Mark Strong and Alexis Wright, the private dick duo accused of selling sex to some 150 johns.
Maine State Police say alleged Zumba whorehouse hooker Alexis Wright was a licensed investigative assistant for two years, working with her alleged prostitution conspirator Mark W. Strong.
Combined, the two are charged with 160 counts ranging from prostitution, promotion of prostitution, tax evasion, and criminal invasion. Prosecutors say that the pair ran a one-woman brothel from Wright’s Zumba dance studio in Kennebunk, Maine. Strong is alleged to have videotaped the encounters without the knowledge of the alleged johns.
According to the York County Star, Wright first met Strong online out of a shared interest in private investigations. Now it has been made public by Maine State Police that Wright was Strong’s assistant between 2008 and 2010.
State police Lt. Scott Ireland says that Strong, as a licensed PI, sponsored Wright’s role as a private dick’s assistant, in accordance with state law. Strong’s license as a private investigator expired in September 2012. Before its expiration, Strong was listed as the “Director, Special Investigations Unit” of Priism, a company that has since ceased to exist.
The Star reports that Priism was listed as a “management consulting services firm specializing in the insurance and private investigations areas.”
State police go on to say that Strong used his position of privilege as a licensed PI to perform background checks on Wright’s alleged johns. Maine’s state database is known as InforME.
When Wright’s assistant’s license expired in 2010, she applied to have it renewed under the sponsorship of Strong. The application was never followed through and no new license was issued.
According to the state statute on investigative assistants, “The sponsoring professional investigator is responsible for overseeing and documenting the activities of the investigative assistant under the sponsoring professional investigator’s supervision…”
Strong has alleged that his prosecution in the Zumba case is retaliation by Kennebunk police for his investigation into their internal affairs.