News Coverage

A Connecticut doctor pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of sexually assaulting three female patients at a clinic in Clinton, and a prosecutor said he is facing more charges.
Dr. Tory Westbrook, 43, of Glastonbury is accused of assaulting three patients at the Community Health Center from 2010 to last January. He is free on bail.
Prosecutor Peter McShane said in Middletown Superior Court that Westbrook faces at least five more warrants for his arrest that were signed Tuesday...

A suburban mother charged with moonlighting as a big-city madam was released from jail on bond Tuesday night, after four months behind bars in a case laced with claims of prominent clients and law-enforcement protectors.
Anna Gristina walked out of a Manhattan courthouse around 9 p.m., free for the first time since her February arrest. She was flanked by her husband and their 9-year-old son, who had arrived with a bouquet of red roses for his mother.
"Thank you, everybody - I just...

Hugging her husband and four children and nuzzling her family pets Tuesday night, alleged Manhattan "Soccer Mom Madam" Anna Gristina enjoyed her first taste of freedom after spending more than four months behind bars.
Released from Riker’s Island after posting a $250,000 bond, Gristina was seen clutching a dozen red roses and hugging her husband and son amidst a crush of media members as she exited the Manhattan Detention Complex shortly after 9 p.m. Gristina, 44, then returned to...

"The French guy" got an ankle bracelet -- so why not Anna Gristina?
In a rollicking hearing today, Appellate Division judges voiced a spirited openness to potentially springing accused Upper East Side brothel boss Anna Gristina on a lower bail -- even dropping the names of such famous recent ankle bracelet "models" as Martha Stewart and infamous "French guy" Dominique Strauss Kahn.
"How come an ankle bracelet is OK for 'The French Guy' -- and Martha Stewart by the way...

The lawyer for accused Manhattan madam Anna Gristina asked a state appeals court on Thursday to reduce her $2 million bond, arguing that her clean criminal record and a single felony count do not justify such a massive bail amount.
If the seemingly sympathetic reaction from a five-judge panel was any indication, Gristina could finally be released from Rikers Island jail, where she has been held since February while her family has tried to raise funds. Several previous...

Police have arrested a doctor on multiple charges of sexual assault, charging that he sexually abused three patients in his Clinton office.
Tory Z. Westbrook, 43, of Glastonbury — recently appointed an administrator at the Charter Oak Health Center in Hartford and husband of Superior Court Judge Dawne Westbrook — turned himself in after learning that police had obtained three warrants for his arrest.
Each warrant charges him with at least one count of second-degree...

A doctor charged with sexually assaulting patients at a health center was released on $450,000 bail Tuesday.
Dr. Tory Westbrook, the husband of a Superior Court judge, was charged with multiple counts of sexual assault for attacks police say occurred at Clinton's Community Health Center between 2010 and January.
The Hartford Courant reported Westbrook's attorney said he'll plead not guilty to the charges.
"Dr. Westbrook is an outstanding physician who has for many,...

The lawyer for Soccer Mom Madam Anna Gristina issued a heartfelt plea to the judge in her case to allow the accused flesh peddler to be released on a reduced bond because her son is ill.
Her 9-year-year-old son, Nicholas, has developed a heart condition while the suburban mom stews on Rikers Island on $2 million bond after being charged with running a high end hooker ring on the Upper East Side.
“(Nicholas) suffers from a heart murmur,” her lawyer Norman Pattis wrote in his emergency...

The so-called ‘soccer-mom madam’ from New York wants Bethany lawyer Norman Pattis to help her get out of jail and serve as her lead defense counsel on a charge she operated a prostitution ring for the New York elite.
But on Wednesday, a judge delayed making a decision.
Pattis, a go-to criminal defense and civil rights attorney in Greater New Haven, may enter the international stage with a new client - Anna Gristina, a mother of four who allegedly operated a prostitution...