Chanel West Coast

 

 

 

Alexis Wright

KENNEBUNK, Maine - Alexis Wright, a fitness instructor in a southern Maine town, was charged Tuesday with running a prostitution business out of her Zumba dance studio and secretly videotaping her encounters, prosecutors say.

Wright, 29, pleaded not guilty in Portland to 106 counts of prostitution, violation of privacy, tax evasion and other charges for allegedly providing sex for money at her fitness studio and a nearby one-room office she rented. Her alleged business partner, 57-year-old Mark Strong Sr. pleaded not guilty to 59 counts of promotion of prostitution and violation of privacy.

Prosecutors haven't detailed why Wright was videotaping her encounters, but they gathered more than 100 hours of video and nearly 14,000 screen shots from seized computers, Deputy District Attorney Justina McGettigan said.

"The state's in over its head. This case isn't ready for prosecution," Strong's lawyer Daniel Lilly said at the hearing.

Police have begun issuing summons to Wright's customers and will release the names in the weeks ahead. Townspeople said they've heard that lawyers, doctors, law enforcement officials, a television personality and other well-known people in town are included in a detailed clientele list police found.

The superintendent of schools issued a memo to teachers and staff last week, instructing them to be on the lookout for students who have relatives on the list of names and may be teased or have trouble coping.

Wright opened her Pura Vida fitness studio in 2010 teaching Zumba, a Latin-inspired fitness program that combines aerobics and dance, about 25 miles south of Portland, the state's largest city. She later rented a one-room office across the street, above a hair salon and a flower store.

That same year, an anonymous blog accused Wright of not being the sweet, friendly Zumba instructor she portrayed herself to be. "She's living a double life and is a porn star. She may be a prostitute for all I know," the first blog entry read.

Police began investigating after hearing reports of cars coming to the studio and the office at all hours of the day and night and men going in for a half-hour or hour at a time, according to a police affidavit released when Strong was arrested in July.

The landlord who rented the office space to Wright told investigators one of his tenants sometimes heard "moaning and groaning" coming from Wright's office, the affidavit said.

When the landlord checked the office himself, he found a massage table and a video camera set up on a tripod. He told police he later found an online porn video of Wright that was recorded in the office, which he recognized by the walls, the floor and the window.

When police raided the studio and office in February, they seized electronic ledgers of sexual acts, video recordings and records of clients and the sexual acts performed by Wright, according to the affidavit. Police said that judging by what they found, Wright's alleged sexual activities generated as much as $150,000.

Investigators said there was both a "business and personal" connection between Strong and the activity at the studio. Video footage showed Wright and Strong having sex, according to the affidavit.

Bee Nguyen, who rented the studio space to Wright and Strong, said Tuesday he often saw cars pulling up to the back of the studio and men going in but didn't think anything of it.

"She had a boyfriend," said Nguyen, adding that Wright and Strong owe him about $10,000 in back rent.

Wright is a single mother of a young son. It wasn't clear whether Wright still has custody of her son; the agency that oversees child welfare says it can't comment.

Both Wright and Strong are now free on personal recognizance.

Felix Baumgartner Jump

My daughter sitting next to me held her breath and actually made a small low moan as Austrian pilot and balloonist Felix Baumgartner began his record-breaking jump at the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere from a balloon. Watching it on live TV, it appeared he was at 128,095 feet when he saluted and leaped off the small porch of the capsule. She told me that was one of her fears, jumping off of something with that much space below and not knowing what would happen to her. It scared her watching Felix take that fall into space and the moan was her way of saying 'better Felix than me!'.

The ascent to over 128,000 took almost two and a half hours from the liftoff (at 11:31 AM EDT, 8:31 AM Pacific time) near Roswell, New Mexico and Felix simply had to sit tight in the small capsule until it slowed and then began a slight yo-yo as it rose and dipped between 128,100 and 126,500 feet, a little over 24 miles up. The Red Bull ground-support team and Joe Kittinger kept up a constant dialogue with Felix, relaying information and having him run through pre-jump checklists. At times Felix sounded a bit frustrated with the chatter and ground-support demands that he respond. Maybe it was just my perception but I thought he might want a few minutes of reflection and quiet time, since there was no way of knowing whether he would survive the jump. Many who had tried to beat Joe Kittinger’s record set in 1960 had died in the attempt. Felix was well aware of these.

 

Finally, after the capsule stabilized at around 128,000, problems with his visor’s heater resolved by ignoring it, and the checklist completed, Felix unlocked and rolled the door to the side, slid out on the minuscule step, grabbed the handholds and stood outside the capsule. Joe Kittinger made mention that Felix would now be watched over by a guardian angel, Felix saluted and fell forward off the platform. With so little resistance, within three seconds he was no longer visible from the capsule cameras. His speed rapidly built up and he rocketed past 700 miles an hour. The gauges shown on TV indicated he reached about 740 which should have put him at Mach 1, but it appears the speed may have only been around 700 to 705. (At this point at 3:15 PM, about two hours after Felix' jump, they are still waiting for confirmation from the Federation Aéronautique International.)

 

Baumgartner began to flip end over end in a tumbling motion but got that corrected quickly and fell in an arms and legs out, head down position for the remainder of the jump. As expected, his visor began to fog up but it made no difference at that point. 4 minutes 19 seconds into the free fall, his drogue chute opened and the main chute was deployed. Less than ten minutes after leaving the capsule, Felix Baumgartner was back on the ground, kneeling with his fists in the air, and his name now in the record books.

 

While many think the record-breaking jump was just a stunt, the scientific data mined will aid in developing new and better parachute systems, and potentially new ways of designing escape systems for  astronaut/cosmonaut/taikonauts. Better space-faring suits, breathing apparatus' and stabilizing mechanisms will also result.

It was one giant jump for a man, and a significant leap for mankind.   

(Update on 10-15-12: FAI says Baumgartner reached 833 miles per hours during his descent so he did surpass Mach 1.)