Severe bad health did the trick for John St. Marie, 66, a former assistant Hennepin County attorney who ran "Nice Guys." The man behind a secretive online prostitution ring for a group of well-to-do men who dubbed themselves "Minnesota Nice Guys" won't receive any jail time. John St. Marie, 66, a former assistant Hennepin County attorney, pleaded guilty Tuesday to three felony counts of promoting prostitution. The lack of jail time recognized his severe health problems, said Jim Dahlquist, St. Marie's attorney. He could be sent to jail if he violates his probation, and was ordered to pay a sum to a women's advocacy group. "An offer was made, and we went ahead and did it," said Dahlquist. "John has a great deal of respect for the legal process, and he decided not to prolong the issue." St. Marie, who uses a wheelchair because of childhood polio, can move his neck and a finger on his left hand. Post-polio syndrome forced him to retire in 2003 because he needs round-the-clock health care, said Dahlquist. The deal was made before an upcoming settlement conference with the Ramsey County attorney's office, which handled the case because of St. Marie's employment with Hennepin County. A key consideration in making the deal was the great expense to taxpayers to incarcerate him, said Paul Gustafson, spokesman for the county attorney's office. "He did plead guilty to three counts and is now a felon, plus he has been disbarred because of the charges," Gustafson said. "We had to be practical, too, in terms of would it send any greater message to send him to prison knowing there would be significant expense involved." As part of the plea agreement, three other counts of promoting prostitution were dismissed. St. Marie will be sentenced Jan. 20, at which time Dahlquist said his client "will have a lot more to say." St. Marie, of Minneapolis, couldn't be reached for comment, but Dahlquist said "this has been tremendously difficult for him. ." The case against St. Marie and the "Nice Guys" started in July 2008 and lasted more than a year. Police said St. Marie built a client list of 30 business owners, lawyers, accountants and mortgage bankers who met women at some of Minneapolis' finest hotels. The group got its name because members had clean backgrounds, regarded themselves as above mistreating the women and paid well, police said. The men would receive e-mails advertising when the women would be flown in from Florida, and St. Marie scheduled appointments. One man said he was willing to pay $1,200 for a woman, according to the charges. The "Nice Guys" ring was one of the more unusual rings they've seen in Minnesota, said Sgt. Grant Snyder and Sgt. Matt Wente, investigators for the Minneapolis Police Department's Violent Offender Task Force. The sophisticated operation flew under the radar for at least three years, police said. The investigation also brought down MyFastPass.com, the Twin Cities' largest locally owned prostitution website. Seven of the "Nice Guys" were charged with gross misdemeanor soliciting prostitution this month. Many of the men learned of St. Marie's reputation for luring women to Minnesota through a website for self-described "hobbyists" looking for high-dollar escorts. Police did surveillance in hotel rooms of several johns who were set up by women who worked for St. Marie but cooperated with police once the investigation began. In one recorded conversation, St. Marie paid for a woman's airline tickets and hotel stays in exchange for sex, the charges said. St. Marie didn't prosecute prostitution cases during his 28 years with the Hennepin County attorney's office. He represented social-service agencies and did civil commitments for mentally ill and chemically dependent people. Although he hadn't practiced law since he retired, the state disbarred him this month.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Lakin “Sex Accusation,” Still Investigated, Prosecutor Says
BY NICHOLAS J.C. PISTOR
Tom Lakin on April 23, 2007, after turning himself in to authorities and posting bond following his federal indictment.
EDWARDSVILLE, IL • After a 15-year-old boy accused one of Metro East's most powerful political figures of arranging to watch him have sex with women and then engaging him in a sex act, a state prosecutor vowed a swift investigation. Four years later, the promise remains, but the investigation is unfinished against Tom Lakin, a multimillionaire lawyer and big-time Democratic Party bankroller who was once at the pinnacle of Madison County's renowned personal injury litigators. Lakin did land in federal prison on a drug conviction. And he is being sued in civil court over the sex claims. But that suit has been stalled, its lawyer says, by the unfinished state case. "We can't proceed with our civil suit with the state saying it's considering prosecution," lamented Ed Unsell, an East Alton lawyer representing the boy, now 20, in a suit filed in 2006. "This boy needs vindication," Unsell insisted. Charles Colburn, a lawyer with the Illinois Office of the State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor, confirmed in a recent interview that its probe is still moving forward. He blamed difficulties in obtaining some unspecified piece of federal evidence for the delay. The investigation was initially stymied by issues of conflicts of interest and overlapping investigations, most of which were sorted out years ago. Lakin, who once headed the powerful Lakin Law Firm in Wood River, pleaded guilty in 2008 in federal court of possession with the intent to deliver cocaine, distributing cocaine to a person under 21 and maintaining a drug-involved premises. In exchange for that plea, federal prosecutors dropped their sole sex-related charge, that claimed Lakin took a minor to his second home in Malibu, Calif., with the intent of having oral sex. That allegation involved the same boy, a family friend, who said Lakin set up sexual encounters with women, young and old, to watch in 2005 and directly engaged in oral sex acts with him. The bulk of allegations involve incidents at Lakin's home in East Alton, thus falling under Illinois statutes. The allegations were reported to the Illinois State Police in 2005, but no charges were filed. William Mudge, the Madison County state's attorney, said at the time he was given only a "very general claim" and never a formal police report to act upon. Mudge later declined to get involved because the law firm where he worked before he was appointed state's attorney 2002 — Lucco, Brown & Mudge — had represented Lakin in his second divorce. The case was handed over to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who also declined, reportedly citing conflicts of her own that included $66,000 in campaign donations from the Lakin family that was in addition to a $5,695 donation of airplane use for her campaign, estimated to be worth $5,695. Mudge ultimately asked that a special prosecutor be appointed. Lakin, 70, is serving his six-year drug sentence in a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas, and is set for release in November 2013. He and his lawyers have long denied the sex-related allegations — which carry heavy penalties — and have pledged to fight them. The dropping of the sex-related claim from the federal case was widely considered a personal victory. Federal prosecutors also dropped, without explanation, their initial requirement that Lakin cooperate in other investigations involving judges and lawyers in Madison and St. Clair counties. Colburn, the special prosecutor, said, "It's an unusual case where the suspect is in custody." He suggested there is no pressing need to keep Lakin behind bars. Stephanee Smith, a spokeswoman for the Madison County state's attorney's office, said the cost of the special prosecutor is included in a flat fee of $30,000, based on population, paid to support the appellate prosecutor's office.
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