FORMER MANAGER OF HARTFORD'S ALPHA CLUB PLEADS GUILTY

(Hartford) - Kevin J. O'Connor, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that JOSEPHINE RAMONDETTA, age 48, of 200 Martin Road, Bristol, Connecticut, pleaded guilty today to conspiring to use an interstate facility to promote prostitution. In a hearing this morning before United States Magistrate Judge Donna F. Martinez in Hartford, RAMONDETTA admitted that between 1997 and 2003, she worked as a manager and supervisor at the Alpha Leisure & Health Club, Inc. located at 156A Franklin Avenue, Hartford, Connecticut, and that the business was a house of prostitution.

In pleading guilty, RAMONDETTA admitted that she conspired with others to use interstate wires to promote and carry on a business involving prostitution. Specifically, she acknowledged that the Alpha Club accepted credit card payments for prostitution services and that she processed charges over interstate wires. The funds were subsequently transferred to the Alpha Club's checking accounts and used to promote and carry-on the prostitution business by paying for advertising, rent, utility bills, supplies, salaries, and other expenses of operating the Alpha Club.

As a result of her plea, RAMONDETTA faces up to five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for June 18, 2004, before Chief United States District Judge Robert N. Chatigny.

On March 17, 2004, Gail Gaer of Newington, Connecticut, a former owner of the Alpha Club, pleaded guilty to conspiring to use an interstate facility to promote prostitution, money laundering, and conspiring to smuggle bulk currency into the United States.

The investigation is on-going and is being conducted by Special Agents of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation and Federal Bureau of Investigation, and detectives of the Vice Squad of the Hartford Police Department. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney James G. Genco.

U.S. Department of Justice
United States Attorney
District of Connecticut
Connecticut Financial Center
157 Church Street, P.O. Box 1824
New Haven, Connecticut 06510 www.usdoj.gov/usao/ct

CONTACT: Tom Carson, Public Information Office, (203) 821-3722, (203) 996-1393 (cell)