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{shortcode-34e8f2b114f673286f89210f17c56443a91cd7ed}ambridge City Councilor Paul F. Toner — who faces charges for allegedly patronizing a Cambridge brothel network — spent nearly a year trying to prevent his name from surfacing in the case prior to his arraignment.
Toner was charged with sexual conduct for a fee for his alleged involvement with an interstate high-end brothel network at Friday’s show-cause hearing. While these hearings are typically private, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld a ruling to open the hearings to the public in December 2024.
A series of legal filings obtained by The Crimson through a public records request show that Toner’s lawyer Timothy R. Flaherty spent nearly 14 months working to keep his client’s show-cause hearings private. Flaherty did not respond to a request for comment on this article.
Flaherty represents Toner and Paul E. Grant, both of whom were charged in Friday’s hearing. In January 2024, he filed a motion to intervene on behalf of his clients — identified only as John Does #16 and #17 — to reverse a December 2023 order to make the hearings public.
In the motion, Flaherty argued that his client’s status as an elected official was not sufficient reason to waive traditional privacy rules.
“The public attention in this case has been media-driven and was initiated by a press conference engineered by the United States Attorney’s Office,” he wrote and referred to a 2023 statement that alleged clients included “elected officials,” among other professions.
“Being employed in one of these occupations in and of itself, including being an ‘elected official,’ does not create a legitimate public interest that outweighs the accused’s right of privacy,” Flaherty wrote.
Show-cause hearings are generally held in private as the court decides if there is enough evidence to charge individuals. The suit to open the hearings to the public, filed by the Boston Globe, WBUR, and other media outlets, allowed alleged clients’ names to surface before an official criminal charge. But if Flaherty’s efforts were successful, Toner’s name would have only become public once the case was arraigned and a formal criminal record was created.
Flaherty argued that since Toner’s alleged involvement did not affect his work as a city councillor, his name should not be disclosed publicly in the show-cause hearings.
“There is no suggestion that the alleged conduct occurred in the performance of an official’s duties or bears upon his ability to perform those duties,” he wrote.
But Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Justice Frank M. Gaziano denied Flaherty’s motion, alongside all other motions to intervene, resulting in this month’s public show cause hearings for the 28 alleged clients.
Cambridge Police reports from the hearings show that Toner frequently engaged with the brothel, reporting that he “agreed to pay to engage in sex with a woman” at least 13 times between February and September 2023.
Toner texted a phone number associated with the brothel to schedule the meetings, having “432 interactions with the Brothel Phone” within the eight-month period, according to a police report.
In a sequence of April 17 texts, typical of the eight exchanges included in the police report, Toner messaged the brothel phone, asking whether two sex workers — whom he referred to by stage names, Tulip and Jisoo — were “free at 5 or 6 today.”
Someone sent a reply from the brothel phone: “5pm with Tulip gfe 1hr 340.”
Toner agreed to schedule one hour of the “girlfriend experience,” which police reports described as a payment for both commercial sex and “a more intimate experience.”
“I believe that TONER agreed with the user of the Brothel Phone, to engage in commercial sex with an unknown female with the stage name of ‘Tulip’ for one hour for the price of $340,” the report said.
During the investigation, police pulled security footage outside the room whose number was sent to Toner, which showed a male enter the room at 4:59 pm and exit at 5:51 pm, “consistent with the amount of time that TONER paid for commercial sex, according to the report.
In five instances highlighted in the report, Toner agreed to pay $340 for commercial sex.
In a statement after Friday’s hearing to the Boston Globe, Toner wrote he “caused pain for the people I care about most. For that, I will be forever sorry.”
At Monday’s city council meeting, Toner apologized once again and said he was “ashamed” of his connection to the case.
While Toner was not present at Friday’s hearing, he will be required to attend an arraignment in May.
In a statement to the Crimson about this story, Andrew M. Paven, a spokesman for Toner, wrote, “You have the legal arguments made at the time. Mr Toner will not further comment on those details while the case is pending. The arguments were heard. The Supreme Court ruled. The hearings are underway.”
—Staff writer Jack B. Reardon can be reached at jack.reardon@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @JackBReardon.
—Staff writer Shawn A. Boehmer can be reached at shawn.boehmer@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @ShawnBoehmer.
