Judge: Secret recording can be used in Franklin pimping case

By JEREMY BLACKMAN

Monitor staff

Last modified: 9/15/2015 3:14:17 PM

A judge ruled Monday that prosecutors can use nearly all of a secretly recorded conversation next week when they begin trying a Franklin man accused of conspiring with his wife to prostitute an underage girl.



The trial in Merrimack County Superior Court will be the first of at least a half dozen pending against William and Julie Shine. The couple were arrested in November after allegedly pimping out the then-14-year-old girl for $1,000. They also purportedly offered her up for marriage, at five times the cost.



Lawyers for William Shine, 34, had asked that a portion of the conversation, between the couple and a confidential informant, be excluded at trial. In the excerpt, Julie Shine allegedly warned the informant not to have sex with the girl behind their backs and gave the example of a Massachusetts man whom she claimed impregnated a different underage girl, and did so without paying first. Julie and William Shine have been charged separately with blackmailing that man, Lawrence Marks, for his truck and $50,000.



“It’s one thing if you’re going to come out and talk to me first and to be open with me, a totally different ballgame when you keep it behind my back,” she said, according to a transcript read by Assistant County Attorney Kristin Vartanian. “(Marks) doesn’t realize I could have literally seriously f----- him.”



William Shine and the girl being offered for sale were present for the conversation, Vartanian said. Marks has been charged separately in Massachusetts, she said.



The defense argued that the statement referenced an unrelated incident and would unfairly prejudice jurors. Vartanian countered that it shows that the couple was willing to pimp out the child, so long as they got their money up front.



“They’re saying they were upset with Mr. Marks because they didn’t find out until after the fact,” Vartanian said.



Judge Richard McNamara agreed to allow the remarks but barred a related excerpt in which Julie Shine claims to have taken specific action against Marks.



The couple has also been charged with assaulting the girls last year – William with aggravated felonious sexual assault, Julie with aiding or attempting to aid in the act. Next week’s trial involves just four charges: three sex trafficking felonies and one misdemeanor for endangering the welfare of a child. Julie Shine, 42, is set for trial on similar indictments next month.



Prosecutors have said they believe the couple was allowing other men access to the girls, though they have offered no specifics.



The case might also involve a registered sex offender from Laconia. Prosecutors have indicated they may call Ronald Martin to testify, according to court records, but it’s unclear what, if any, connection he has. Martin was convicted of raping a young girl in the early 1990s and is facing a new round of charges stemming from the same era. He is scheduled for sentencing next month in federal court for tax evasion.



Neither William nor Julie Shine appear to have a criminal record. In November, the public defender then-assigned to William Shine acknowledged that money had exchanged hands but said it was unclear whether any actual agreement was made.



Each has been incarcerated since the arrests.







(Jeremy Blackman can be reached at 369-3319, jblackman@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @JBlackmanCM.)





