Plea agreement filed in prostitution case

PORTLAND – A Korean woman has agreed to plead guilty next month to a federal charge connected to promoting prostitution.

An agreement filed in U.S. District Court this week said Doo Ri Kim will plead guilty Oct. 8 to the charge of interstate travel to promote and facilitate prostitution. Under the agreement, Kim would cooperate with federal authorities in an ongoing investigation.

Kim could face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine but the agreement outlines how she would be more likely to receive one to two years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.

If Kim pleads guilty and cooperates, prosecutors would be expected to dismiss a second federal charge, interstate travel to distribute proceeds of prostitution, that is also pending against her, according to attorney Neal Stillman, who represents Kim.

A federal grand jury indicted Kim in August. She also faces a state charge of promotion of prostitution.

Kim appears to be the only person that federal authorities have indicted in connection with investigations of massage parlors in Lisbon Falls and South Portland.

On Oct. 8, a federal judge will review the plea agreement. Kim is being held at the Cumberland County Jail.

The plea agreement comes nearly four months after federal agents and local police raided Asia Acupressure Therapy Center on Lisbon Road in Lisbon Falls. That raid followed a search nine months earlier of an establishment in South Portland.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Clark said he knew of no other indictments and declined to comment on whether more are expected.

Court papers from a case in Essex Junction, Vt., refer to related investigations in Maine, New York and New Jersey. Federal officials have declined to comment on whether connections exist.