In an exclusive interview with Matt Lauer that will air Thursday on TODAY, the suburban mother accused of running a multimillion-dollar escort service in Manhattan said that her arrest is “decimating’’ her family and that she was “shaking with terror” when she was arrested.
Anna Gristina, a mother of four who has been dubbed the “Soccer Mom Madam,’’ was arrested in February and charged with promoting prostitution after a five-year investigation alleged she ran a prostitution ring from an Upper East Side apartment over the past decade. She is currently in jail at Rikers Island, and on Tuesday an appeals court cut her bail from $2 million to a $250,000 bond or $100,000 in cash.
Story: NYC ponders: Suburban mom or high-rolling madam?“I think for me I have it easy,’’ she told Lauer in a sit-down interview at Rikers Island with her attorney. “I think it's my family who suffer, because I'm able to at least hide in here from it all. My children, they get followed by the press. My husband almost got run off the road yesterday by press.
-
Stories from
“It's caused my son to come out of school at one point. It's caused my daughter to suffer from anxiety and she's seeing a doctor. It's just decimating my family.’’
Gristina also spoke about the day on which she was arrested, claiming that she was never read her rights and the police never properly identified themselves. She also claims to have been interrogated in the police car while she was taken to a secret location.
Video: Will alleged madam serve house arrest in posh pad? (on this page)“I asked for an attorney, and they cuffed me, and I thought I was being abducted because they didn't look like police,’’ she said. “I screamed on the street for people to please call 911 because I had no idea. You know, I’m walking down the street, and I’m being pulled off the street.’’
Gristina said she was asked by police if she knew why she had been arrested and if she knew the police were from a special corruption unit, which she claimed she did not know. She asked for a lawyer and said she was told she didn’t need one.
“I said, ‘I think I need a lawyer,’ ’’ she told Lauer. “I said, ‘I don’t understand why I'm here.’ It went from that to, ‘You don't need a lawyer. It’s in your best interests to talk to us first.’
“I was still shaking with terror for just being pulled off the street. I had no idea, you know, who these people were. I was never presented ... the badge you see on television with the picture and that. [They] just flashed something on their neck and said that was it.’’
Gristina said her matchmaking service was completely legal. She saw the show “The Millionaire Matchmaker’’ on Bravo and said a friend suggested she create something similar. Gristina’s idea was to make it a high-end “sugar daddy’’ matchmaking service for wealthy men who are married, essentially a high-end version of the website AshleyMadison.com. She also likened it to Match.com, where a married man might take a woman out to dinner. Her lawyer would not answer what exactly the service would provide, whether it be a simple date, a long-term relationship or sex.
Video: Alleged madam’s lawyer ‘didn’t ask’ about black book (on this page)When asked whether the service accommodate married men looking for sexual partners, Gristina’s lawyer, Norm Pattis, intervened.
“I think we’ve answered that question,’’ he said. “Very much like Match.com.’’
On Tuesday, Gristina’s attorney filed a motion to dismiss the case, alleging in court papers that the Manhattan district attorney’s office nearly extorted her to get her to turn over information on her allegedly high-powered clients. The documents labeled the case a “vindictive prosecution’’ and claim that Gristina was only indicted because she wouldn’t give up the names of clients when she was arrested.
The reduced bail package instituted on Tuesday would require Gristina to wear a monitoring bracelet at her expense if she posts bail.
© 2012 MSNBC Interactive. Reprints
