I was dissed as kid, Spitzer pimp cries
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/02/03/2009-02-03_i_was_dissed_as_kid_spitzer_pimp_cries.html?print=1&page=allBY THOMAS ZAMBITO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
The head of the hooker ring that took down former Gov. Eliot Spitzer has some good sob stories, prosecutors say, but none that keep him out of jail.
Emperors Club VIP boss Mark Brener deserves at least two years in the joint, federal prosecutors argue in court papers that mock Brener's appeals for mercy.
Brener, 63, cites the death of his wife and the anti-Semitism he suffered as a kid as reasons he should catch a break.
"Brener is not alone in having suffered discrimination," Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Stein wrote. "Similarly, while the death of his first wife, to whom he appears to have been truly devoted, is certainly sad, it hardly seems to be a circumstance that would inevitably lead to a life devoted to crime."
Brener, 63, is to be sentenced Friday. Prosecutors portray Brener as the greedy mastermind behind the high-priced call girl ring where Spitzer met prostitute Ashley Dupre.
Last week, Brener's girlfriend Cecil (Katie) Suwal was sentenced to six months for her role in running the Emperors Club. At the time of their arrest, the feds found some $1 million in the Cliffside Park, N.J. apartment they shared.
Brener believed he was operating his bordello legally. Lawyer Murray Richman said: "Despite being wrong and in all likelihood jaded, in Mark's honest assessment, the Emperors Club was not a law-violating entity."
tzambito@nydailynews.com
