Plea Deal Fails for Alleged Zumba Brothel Proprietors

The prurience of news gluttons everywhere has been graciously rewarded with word today that a super-secret, closed-door plea deal in the infamous Kennebunk, Maine Zumba prostitution palooza has failed and that the case will go to trial. Three cheers for lurid courtroom drama!

According to Seacoastonline, a judge ruled on Friday ruled Friday that Mark Strong, the man accused of running a brothel with dance instructor Alexis Wright out of her Kennebunk Zumba studio, will face trial on Tuesday. Strong has been charged with 59 counts of prostitution and invasion of privacy (Wright allegedly used cameras, laptops, and external hard drives to record encounters with clients), while Wright faces 106 counts on tax-related charges. They have each pleaded not guilty.

Reports of the Zumba brothel have scandalized residents of Kennebunk, though they should all know, if any of them have bothered to read their Stephen King, that this sort of small-town revelation is pretty commonplace, especially in a town boasting that peculiarly volatile mix of townies and weekenders. About a third of the 200 people that investigators say paid to do the sex with Wright have been identified, which has certainly made neighbors look askance at one another, but don’t we sort of expect small(ish) towns to harbor tawdry little secrets? If it wasn’t a dance studio brothel, it would have been a meth lab run by a egomaniacal town selectman with a heart murmur, or an old house hiding an ancient vampire. In small-town New England, though, the only thing more prevalent than lurid secrets is sanctimony.