She’s ready to ‘fess up.
After three weeks at Rikers Island, the accused “Hockey Mom Madam” said through her lawyer today that she is considering pleading guilty to her alleged role in a big-bucks hooker ring.
Anna Gristina showed up in court this morning with a new lawyer, a plan to post the $2 million bail bond that would spring her after almost a month at Rikers Island, and a strong intimation that she’s ready to switch from defendant to convict.
“My intention is to meet the DA with a view toward a disposition or resolving the matter … if I think that a plea is the appropriate thing,” Gristina lawyer Gary Greenwald told a media-crowded courtroom this morning.
A prison term would await her after any guilty plea, if prosecutors have their way.
Official corruption prosecutor Charles Linehan, who is heading the investigation into Gristina’s operation due to alleged evidence of potential police protection, said his office wants Gristina to go away for the maximum — at least 2 1/3 years prison, and as much as 7.
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Insiders believe Gristina would cop silently.
“She pleads guilty, she doesn’t tell prosecutors a thing about how she ran her operation, she goes up to Bedford [Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in Westchester County] and she gets out in a year or so on work release, with good behavior,” said one strategist involved in the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“It sounds like a plan, right? She’ll be near her home and family, [in upstate Monroe County] she doesn’t give up anybody, she doesn’t make any enemies. That’s how she’s leaning right now.”
Her silence would greatly hamper prosecutors, who Gristina has told the Post are desperate for her cooperation against her alleged millionaire johns and high power alleged collaborators.
In an exclusive interview with The Post last week, Gristina said that prosecutors grilled her for an hour after busting her last month, and that she’d refused to give them any information about possible high-profile johns or collaborators.
Greenwald insisted no one should read much into the fact that she’s mulling a resolution.
“Every case has a potential of a plea,” he said.
Whether or not Gristina, 44, does cop, prosecutors will play hardball, warned Linehan.
“Based on what we know about her … there is a good argument that can be made for the maximum sentence being imposed, even considering this is her first arrest,” Linehan said, referring to the 2 1/3 to seven-year term, toward which the time she is currently spending on ice would count.
Greenwald spoke after Gristina’s appearance before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who’s weighing her proposal to post her bail — a whopping $2 million bond, or $1 million cash.
Gristina has fired her free court-appointed lawyer, Richard Siracusa, and has also let go of her pro bono lawyer, Peter Gleason, who had sparred openly in court.
Having Gleason step down from the case also cancels the conflict of interest in Gleason’s plan to post his TriBeCa loft as collateral for any bail bond.
Gristina’s hunky husband, Monroe County real estate broker Kevin Gorr, along with Gristina’s sister, are also willing to put up property to help secure Gristina’s release.
In any event, Gristina will cool her high heels in Rikers for a while longer. Merchan said he would hold another hearing verifying the source of Gleason’s collateral before he approves her bail.
Greenwald noted that co-defendant Jaynie Baker — Gristina’s beautiful, strawberry blond accused side-kick madam — was released on only $100,000 bail for essentially the same accusation.
Gristina, who was brought to court today in handcuffs, wore a silky, boat-necked black-and-white blouse, having ditched the black and white herringbone jacket she’d worn on her previous appearances.
Her appearance came as The Post reported today that Manhattan DA investigators raided her 78th Street “brothel” and stripped it of what they consider to be vital evidence — hairbrushes and toothbrushes.
“They could potentially be used for DNA testing, hair analysis to identify people who have been using that location,” Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Roper told a judge last month, according to court documents obtained by The Post.
The one-bedroom apartment of ill repute was raided Feb. 22. as was Gristina’s upstate Monroe farmhouse. Gristina was also arrested that day.
The DNA evidence could be used to bolster a case against either hookers or some of the million-dollar johns who allegedly patronized the pleasure palace.