from www.nypost.com – A Manhattan judge ruled today that a grammatical glitch in the prostitution charges against two buxom lap dancers doesn’t scuttle the whole trial, which is now going forward with defense lawyers protesting that prosecutors have hit the curvy pair “below the belt.”
“They waited one month — one month! — to make an arrest” complained lawyer Salvatore Strazzullo, who’s repping porn star Alexia Moore [pictured] in the wacky case.
“That’s just hitting them below the belt!” he said in opening statements.
Strazzullo also fought prosecution attempts to “put cherries all over their cake” by introducing what he called salacious, extraneous evidence about the sex toys, beds and extra sheets at the pair’s place of employment — the now-defunct Big Daddy Lou’s Hot Lap Dance Club on West 38th Street.
It was the job of Moore and co-defendant topless dancer Falynn Rodriguez to flirt with drunken, assertive, “cagey” men, the lawyer pointed out. Any discussions about future meetings and sex is “more of a defense when it comes down to it.”
“They want to be nice to these men.” Moore and Rodriguez face up to 90 days if convicted of allegedly telling an undercover cop they’d engage in a $5,000 threesome at some later date at a Hilton Hotel.
Misdemeanor prostitution trials are virtually unheard of. Such charges against defendants with no records — like Moore and Rodriguez — usually “go away” with no jail pleas to disorderly conduct.
But these two have rejected such a deal to fight for their reputations, their lawyers say. Besides, they say, prosecutors have taken the unacceptable step of making any no-jail deal conditional on their incriminating Posner himself, who is under indictment on money laundering charges for allegedly running the club and has been sitting in the audience for each court appearance.
Meanwhile, one of the dancers came to court an hour late, and blamed the “stress” of the case. “She’s had some anxiety” this morning, her lawyer, Adam Moser, told the judge. “She passed out.” The petite brunette sobbed silently throughout the morning’s proceedings.