Massage Parlor Mistrial Declared After Masseuse Recognizes Defense Lawyer as Client
It's not every day that the American Bar Association website offers the world a dish of such delicious implications as this, served on a veritable silver platter, but PJM LifeStyle readers, today is our lucky day. The eye-catching headline reads "Massage Parlor Mistrial Declared After Masseuse Recognizes Defense Lawyer as Client:"
A Chicago federal judge declared a mistrial last week in a sex-trafficking prosecution after a masseuse who worked for the defendant and testified for the prosecution recognized the defense lawyer as a client.
After stepping down from the stand, masseuse Liudmyla Ksenych told prosecutors she recognized defense lawyer Douglas Rathe, report the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune.
The revelation prompted U.S. District Court Judge Robert Gettleman to declare a mistrial in the case against a massage parlor owner accused of threatening immigrant women to extort money and force them to into sex trafficking.
As it turned out, not only was the prosecution witness a professional masseuse but, according to her client, the defense counsel, she holds a bachelor's degree in law from her native Ukraine. The lawyer failed to recognize her name on the witness list because she had worked as a masseuse under an assumed name.
