Video shows paid sex act by Maine Zumba teacher

FILE - In this Oct. 9, 2012 file photo, Zumba fitness instructor Alexis Wright turns towards her attorney Sarah Churchill, left, during her arraignment in Portland, Maine on 109 counts including prostitution, violation of privacy and tax evasion for allegedly providing sex for money at her Kennebunk fitness studio and office. In the trial of her business partner, Mark Strong Sr., the jury watched a video Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013, showing a sexual encounter between Wright and a man who left cash on her massage table. Strong is charged with 13 counts that relate to promoting prostitution. He contends he had an affair with Wright and helped her launch her Pura Vida dance studio in Kennebunk, Maine, but his lawyer has said he was unaware of any paid sex. (AP Photo/Joel Page, File)

ALFRED, Maine (AP) — Prosecutors have shown jurors videos demonstrating that an insurance agent was familiar with paid sex acts involving his mistress, but a defense lawyer said it doesn't prove that the man promoted prostitution.

The jury in the trial of Mark Strong Sr. watched a 45-minute video Thursday showing a sexual encounter between Zumba fitness instructor Alexis Wright and a man who left $250 cash on her massage table.

Testimony indicated Strong watched the sexual encounters inKennebunk through a live video call to his office 100 miles away in Thomaston.

Defense lawyer Daniel Lilley contends Strong committed no crime because he neither recruited clients nor profited from the operation.

"Observing a person in a criminal act is not a criminal act itself," Lilley told reporters Thursday outside the courthouse.

After a week of testimony, the lead investigator, Kennebunk police officer Audra Presby, testified briefly late Thursday afternoon, and she was due to return to the witness stand on Friday.

Strong, 57, of Thomaston, faces 13 counts that relate to promoting prostitution. A judge previously dismissed 46 counts of invasion of privacy over prostitution clients who were said to have been videotaped without their knowledge.

Prosecutors have more than 150 videos but showed jurors only a single 45-minute recording Thursday that depicted Wright chatting with an older man who arrived and immediately began undressing. After their sexual encounter, she used disposable wipes to clean up, escorted the man to the door and then spoke to another man, believed to be Strong, at the other end of a Skype chat.

Jurors showed little reaction as they watched the sexually explicit video on a large screen. One looked away during parts of it, one fiddled with an eyeglass case, another twiddled his thumbs and several stole glances at a clock.

Also Thursday, computer expert Frederick Williams told jurors how he recovered a ledger from Wright's computer that described entries for sexual encounters from Oct. 5, 2010 through Feb. 13, 2012, the day before police raided her office and studio in Kennebunk and her home in Wells.

One ledger entry showed a payment of $500 for a sexual encounter, Williams said.

Williams, a Saco police detective, was able to match videotaped sexual encounters recovered from Wright's computers and hard drives with Skype video snapshots of the same encounters on Strong's computer in his Thomaston office.

Other videos shown to jurors indicated Wright and Strong chatted via Skype before and after her sexual encounters, discussing scheduling and birth control, among other topics. Wright provided clients' license plate numbers to Strong, who also was a private investigator.

Before each of the encounters, Wright took a moment to ensure the video camera was hidden. "OK, here we go. I'm locking my screen," she told Strong on one video call.

The prostitution scandal attracted attention last fall after it was reported that Wright's ledgers indicated she made $150,000 over 18 months.

Strong contends he had an affair with 30-year-old Wright and helped finance her Pura Vida dance studio in Kennebunk but didn't promote prostitution. Prosecutors contended the videos proved he was familiar with the details of Wright's business. She will be tried separately later.

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Follow David Sharp at http://twitter.com/David_Sharp_AP

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Obama Administration Joins Legal Fight Against California Gay Marriage Ban

The Department of Justice filed a brief today in the case of a controversial California ballot initiative that defines marriage as between one man and one woman, asking the Supreme Court to affirm a lower court decision that struck down the measure, known as Proposition 8.

The brief marked the first time that the Obama administration has come out in court against Prop 8 and the first time it has argued against state gay marriage ban before the Supreme Court.

