Legal News

Emperor?s Club Booker Pleads Guilty to Counts of Conspiracy

By Dan Slater

UPDATE: Chad Bray, our correspondent over at 500 Pearl Street in Manhattan, has informed us that Lewis, as part of her plea deal, is in fact cooperating with the government. After the hearing today, her lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said: “Her agreement obligates her to testify if asked. At this point, we stand ready to receive direction from the government.” Agnifilo said Lewis hasn’t yet testified before the grand jury and he didn’t know if she would. He declined to address any questions regarding Eliot Spitzer. (Here’s the information, and here’s the plea agreement.)

We’ve just heard from Chad Bray, the DJ Newswire correspondent over at 500 Pearl Street in Manhattan, that, as expected, Temeka Lewis, the Emperor’s Club booker, pleaded guilty this morning to two counts of conspiracy for violating the Travel Act and the Mann Act, and for money laundering.

Bray reports that there was no mention of Spitzer, and that Lewis’s lawyer, Marc Agnifilo of Brafman & Associates, wouldn’t say whether Lewis is a cooperator. However, while Lewis’s sentencing is set for August, prosecutors asked the court not to issue a pre-sentence report — an indication, says Bray, that Lewis may be a cooperator, since sentencing dates for cooperators tend to move as the government’s probe continues.

Lewis, a UVA graduate with a degree in English, faces up to five years in prison on the conspiracy to violate the Mann and Travel acts and up to 20 years in prison on the money laundering conspiracy. However, her lawyer said her sentencing guidelines range would be “roughly 16 months.”

Said Agnifilo at the hearing: “She wants to end this chapter. She wants to get on with a life that I believe will be productive.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on May 14, 2008 (boomark / email).