Trial for Doll House owner to go on as scheduled

Judge Randall Skanchy ruled Monday that the trial of alleged prostitution ringleader Steven Santiago Maese will go forward as scheduled this week despite objections from the defense.

Defense attorney Gil Athay last week filed motions in the case that, if granted, would have caused the July 10-11 jury trial date to be rescheduled.

Among those was a request that the judge disqualify the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office.

Athay argued in court Monday that District Attorney Lohra Miller has taken an active role in the case and made it clear that no plea bargain would be offered to Maese. However, Maese's co-defendant, Tiffany French Curtis, got a plea bargain on misdemeanor charges in February, even though she originally was charged with the same felony crimes.

Curtis served no jail time as a result of the plea bargain and was put on probation.

The district attorney's office should not prosecute Maese's case because of Miller's "political and personal vendetta" against Maese, according to Athay.

"We're entitled to have a fair prosecutor," Athay said to judge during a sometimes strongly worded exchange.

However, Skanchy in a written decision issued Monday afternoon said there is no evidence that the District Attorney's Office is prosecuting Maese and not offering a plea agreement because of any "ax to grind" involving Miller.

Skanchy wrote that there appeared to be nothing to uphold Maese's claims of bad faith on the part of the District Attorney's Office, nor are there sufficient facts to support any claims that Maese's constitutional right to due process are being violated.

"Absent any actual evidence that the district attorney's decision to retain felony charges against the defendant was malicious, rather than for some other justifiable reason, this court declines to disqualify the district attorney's office," the ruling states.

Skanchy wrote that he will "take every step necessary to ensure that the defendant is given a fair trial by an impartial jury."

Maese, 31, is the co-owner of the Doll House escort service. He contends that Miller, who formerly was a prosecutor for Cottonwood Heights, orchestrated a 2006 raid on the Doll House as a publicity stunt to help her campaign for Salt Lake County District Attorney.

Miller insisted that was not true and that she was simply doing her job by clamping down on sexually oriented businesses that violated the law.