By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN CRIMINAL COURT — The prostitution trial of two strippers who worked at Hot Lap Dance Club in Midtown has been put on hold because of a single misstated word in papers filed minutes before the trial began Tuesday afternoon.
Instead of delivering opening arguments in the trial of Cassandra Malandri and Falynn Rodriguez, both 27, who were busted when they allegedly offered an undercover police officer $5,000 in exchange for group sex, defense attorneys called the judge's attention to the pre-trial court filing, in which the district attorneys assigned to the case mistakenly used the conjunction "or" in place of "and."
A Manhattan Criminal Court judge will decide on Wednesday whether to toss the case because of the mistake.
The misstatement was an improper reference to the state's penal law against prostitution, but it was a misuse defense attorneys said was cause to drop the charges.
The law says that to be guilty of prostitution a person must engage, agree and — "and" not "or" as the prosecutors wrote — offer to have sexual conduct with another individual for money.
"A traffic violation would be dismissed on something like this — something technical," said Salvatore Strazzullo, attorney for Malandri.
Strazzullo and his co-counsel noticed the mistake just before prosecutors read their opening statements. They threw open their laptops at the defense stand and began to strategize their move, Strazzullo said.
"Thank God for wireless Internet, right," he joked.
Malandri and Rodriguez each face a single prostitution charge. The crime is a misdemeanor in New York State.
On June 20, 2008, the two "scantily clad" lap dancers at the W. 38th Street club approached the officer offering sex for money, prosecutors said.
Malandri told the officer that she and Rodriguez were a "package deal" and also solicited the officer for a $300 fondling show featuring herself and Rodriguez, they continued.
When the club was searched, authorities said they recovered condoms, lubricants and other items stashed in rooms used for paid sexual acts.
Prosecutors plan to present those items as evidence if the case goes to trial.