prison.

Her next court appearance is May 3.