October 25, 2011

• Steven Topazio wrote this April 27, 2014 at 1:35 pm

The Client, a 41 year old from New York, leased an apartment in Massachusetts under an assumed name and used the identification of a third person and purported to be that person when he signed the lease. After leasing the property, the client transported women and men to the apartment for the purpose of engaging in sex for a fee. The client was arrested when a police officer, acting in an undercover capacity, responded to a local business listing for massages but was solicited for sex instead, hired Attorney Topazio to represent him. Deriving support from prostitution and maintaining a house of prostitution are serious felonies carrying a minimum mandatory sentence of two (2) years committed if convicted; up to a maximum of five (5) years and are offenses which by statute could not be continued without a finding or placed on file nor reduced or suspended sentence, probation, parole, until 2 years served. Although another individual was arrested for prostitution and pled guilty to the charge, and represented giving money from prostitution to the client, the Commonwealth’s proof’s in establishing the charges without the prostitute’s cooperation was difficult. Attorney Topazio filed a Motion to Suppress in the case and used the filing as a vehicle to negotiate with the prosecutor. Attorney Topazio was successful in convincing the prosecutor to dismiss all charges on the condition of amending one charge to a seldom used section of the law known as “Keeping a house of ill fame”; a violation of which was a misdemeanor and could be continued without a finding. Today, Attorney Topazio was successful in convincing the court to accept the amendment to a violation of Keeping a House of Ill fame and giving his client a continuance without a finding for one year.