Suspected partner in teen prostitution ring pleads not guilty

By Jim Patten
THE EAGLE-TRIBUNE (NORTH ANDOVER, Mass.)

LAWRENCE, Mass. September 13, 2007 10:20 am

— Police said a married real estate salesman from Millbury shared in the profits of a North Andover teenage prostitution service for which he designed the Web site and business cards.
Anthony Gorgoglione Jr., 43, of 212 Wheelock Ave., Millbury, pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Lawrence District Court to three counts each of inducing a minor into prostitution, maintaining a house of prostitution, deriving support from prostitution, posing or exhibiting a child in a sexual act, and distribution of obscene material.
Gorgoglione’s arrest is the result of a six-day investigation into the alleged ring by North Andover police.
His codefendant, Melissa Halstrom, 32, of 93 Elm St., North Andover, was arraigned last Friday in Lawrence District Court. She pleaded not guilty to charges against her, and is being held on $150,000 cash bail.
Police described Gorgoglione as a ''silent partner'' in the business allegedly run by Halstrom out of her apartment. They said he took pictures of the teenage prostitutes, which were posted on the Web site and sometimes drove them to their appointments with customers.
Assistant District Attorney Jessica Strasnick described him as a real estate salesman from Millbury who also shared in the profits the teenage girls made from their paid sexual encounters.
Two of the teenage girls told investigators he had propositioned them for sex.
Information contained in documents filed with the court showed Halstrom and Gorgoglione had both worked for another agency on the North Shore called Eastern Companions.
But when that agency was going out of business, Gorgoglione approached Halstrom with the idea of starting her own company under the name of "Angelic Delights,'' the documents reported.
Halstrom told police she provided the lingerie worn by the girls in the pictures Gorgoglione took, police said.
Halstrom told police she had been in the business for about eight years, working in North Carolina and New York, as well as Massachusetts.
Richard Welsh Jr., the lawyer for Gorgoglione, asked Judge Lynne Rooney to release his client on personal recognizance, saying he had no money.
He told the court his client graduated Medway High School, has a bachelor's degree from Gordon College and had been in the real estate business for the past five years.
He told Rooney his client is married and lives with his wife, has no record whatsoever in Massachusetts and remained in the area after the case was splashed across the media during the weekend.
But Strasnick told the court Gorgoglione faces serious committed time if convicted in the case and that he had access to money, making him a flight risk and asked the judge to set $150,000 cash bail.
Rooney adopted her recommendation, imposing $150,000 cash bail and ordered Gorgoglione to stay away from the victims and witnesses in the case.
Gorgoglione and Halstrom are scheduled to return to court Oct. 5 for a probable cause hearing.

Jim Patten writes for The Eagle-Tribune of North Andover, Mass.

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