  Mayor_sekou Member Username: Mayor_sekou Post Number: 2172 Registered: 09-2006 |
Thomas Athans, the husband of U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow and cofounder of a liberal talk radio network, told Troy police detectives that he paid a prostitute $150 for sex at a Troy hotel in late February, according to a police report obtained Wednesday by the Free Press under the Freedom of Information Act. Athans, 46, was not arrested or charged, but agreed to fully cooperate with police in their investigation of Internet-based prostitution at hotels in the city, according to the report. Athans was pulled over by police on I-75 minutes after leaving the Residence Inn on Livernois, just east of I-75 and south of Big Beaver, the evening of Feb. 26. He was driving a Cadillac DeVille registered jointly to him and Stabenow at their address in Lansing. He was ticketed for driving on a suspended license. When questioned during the stop, he acknowledged he had been at the hotel with a woman he met on the Internet. On further questioning, he acknowledged he had paid the woman $150 for sex. “This is very disturbing and serious. Obviously it’s a deeply difficult and personal matter,” Sen. Debbie Stabenow said in an official statement issued late this morning, in response to the Free Press story. Athans and Stabenow, a U.S. senator since 2001, were married in 2003. Stabenow did not show up for a news conference this morning at the Capitol. "He was very cooperative. He didn’t tell officers who he was. He did not ask for any special treatment,” said Lt. Gerard Scherlinck, the information officer for the Troy Police. Police arrested, Alycia Martin, 20, of Westland in the hotel room. She was charged with prostitution. Police confiscated a cell phone, a laptop and $431. She told police she had only been working as a prostitute for about a week and didn’t know how many men had visited her the day she was arrested, according to the report. The room Martin was in was an 800-square-foot, two-story penthouse suite. Police went to the hotel after a detective working on Internet-based prostitution at hotels in the city came across a solicitation for sex on a Web site, backdoor.com. Plainclothes detectives went to the hotel and set up a surveillance and watched Athans drive up, go inside and then leave about 15 minutes later. Athans is a radio producer who’s spent the past several years trying to launch liberal talk shows that could counter popular conservative radio programming. Before starting his current firm TalkUSA Radio in 2006, Athans was the head of syndicated programming at Air America, the liberal network that declared bankruptcy that year. TalkUSA launched one syndicated talk show last year. Athans has strong ties to Democratic Party officials and liberal activists; Sen. Hillary Clinton publicly acknowledged him during her speech in Detroit last month. According to the Washington Post, Clinton and other senators attended a fund-raiser in 2004 for Athans’ previous network, Democracy Radio, which raised $1.8 million to launch the talk show of Ed Schultz. Athans dissolved Democracy Radio in May 2006. He was also an Oxford Village council member. Stabenow, 57, has been a major figure in Michigan politics for several decades. She has served in the Legislature, in the U.S. House and in 2000 upset incumbent Republican Spencer Abraham. In 1994, she lost a race for governor. http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs .dll/article?AID=/20080402/NEW S06/80402038 | ||
Mayor_sekou Member Username: Mayor_sekou Post Number: 2173 Registered: 09-2006 |
Oops. Already posted. | ||
Irish_mafia Member Username: Irish_mafia Post Number: 1245 Registered: 10-2003 |
Too funny!... and absolutely in line with the rest of the ilk that this character associates with. | ||
Focusonthed Member Username: Focusonthed Post Number: 1771 Registered: 02-2006 |
$150? Hell, Spitzer should have come to Troy. | ||
Eriedearie Member Username: Eriedearie Post Number: 1208 Registered: 08-2007 |
"He was very cooperative. He didn’t tell officers who he was. He did not ask for any special treatment,” said Lt. Gerard Scherlinck, the information officer for the Troy Police." So he didn't say "Don't you know who the f**k I am!" Class act there! HA! | ||
Novine Member Username: Novine Post Number: 489 Registered: 07-2007 |
Does being the spouse of a public official make one fair game for being a news target in cases like this? I can understand zinging public officials caught doing this stuff but do we really care what the spouse does? | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 2101 Registered: 07-2004 |
I know! Admitted it to a cop right away. No denial, no perjury, no obstruction of justice. Thank goodness we have people in political circles willing to admit to their philandering. On that note, how low have our standards sunk?  | ||
Irish_mafia Member Username: Irish_mafia Post Number: 1246 Registered: 10-2003 |
He is extremely political himself...past VP of the failed liberal Air America and other liberal radio debacles, "Athans has strong ties to Democratic Party officials and liberal activists; Sen. Hillary Clinton publicly acknowledged him during her speech in Detroit last month." Let the sun shine in! | ||
6nois Member Username: 6nois Post Number: 692 Registered: 11-2006 |
Focus thats $150 for 15 minutes, so an hour would be $600, still a deal compared to Spitzer. But I must ask why is this news? Seems more like a private issue to me. | ||
Gnome Member Username: Gnome Post Number: 980 Registered: 08-2007 |
I agree Novine, just being a spouse isn't reason enough, but being one of the folks behind AirAmerica certainly makes him subject to media scrutiny. I'm always amazed when prostitution is thought to be a victimless crime when in reality it is a vile subjugation of women. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T om_Athans | ||
Kid_dynamite Member Username: Kid_dynamite Post Number: 487 Registered: 06-2007 |
"Focus thats $150 for 15 minutes, so an hour would be $600, still a deal compared to Spitzer. But I must ask why is this news? Seems more like a private issue to me." Are you really asking this seriously? He is a public figure, that's why. Why is Brittany Spears' train wreck of a life frontpage news? How about Slick Willy and Monica? How about NJ Governor McGreavy(spelling?)? | ||
Gnome Member Username: Gnome Post Number: 981 Registered: 08-2007 |
Isn't that the same Residence Inn where Beatty and Kwame were knocking boots? | ||
Jrvass Member Username: Jrvass Post Number: 600 Registered: 01-2007 |
Bumping uglies. Why do I always learn of these websites after they close? | ||
Cinderpath Member Username: Cinderpath Post Number: 499 Registered: 05-2006 |
Well- at least it did not cost the taxpayers $10 million, and no cops lost their career over it, it did not involve a "wide stance" at an airport "John". but the question remains............will he resign as husband :-)...... Sorry I just could not resist....... | ||
Hpgrmln Member Username: Hpgrmln Post Number: 393 Registered: 06-2007 |
Why was this guy in Troy? Theres an awful lot of Republicans in that city. Ok. Not funny. Oh well | ||
Karl_jr Member Username: Karl_jr Post Number: 241 Registered: 06-2007 |
This guy is an idiot in more ways than one. | ||
Novine Member Username: Novine Post Number: 492 Registered: 07-2007 |
"Are you really asking this seriously? He is a public figure, that's why." He wasn't charged with a crime. As for "public figure", just because the tabloids spill every lurid detail about Britney's life, does that now become the operating standard for every "public figure"? I'm not sure how this story or any story about Britney's latest transgressions are in any way newsworthy. Important to Senator Stabenow? Yes. Important to the rest of us? Not really. |
