NEW YORK (AP) — The four people charged with running a global escort service drew little attention when they were arrested five days ago. But they quickly came under the spotlight after it was learned that Gov. Eliot Spitzer was connected to the prostitution ring.
The explosive story sent reporters scrambling to places like Rhinebeck, N.Y., a quiet Hudson Valley town where defendant Tania Hollander has lived in relative anonymity — until now.
Her fiancee, Lance Cyrlin, said reporters started showing up soon after the scandal broke, forcing him to call state police to shoo them away.
"You can't imagine. My world has turned upside down," Cyrlin told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
The Spitzer bombshell has engulfed people like Hollander in a political drama that has riveted the state and much of the nation.
Hollander, 36, was one of the four people charged with running the Emperors Club VIP, with prosecutors alleging she served as a booking agent who helped arrange meetings between the prostitutes and the agency's wealthy clients.
Cyrlin, 39, said his fiancee is innocent, was accidentally swept up in the federal investigation and didn't know about Spitzer until Monday. Hollander, who has been out on bail since Thursday night, declined to comment.
"The truth will get out," Cyrlin said.
Hollander is mentioned sporadically throughout the criminal complaint as sending incriminating text messages, but she doesn't appear as often as the others.
Cyrlin said Hollander worked for the agency part-time for less than a year, but he declined to discuss the case further. He said Hollander doesn't know the other defendants, Mark Brener, 62; Temeka Rachelle Lewis, 32; and Cecil "Katie" Suwal, 23.
Lewis was named in court papers as the booking agent who arranged an alleged rendezvous between someone who investigators said was Spitzer and a prostitute named Kristen, who received $4,300. Prosecutors say Brener, a native of Israel who has lived in the U.S. for 20 years, ran the agency.
The governor has not been charged, and prosecutors would not comment on the case.
Hollander took the job to earn more money as she built her business, started several years ago, as a holistic health counselor, Cyrlin said.
"It takes some time to grow a business," he said. She took the job "to help make ends meet and help pay the mortgage and heating bill."
Hollander's Web site says her "mission is to provide her clients with a supportive environment in which to explore new tools for healthy living and an abundance of good health."
The complaint says that from July 2007 to January 2008, Suwal wrote Hollander about $4,870 in checks.
Cyrlin said the two have been dating for eight years, buying a modest house in 2003. Cyrlin described Hollander — a SUNY Binghamton graduate — as "wholesome," a "good soul" and a "beautiful person."
"She's the kindest and most gentlest person I've ever met," he said.
Cyrlin said he didn't even know the agency's name until his girlfriend was arrested but acknowledged he should have asked more questions about her job.
Little is known about Lewis, who has been released on bail. At one point, she lived at the YWCA of Brooklyn, which provides affordable housing to women. She stayed there for about a year and left in 2006, said Rolinda Ordonez, director of women's housing at the YWCA.
"She's not one of the women who stood out here," Ordonez said. "She was quiet. She went about her business. She was a very simple girl."
