Alleged high-profile brothel customers lose bid to remain anonymous in Massachusetts court ruling

BOSTON - Court hearings for alleged high-profile customers of a Massachusetts brothel network will be open to the public, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled Thursday.

Last November, three people were arrested and accused of running the sex ring out of upscale apartment buildings in Cambridge, Dedham and Watertown, as well as Virginia. Authorities later submitted applications for complaints about 28 sex buyers in Cambridge District Court.

"They are doctors, they are lawyers, they're accountants, they are executives at high-tech companies, pharmaceutical companies, they're military officers, government contractors, professors, scientists," U.S. attorney for Massachusetts Joshua Levy said about the brothel customers when announcing the brothel bust. 

Alleged brothel customers fought to remain anonymous

Over a dozen of those alleged "johns" have been fighting to remain anonymous. The clerk-magistrate in Cambridge did not release the alleged clients' names in advance, but did decide to grant press access to their court hearings, saying "legitimate public interest" in the case outweighed the defendants' privacy rights.

"They will undoubtedly lose their jobs lose their professions and have their lives ripped apart," attorney Benjamin Urbelis, representing five alleged brothel clients, argued before the high court in September. 

SJC ruling in Massachusetts brothel case

The SJC upheld the clerk magistrate's decision to make the early court hearings public and also agreed with the decision to withhold their identities until then.

"Each accused would still be provided the individualized consideration to which he is entitled at his own show cause hearing, but such consideration would not be afforded 'behind closed doors,'" Justice Scott Kafker wrote.

The public hearings are expected to be scheduled for late January or early February, Cambridge District Court told WBZ-TV.