The administration's argument also could reverberate beyond California. If the Supreme Court accepts the arguments in the brief, it could lay the groundwork toward undermining laws against gay marriage in several other states.

"The exclusion of gay and lesbian couples from marriage does not substantially further any important governmental interest. Proposition 8 thus violates equal protection," wrote Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. in a "friend of the court" brief filed in favor of gay and lesbian couples challenging Prop 8.

Now that it has filed a Supreme Court amicus brief, the Obama administration most likely will be granted time to actually argue its position in front of the justices. When the government files an amicus brief in an important case, it is normally granted time to argue.

A statement on behalf of ProtectMarriage.com, the proponent of Prop 8, described the Obama administration's decision to weigh in both "unprecedented" and "hardly surprising, but nevertheless disturbing."

"In his first term as president, Obama clearly stated that Americans can choose a special designation of marriage between man and woman, and that supporters of traditional marriage can hold that position without animus," said the statement by Andy Pugno, general counsel for ProtectMarriage.com. "He later remarked that it would be a 'mistake' to make the debate over redefining marriage into a federal issue.

"Yet today," the statement added, "by stating that the traditional definition of marriage is rooted only in irrational prejudice, the president has impugned the motives and actions of millions of Californians and turned his back on society's long-standing interest in both mothers and fathers raising the next generation."

Thomas Peters, communications director for the National Organization for Marriage, another gay marriage opponent, invoked California's voters in saying the group expected the court to uphold the law.

"NOM expects the Supreme Court to exonerate the votes of over 7 million Californians to protect marriage," said Peters. "The president is clearly fulfilling a campaign promise to wealthy gay marriage donors. There is no right to redefine marriage in our Constitution."

However, referring to proponents of the voter-approved measure who are defending it in court, Verrilli wrote, "Petitioners contend that Proposition 8 serves an interest in returning the issue of marriage to the democratic process, but use of a voter initiative to promote democratic self-governance cannot save a law like Proposition 8 that would otherwise violate equal protection."

In Depth: Obama's Prop 8 Decision

The Obama administration brief noted that California extends all of the rights and responsibilities of marriage to gay and lesbians, but forbids them the designation of "marriage."

That circumstance "particularly undermines the justifications for Proposition 8," Verrilli wrote.

While the brief fell short of calling for a fundamental right to marriage under the Constitution, it suggested that if the court were to agree with the administration's position, gay marriage laws in seven other states could be in jeopardy. Those states are Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon and Rhode Island.

"The brief pays closest attention to California and the other seven states that grant same-sex couples all the rights and responsibilities of marriage but insist on denying them the favored name," said Jane S. Schacter, a professor at Stanford Law School. "But it advocates that the court adopt a much tougher, more skeptical approach to any state law that denies same-sex couples the right to marry.

"That approach is what lawyers call 'heightened scrutiny,'" she added, "and if it were faithfully applied to all state laws banning same-sex marriage, it would result in the invalidation of those laws. The administration's brief provides a blueprint for a national right-to-marriage equality, even though it does not advocate that in express terms."

Stephen I. Vladeck, a professor of law at American University of Law, called it the "tip of a much larger anti-discrimination iceberg."

According the brief, Vladeck said, "states can't discriminate against gays without a really strong reason -- not just with respect to marriage, but adoption, employment, benefits and so on."

Today, 39 states have laws restricting marriage to opposite-sex couples. This number includes voter-approved constitutional amendments in 30 states barring same sex marriage. Nine states allow gay marriage.

"The brief filed by the solicitor general is a powerful statement that Proposition 8 cannot be squared with the principles of equality upon which this nation was founded," said Adam Umhoefer executive director of the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), the group behind the challenge of Prop 8.

Related: Eric Holder Says Gay Marriage is the Next Civil Rights Issue

Related: Republican Moderates Join Legal Fight for Gay Marriage

President Obama, Republican Leaders to Meet As Sequester Cuts Look Likely

The budget ax is about to fall, and there's little lawmakers in Washington are doing to stop it.

Despite a parade of dire warnings from the White House, an $85 billion package of deep automatic spending cuts appears poised to take effect at the stroke of midnight on Friday.

