Cambridge City Councilor Paul Toner has been stripped of five committee chair and co-chair titles after he was named this month as one of the alleged clients in a high-end brothel run out of luxury apartments in Cambridge, Watertown and Washington, D.C.
Mayor E. Denise Simmons said in a letter dated March 26 that after conferring with Toner, he will no longer chair the city's finance, public safety, economic development and university relations, government operations and ordinance committees.
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The letter does say that Toner will continue in his role as chair of the Special Committee on Charter Review.
At a city council meeting last week, Toner apologized but said he would not be stepping down.
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"First, I'm ashamed to have my name associated with this case," he said. "I would like to apologize to my fellow councilors, my supporters in the community, for taking up time with the council and the public discourse in this matter."
"I've been an effective councilor who has carried out my official duties during my time in office to the best of my abilities," he added. "I am here because I have a duty to fulfill my obligations to the voters who elected me."
When the meeting ended, Toner declined to elaborate on his statement but did say he would not resign.
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The final hearing in the Cambridge brothel bust was held on Friday. In all, over 30 men were identified as clients.
Federal investigators had described the suspected clients of the brothel as elected officials, doctors, military officers, government contractors and others in positions of influence and power, but they weren't publicly identified until the first in a series of hearings in magistrate court this month — something they'd fought in court.
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.
