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TRENTON
– Attorney General Anne Milgram and
Criminal Justice Director Deborah L. Gramiccioni
announced that a German citizen has been sentenced
to prison for running a brothel in the Ironbound
section of Newark and leading a scheme to
manufacture and sell fraudulent driver’s
licenses.
According
to Director Gramiccioni, Michael Lahr, 38,
a German national who was living in Newark,
was sentenced on Friday, March 6, to six years
in state prison by Superior Court Judge Michael
J. Nelson in Essex County. Lahr pleaded guilty
on Jan. 12 to promoting prostitution, five
counts of making false government documents,
possession of an assault firearm, possession
of a high-capacity magazine, and passing bad
checks.
Lahr
was charged as the result of a joint investigation
by the Newark Police Department, the New Jersey
State Police and the Division of Criminal
Justice. Deputy Attorney General David Noble
prosecuted the case and handled today’s
sentencing for the Division of Criminal Justice
Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau.
The
investigation revealed that Lahr operated
an unlicensed after-hours club and brothel
on the second floor of 250 South Street in
the Ironbound. The brothel was shut down in
2007, when investigators executed a search
warrant at the location and arrested Lahr
and a co-conspirator, Edward L. Lewis, 30,
of Newark. A third man, Derek Fenty, 39, of
East Orange, was arrested later in connection
with the brothel.
A
search warrant executed at an apartment Lahr
rented on Horatio Court in Newark revealed
a blank social security card and a blank New
Jersey automobile registration. A search of
a computer in the apartment revealed numerous
templates for manufacturing fraudulent driver's
licenses. An assault firearm with a high-capacity
magazine was also found in the apartment.
The
investigation was conducted and coordinated
by Detectives Gregory Demeter, Marc Friedenberger
and William Humphries of the New Jersey State
Police Street Gangs North Unit, Detective
Donald Stabile of the Newark Police Department
and Deputy Attorney General Noble.
Lahr,
Lewis and Fenty were indicted by the Division
of Criminal Justice. Lewis pleaded guilty
to the manufacture and sale of fraudulent
government documents. The state will recommend
that he be sentenced to four years in state
prison when he is sentenced on April 20. Fenty
pleaded guilty to promoting prostitution.
The state will recommend that he be ordered
to serve a term of probation when he is sentenced
on March 20
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