The cuts – known in Washington-speak as the sequester – will hit every federal budget, from defense to education, and even the president's own staff.

On Capitol Hill, Senate Democrats and Republicans each staged votes Thursday aimed at substituting the indiscriminate across-the-board cuts with more sensible ones. Democrats also called for including new tax revenue in the mix. Both measures failed.

Lleaders on both sides publicly conceded that the effort was largely for show, with little chance the opposing chamber would embrace the other's plan. They will discuss their differences with President Obama at the White House on Friday.

"It isn't a plan at all, it's a gimmick," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said today of the Democrats' legislation.

"Republicans call the plan flexibility" in how the cuts are made, said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "Let's call it what it is. It is a punt."

The budget crisis is the product of a longstanding failure of Congress and the White House to compromise on plans for deficit reduction. The sequester itself, enacted in late 2011, was intended to be so unpalatable as to help force a deal.

Republicans and Democrats, however, remain gridlocked over the issue of taxes.

Obama has mandated that any steps to offset the automatic cuts must include new tax revenue through the elimination of loopholes and deductions. House Speaker John Boehner and the GOP insist the approach should be spending cuts-only, modifying the package to make it more reasonable.

"Do we want to close loopholes? We sure do. But if we are going to do tax reform, it should focus on creating jobs, not funding more government," House Speaker John Boehner said, explaining his opposition to Obama's plan.

Boehner, McConnell, Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will huddle with Obama at the White House on Friday for the first face-to-face meeting of the group this year.

"There are no preconditions to a meeting like this," White House spokesman Jay Carney said today. "The immediate purpose of the meeting is to discuss the imminent sequester deadline and to avert it."

Even if the leaders reach a deal, there's almost no chance a compromise could be enacted before the deadline. Lawmakers are expected to recess later today for a long weekend in their districts.

What will be the short-term impact of the automatic cuts?

Officials say it will be a gradual, "rolling impact" with limited visible impact across the country in the first few weeks that the cuts are allowed to stand.

Over the long term, however, the Congressional Budget Office and independent economic analysts have warned sequester could lead to economic contraction and possibly a recession.

"This is going to be a big hit on the economy," Obama said Wednesday night.

"It means that you have fewer customers with money in their pockets ready to buy your goods and services. It means that the global economy will be weaker," he said. "And the worst part of it is, it's entirely unnecessary."

Both sides say that if the cuts take effect, the next best chance for a resolution could come next month when the parties need to enact a new federal budget. Government funding runs out on March 27, raising the specter of a federal shutdown if they still can't reach a deal.

"As we anticipate an across-the-board budget cuts across our land, we still expect to see your goodness prevail, O God, " Senate Chaplain Barry Black prayed on the Senate floor this morning, "and save us from ourselves."

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Benedict's reign ends with a promise to obey next pope

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict ended his difficult reign on Thursday pledging unconditional obedience to whoever succeeds him to guide the Roman Catholic Church at one of the most crisis-ridden periods in its 2,000-year history.

The papacy became vacant at 8 p.m. (1900 GMT/2PM ET), marking the first time in six centuries a pope has resigned instead of ruling for life.

In a symbolic gesture, the Swiss Guards who stood sentry at the papal summer residence south of Rome, where the pope flew by helicopter less than three hours earlier, quit their posts and the massive wooden doors of the hilltop residence were closed.

At the same time, the papal apartments in the Vatican were locked and will not be opened until a new pope is elected.

As he left the Vatican several hours earlier by helicopter, he sent his last Twitter message: "Thank you for your love and support. May you always experience the joy that comes from putting Christ at the center of your lives."

Bells rang out from St Peter's Basilica and churches all over Rome as the helicopter circled Vatican City and flew over the Colosseum and other landmarks to give the pontiff one last view of the city where he is also bishop.

"As you know, today is different to previous ones," he told an emotional, cheering crowd holding balloons and banners after he arrived in the small town of Castel Gandolfo, where the summer residence it located.

He told the crowd, many of whom were crying, that he would soon become "simply be a pilgrim who is starting the last phase of his pilgrimage on this earth".

