GET A CLUE: Investigators seized hairbrushes and toothbrushes from the East 78th Street apartment allegedly used by Anna Gristina (above) as a brothel for the wealthy. (Steven Hirsch)
(NY Post: Chad Rachman)
GET A CLUE: Investigators seized hairbrushes and toothbrushes from the East 78th Street apartment (above and above right) allegedly used by Anna Gristina (above left) as a brothel for the wealthy. (
)
The same day they arrested accused Upper East Side madam Anna Gristina, Manhattan DA investigators raided her 78th Street “brothel” and stripped it of what they consider to be vital evidence — hairbrushes and toothbrushes, The Post has learned.
“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 DA’s official corruption unit specifically asked Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan to sign a search warrant authorizing the tooth and hairbrush seizures.
The one-bedroom apartment of ill repute was raided Feb. 22, as was Gristina’s upstate Monroe farmhouse.
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.
Gristina has said she refused to give up information about possible big-bucks clients to investigators during an hours-long grilling.
In an exclusive jailhouse interview with The Post, the accused Hockey Mom Madam recounted how a revolving team of investigators, each increasingly higher in rank, showed her a list of about 10 names and demanded she cough up information on them.
She said she knew some of the names, describing them as bigwigs in investment banking, real estate and business, but said she refused to talk and that prosecutors seemed to be “fishing” for information.
She demanded a lawyer and they arrested her shortly after that, the mom of four said.
Meanwhile, Gristina will have a new set of clothes, and possibly a new lawyer, when she returns to court today for a bail hearing.
News of the looming changes emerged yesterday after the jailed Scottish woman got a Rikers Island visit from husband Kelvin Gorr, who huddled outside the prison with a new criminal defense lawyer, Gary Greenwald, before heading into the big house with a bag of new clothes for his wife.
Gorr said he brought the new outfit so his wife “doesn’t have to wear that herringbone jacket” she’s worn to her last two court appearances.
The husband referred to Greenwald — who has repped mobster Vincent “Chin” Gigante — as his wife’s “lawyer” but didn’t elaborate.
“I have not been formally hired as of yet,” the Westchester-based Greenwald told The Post.
Greenwald said he plans to be in court today, where Merchan — the same judge who signed off on the brothel brush seizure — has said he will decide whether to release the accused madam on $2 million bond.