Alleged Madam Reaches Plea Deal With Feds
DENVER (CBS4) - Brenda Stewart, the owner of a high-end prostitution ring in Denver that catered to judges, lawyers, professional athletes and celebrities, has agreed to plead guilty to one count of tax evasion in exchange for dozens of other federal criminal counts being dropped.
According to documents reviewed by CBS4, Stewart, who was indicted for tax evasion, racketeering, witness tampering and money laundering charges, will plead guilty July 6 and will be sentenced Nov. 7. Her trial, which was scheduled for Nov. 7, has been canceled. The plea bargain agreement was entered into court records in April but was not previously reported.
Stewart owned a prostitution business known as Denver Sugar/Denver Players. Federal and local law enforcement agents raided the business in 2008 after a year-long investigation into the top dollar escort business. At the time, the business was operating out of a home in Denver's City Park neighborhood at 1675 Fillmore Street. Law enforcement agents searched the brothel along with Stewart's east Denver home.
The clientele were "high-profile businessmen, doctors, lawyers, general contractors, professional athletes," according to one of the prostitutes who spoke to CBS4 in 2008. "Yeah rich, real rich people," she said.
The woman said the business was lucrative with her pulling in $5,000 per week. She told CBS4 that some of the girls were hired for parties at one of Denver's most historic clubs, The Denver Club, a squash and social club atop a Denver skyscraper. The Denver Club caters to lawyers, businessmen and oil barons. She says the parties involved drugs and "orgy type stuff going on. Having sex all over the club, people would watch." She says she and other women made between $1,500 and $2,000 for a night at The Denver Club.
Stewart has not spoken publicly about the allegations and her attorney, Joseph Saint-Veltri, declined to comment on the plea agreement.
The previous owner of Denver Players/Denver Sugar, Scottie Ewing, also struck a plea deal with federal authorities earlier this year.
Ewing was sentenced in February to 6 months of home detention after he pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion. He also agreed to pay just over $77,000 in back taxes. Ewing called his sentence "a slap on the wrist."
