Cause hearings held for alleged buyers in high-end brothel case

A series of hearings starting Friday will finally reveal the names of some of the John Does connected to a high-end brothel bust in November 2023.

Three people running the ring, operated out of apartments in Cambridge, Watertown and the Washington, D.C., area, have already been arrested and sentenced. But little information was initially released about the men accused of purchasing sex. The first show cause hearing is being held Friday, the first time alleged buyers in the case are being publicly identified.

In a battle that made its way to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, attorneys for the alleged buyers, who were initially described by federal investigators as elected officials, doctors, military officers, government contractors and other positions of influence and power, fought to keep their clients' names out of the public eye.

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The reasoning was that those clients were first required to attend show cause hearings, which are typically held behind closed doors and only become public if a clerk magistrate determines there is enough probable cause to move forward with criminal charges.

In this case, several media outlets, including NBC10 Boston, argued that the cases should be held in the open because of high public interest and to promote transparency in the process. The Cambridge clerk magistrate agreed in December 2023. However, she denied a request to make the court documents available prior to the proceedings.

But many of the alleged buyers took issue, eventually bringing the case up to the SJC, which ruled that the clerk's original decision should stand. In the opinion the court wrote that she "raised legitimate public concerns about potential favoritism and bias if such hearings were held behind closed doors, and that these concerns outweighed the interests in continued anonymity for the Does."

They further agreed that the clerk magistrate was within her discretion when denying access to the pending complaint applications, writing:

Only the first group of names was read in court Friday, and of the 12 men who had hearings scheduled, only two actually appeared: Mark Zhu and Jason Han.

Mark Zhu was one of the men who appeared in court. The 28-year-old learned he'd be charged with paying a fee for sex. His attorney's request to hold off on the complaint was denied.

"My client has 0.0 criminal record of any sort," defense attorney Steven Goldwyn said of Zhu.

Outside the courthouse, Zhu was faced with protesters.

Attorney Howard Cooper tried unsuccessfully to move the hearing behind closed-doors for his client, John Durant, who did not show up Friday.

"My client continues his objection to his hearing being public," Cooper said.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Massachusetts has said the brothel's clientele includes the "wealthy and well-connected." Investigators initially characterized some as elected officials, doctors, military officers and government contractors.

Attorney Kevin Mahoney said that's not the case for his client, David Lacava of Waltham.

He didn't come to court and is going through a divorce because of the allegations, according to his attorney.

"My client is not one of the individuals, Madame Clerk, that anybody in the media is going to interested in," Mahoney told Clerk Magistrate Sharon Casey of Lacava. "He's a software engineer. He doesn't hold any government clearances."

Han, a Concord resident, is also charged with paying a fee for sex. His attorney said he could lose his job at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

"We deserve, the commonwealth of Massachusetts deserves, to keep this young health care hero employed," said John Pensa, Han's defense attorney.

More hearings are scheduled for March 21 and 28. Those who didn't appear in court Friday are not in trouble, but they will be if they don't show up for arraignments.

The three people charged with running the network - the alleged ringleader, Han Lee, and the man accused of booking appointments, Junmyung Lee, and James Lee, the man who provided the apartments they used in the ring, have pleaded guilty.