West Palm Beach Florida - Officer Charged with Bribery
By Kevin Deutsch, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer, 02/23/07
A West Palm Beach police officer investigating drugs and prostitution paid for sex acts at least 13 times with four different women at a massage parlor, took money from the business owner and her family and snorted drugs in a parlor session room, according to an investigation by his own department.
Michael Ghent, 36, who worked in the organized-crime section of the department's special investigations division, was arrested Thursday and charged with bribery, soliciting prostitution and perjury by false written declaration. The charges stem from Ghent's alleged involvement with Relax With Us II massage parlor at 1650 N. Military Trail, a business that he first visited six or seven years ago, paying for sex acts with women - at least one of whom was a teenager.
According to police documents, Ghent befriended the business' owner, Bernadette Lesueur, telling her he was an undercover officer. He complained to her that the department did not pay him enough and bemoaned the fact he had to pay child support. Lesueur began making weekly payments to Ghent. In late 2005, he came to the business as Lesueur prepared her weekly payroll, police said. She'd been avoiding him. "Where's my cut?" he asked. He later asked Lesueur for $10,000 to pay for a home. Lesueur decided to give Ghent a check for $12,500, some of it to purchase Iraqi currency for investment purposes. The check was never cashed.
A videotape at the Relax With Us at 3222 S. Dixie Highway - which is not currently open - showed Lesueur's husband, Jean Marie, giving Ghent a large amount of cash, according to investigators. Ghent didn't buy a new home but did purchase an upscale foreign car in October 2005. It was not clear how much money he received in all from Lesueur. Ghent eventually moved into Lesueur's home, socializing with her family, even taking a trip to Orlando with Lesueur's daughter and her husband. He eventually moved out, but not before she helped him falsify documents to show he worked as the manager of Relax With Us. Those documents showed Ghent made less than $30,000, the maximum amount he could earn and still live in subsidized housing.
He also doctored other documents to show he earned less than his actual annual income of at least $57,802, investigators said. He has been employed with the police department since 1999. He used the papers to move into several subsidized apartments in Palm Beach County and got rent discounts by promising managers he would rid their property of drug dealers and keep an eye out for trouble.
Lesueur's son-in-law, Luis Sierra, told police he bought drugs for Ghent several times at the monkeyclub and Club Nessum Dorma nightclubs in downtown West Palm Beach. "This Officer has not only violated the laws of this state but the Code of Ethics and Canons adopted by all law enforcement officers," Police Chief Delsa Bush wrote in a statement. "This investigation ... is an example of our intolerance of misconduct by any of our members and of our willingness to police our own when they violate the law. "
On Thursday night, Ghent was being held at the Palm Beach County Jail with bail set at $12,000. He will be placed on administrative leave without pay pending an internal affairs investigation. Investigators interviewed several "lingerie models" at Relax With Us who gave detailed accounts of their sessions with Ghent. He had posed as a professional football player, investigators said. One model said she had about 40 "sessions" with Ghent. Another said Ghent snorted white powder after a sex act. They said Ghent was a "VIP," meaning the house paid for many of his sessions.
Lesueur was in the news earlier this year for her role in the case of disgraced West Palm Beach Commissioner Ray Liberti, who accepted bribes in return for his efforts to force cut-rate sales of the Relax With Us on Dixie Highway and Club Nessum Dorma at 115 S. Olive Ave. To add to the pressure, Liberti phoned the owner of Relax with Us, pretending to be a newspaper reporter and threatening to write negative articles about the massage parlor.
"My place of business is a clean business," Lesueur said Thursday. "My place is very clean, and they see I have nothing to do with this. I don't use my business for prostitution."
Of Ghent, she said, "I would like to see what's next, what he's going to get." But Lesueur sang a different tune to investigators. "Everyone knows what goes on here," she told them.
Retrieved March 7, 2007 from http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/local_news/epaper/2007/02/23/c1b_GHENT_0223.html
A West Palm Beach police officer investigating drugs and prostitution paid for sex acts at least 13 times with four different women at a massage parlor, took money from the business owner and her family and snorted drugs in a parlor session room, according to an investigation by his own department.
Michael Ghent, 36, who worked in the organized-crime section of the department's special investigations division, was arrested Thursday and charged with bribery, soliciting prostitution and perjury by false written declaration. The charges stem from Ghent's alleged involvement with Relax With Us II massage parlor at 1650 N. Military Trail, a business that he first visited six or seven years ago, paying for sex acts with women - at least one of whom was a teenager.
According to police documents, Ghent befriended the business' owner, Bernadette Lesueur, telling her he was an undercover officer. He complained to her that the department did not pay him enough and bemoaned the fact he had to pay child support. Lesueur began making weekly payments to Ghent. In late 2005, he came to the business as Lesueur prepared her weekly payroll, police said. She'd been avoiding him. "Where's my cut?" he asked. He later asked Lesueur for $10,000 to pay for a home. Lesueur decided to give Ghent a check for $12,500, some of it to purchase Iraqi currency for investment purposes. The check was never cashed.
A videotape at the Relax With Us at 3222 S. Dixie Highway - which is not currently open - showed Lesueur's husband, Jean Marie, giving Ghent a large amount of cash, according to investigators. Ghent didn't buy a new home but did purchase an upscale foreign car in October 2005. It was not clear how much money he received in all from Lesueur. Ghent eventually moved into Lesueur's home, socializing with her family, even taking a trip to Orlando with Lesueur's daughter and her husband. He eventually moved out, but not before she helped him falsify documents to show he worked as the manager of Relax With Us. Those documents showed Ghent made less than $30,000, the maximum amount he could earn and still live in subsidized housing.
He also doctored other documents to show he earned less than his actual annual income of at least $57,802, investigators said. He has been employed with the police department since 1999. He used the papers to move into several subsidized apartments in Palm Beach County and got rent discounts by promising managers he would rid their property of drug dealers and keep an eye out for trouble.
Lesueur's son-in-law, Luis Sierra, told police he bought drugs for Ghent several times at the monkeyclub and Club Nessum Dorma nightclubs in downtown West Palm Beach. "This Officer has not only violated the laws of this state but the Code of Ethics and Canons adopted by all law enforcement officers," Police Chief Delsa Bush wrote in a statement. "This investigation ... is an example of our intolerance of misconduct by any of our members and of our willingness to police our own when they violate the law. "
On Thursday night, Ghent was being held at the Palm Beach County Jail with bail set at $12,000. He will be placed on administrative leave without pay pending an internal affairs investigation. Investigators interviewed several "lingerie models" at Relax With Us who gave detailed accounts of their sessions with Ghent. He had posed as a professional football player, investigators said. One model said she had about 40 "sessions" with Ghent. Another said Ghent snorted white powder after a sex act. They said Ghent was a "VIP," meaning the house paid for many of his sessions.
Lesueur was in the news earlier this year for her role in the case of disgraced West Palm Beach Commissioner Ray Liberti, who accepted bribes in return for his efforts to force cut-rate sales of the Relax With Us on Dixie Highway and Club Nessum Dorma at 115 S. Olive Ave. To add to the pressure, Liberti phoned the owner of Relax with Us, pretending to be a newspaper reporter and threatening to write negative articles about the massage parlor.
"My place of business is a clean business," Lesueur said Thursday. "My place is very clean, and they see I have nothing to do with this. I don't use my business for prostitution."
Of Ghent, she said, "I would like to see what's next, what he's going to get." But Lesueur sang a different tune to investigators. "Everyone knows what goes on here," she told them.
Retrieved March 7, 2007 from http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/local_news/epaper/2007/02/23/c1b_GHENT_0223.html