ALFRED, Maine—The now infamous Zumba instructor-cum-part-time-prostitute who plied both trades out of her Kennebunk, Maine, dance studio was today sentenced to 10 months in jail, according to the Bangor Daily News, which reported that 30-year-old Alexis Wright was sentenced to jail and ordered to pay $58,000 in fines and restitution “for 20 misdemeanors related to prostitution and state tax evasion as recommended by prosecutors as part of a plea deal in which they agreed to drop 86 other charges.”
According to Castanet.net, “The single mother … was accused of conspiring with an insurance business owner to run a prostitution business in which she videotaped clients without their knowledge and kept detailed records over an 18-month period indicating she made $150,000 tax-free. She also collected more than $40,000 in public assistance.”
In March, her partner, 57-year-old Mark Strong, was convicted by a jury on 13 counts of promotion of prostitution and spent 15 days of a 20-day sentence in jail.
During today’s sentencing hearing, Wright told the court that she was relieved when the police showed up at her studio in February of last year because she already wanted out.
"In my eyes I'm free. I free from this,” Castanet.com quoted her as saying. “And I have an incredible amount of strength that I knew was in me somewhere. Now that I have the strength I want to encourage others to come forward. I want them to know that there's at least one person out there who'll believe their story, no matter how crazy it seems.”
Her story has to do with abuse she says she suffered as a child at the hands of her father. According to testimony in court from her and her attorney, reported the Bangor Daily News, Wright’s “experience as a child witnessing her father sexually abuse her mother—and then enduring sexual abuse from her father—made her vulnerable to manipulation by [Strong].”
Wright said that “when I did reach out, nobody believed me,” and told the judge, “Maybe if I felt someone would have believed me, I could have avoided this altogether.”
Tearing up as she addressed the court, she added, “I’ve spent my entire life hiding my abuse, because I felt ashamed and worthless,” and said she wants what happened to her to serve as an “inspiration” to others.
The paper reported, however, that following the hearing, “York County Deputy District Attorney Justina McGettigan suggested that prosecutors weren’t convinced by Wright’s claims that she was under Strong’s control. McGettigan told reporters that prosecutors considered Wright a ‘willing partner’ in the prostitution business and recalled the videos shown during Strong’s trial in late February depicting the Zumba instructor intentionally dropping her towel in front of her storefront window to gain the attention of construction workers across the street.”
McGettigan added, “There’s a reason she said what she did. The state believes she and Mark Strong were equal partners, and that she played an active role in the operation.”
Whatever the truth of the matter really is today marks the final chapter of Maine’s flirtation with infamy. It was never a big story or a big deal for that matter, except of course to the extent that it impacted the lives of the people involved, but none of that matters to the world at large when you're able to write juicy headlines about the Zumba prostitution bust that shook a quaint Maine town to its core!
