MINNEAPOLIS — A jury of nine women and seven men are seated for the sex trafficking trial of Anton Lazzaro, a wealthy former GOP strategist accused of paying a woman to recruit teenage girls to have sex with him for money.
The jury was seated in just one day in federal court in Minneapolis. Four of the jurors are alternates. Opening statements will begin at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. KARE 11's Lou Raguse will be live-tweeting from the courthouse.
With Anton Lazzaro's co-defendant Gisela Castro Medina having already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors, Judge Patrick Schiltz took no chances with the jury.
Anyone who had read details about Castro Medina or other specifics about the case, Schiltz immediately excused from the jury pool
Castro Medina is now the star witness for the prosecution of Lazzaro. She says he paid her to recruit girls to have sex with him for money in his luxury penthouse condo in the Hotel Ivy in downtown Minneapolis.
Prosecutors say Lazzaro asked Castro Medina to recruit "broken girls" who were young, small, and vulnerable.
Court filings indicate that Lazzaro met Castro Medina and one of the five alleged victims through the "sugar daddy" website seekingarrangement.com. Lazzaro eventually tried to get the alleged victim and her father to sign a non-disclosure agreement. They refused.
Lazzaro has said from the beginning the investigation is politically-motivated, as his condo was raided and he was arrested while he was conducting his own investigation into a past marriage of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
Judge Schiltz ruled those details will not be allowed in the trial.
What we know so far about Lazzaro's defense is that he says the sex was consensual – and that he wasn't paying for it, but rather giving generous gifts to the girls.
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