MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — "Millionaire Madam" Anna Gristina's alleged accomplice admits she helped hire two women to strip and have sex with each other in front of an undercover cop — but denies it's prostitiution, according to court documents filed Tuesday.
According to the papers, Jaynie Mae Baker, 30, was caught on tape meeting with an undercover cop in a restaurant last July in which she and Gristina arranged a sexual encounter several days later between the officer and two women inside Gristina's East 78th Street apartment.
According to the officer's video-taped recording, the officer remained clothed the whole time and never touched the women, only "sometimes engaging in sexually explicit language with them," according to the documents.
"Paying two individuals to engage in sexual activity — which is alleged here — is simply not prostitution," Baker's lawyer Robert Gottlieb argued in the documents.
Gottlieb went on to argue that there is "absolutely no distinction between the undercover officer paying two women to engage in sexual contact while he watched (and secretly videotaped) and a director of an adult film paying two actors to do the same for viewing by a third party."
And, he says, even if that activity is considered prostitution, there's no evidence Baker arranged payment for the sexual activity.
Gristina, 44 and Baker are both set to appear in court on Aug. 16, when Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan will rule on motions to dismiss filed by each woman's legal camps and set a joint trial date — will be the first time they've seen each other since the arrest for running a high-end prostitution ring.
Gristina and Baker have been charged with a single felony count of promoting prostitution. Baker had been released on $100,000 bail weeks ago, while Gristina was only allowed to leave Rikers this recently after more then 4 months in jail and a long fight to reduce her bail.