He then turned and went inside the villa, never to be seen again as pope.

"I wanted to see him for the last time. I hope his successor follows in his footsteps. I feel very moved to be here," said Giuseppe Ercolino, a 19-year-old student from a nearby town.

In an emotional farewell to cardinals on Thursday morning in the Vatican's frescoed Sala Clementina, Benedict appeared to send a strong message to the top echelons of the Church as well as the faithful to unite behind his successor, whoever he is.

"I will continue to be close to you in prayer, especially in the next few days, so that you are fully accepting of the action of the Holy Spirit in the election of the new pope," he said. "May the Lord show you what he wants. Among you there is the future pope, to whom I today declare my unconditional reverence and obedience."

The pledge, made ahead of the closed-doors conclave where cardinals will elect his successor, was significant because for the first time in history, there will be a reigning pope and a former pope living side by side in the Vatican.

Some Church scholars worry that if the next pope undoes some of Benedict's policies while his predecessor is still alive, Benedict could act as a lightning rod for conservatives and polarize the 1.2 billion-member Church.

Before boarding the helicopter, Pope Benedict said goodbye to monsignors, nuns, Vatican staff and Swiss guards in the San Damaso courtyard of the Holy See's apostolic palace. Many of his staff had tears in their eyes as the helicopter left.

Benedict will spend the first few months of his retirement in the papal summer residence, a complex of villas boasting lush gardens, a farm and stunning views over Lake Albano in the volcanic crater below the town.

Benedict will stay until April when renovations are completed on a convent in the Vatican that will be his new home.

PAPAL PROBLEMS

With the election of the next pope taking place in the wake of sexual abuse scandals, leaks of his private papers by his butler, falling membership and demands for a greater role for women, many in the Church believe it would benefit from a fresh face from a non-European country.

A number of cardinals from the developing world, including Ghanaian Peter Turkson and Antonio Tagle of the Philippines are two names often mentioned as leading candidates from the developing world who listen more.

"At the past two conclaves, the cardinals elected the smartest man in the room. Now, it may be time to choose a man who will listen to all the other smart people in the Church," said Father Tom Resse, a historian and senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University.

Benedict, wearing the white papal cassock and red cape he will shed after his resignation becomes official, urged the Church to strive to be "deeply united".

A lover of classical music, he compared the Church hierarchy to an orchestra with many instruments which should always seek to be harmonious.

"In these past eight years we have lived, with faith, beautiful moments of radiant light in the path of the Church as well as moments when some clouds darkened the sky," he said, adding that he had "tried to serve Christ and his Church with deep and total love".

NEW POPE BEFORE EASTER

Once the chair of St Peter is vacant, cardinals who have assembled from around the world will begin planning the conclave that will elect his successor.

One of the first questions facing these "princes of the Church" is when the 115 cardinal electors should enter the Sistine Chapel for the voting. They will hold a first meeting on Friday but a decision may not come until next week.

The Vatican seems to be aiming for an election by mid-March so the new pope can be installed in office before Palm Sunday on March 24 and lead the Holy Week services that culminate in Easter on the following Sunday.

In the meantime, the cardinals will hold daily consultations at the Vatican at which they discuss issues facing the Church, get to know each other better and size up potential leaders for the 2,000-year-old Church.

There are no official candidates, no open campaigning and no clear front runner for the job. Cardinals tipped as favorites by Vatican-watchers include Turkson, Tagle, Brazil's Odilo Scherer, Canadian Marc Ouellet, Italy's Angelo Scola and Timothy Dolan of the United States.

Benedict, a bookish man who did not seek the papacy and did not enjoy being in the global spotlight, proved an energetic teacher of Catholic doctrine but a poor manager of the Curia, the Vatican bureaucracy that became mired in scandal.

He leaves his successor a top secret report on rivalries and scandals within the Curia, prompted by leaks of internal files last year that documented the problems hidden behind the Vatican's thick walls and the Church's traditional secrecy.

(Additional reporting by James Mackenzie, Catherine Hornby and Tom Heneghan; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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