Amsterdam Councilman In The News For a Bizarre Relationship With House Cleaners

Announcer: On PYX 106.

Quinn: 1-800-LAW-1010. 1800law1010.com. Paul Harding on the phone, Cantara.

Cantara: From Martin, Harding and Mazzotti. Good morning, Paul.

Paul: Good morning, guys. Good morning.

Cantara: There’s a lot of lawyers on TV yesterday. That was a big day for lawyers, huh?

Paul: It was a big day everywhere. Yeah. In Washington. I just couldn’t quite get my arms around what was happening. It was all happening about the same time.

Cantara: It really did on the call.

Quinn: Join the club, right? Yeah.

Cantara: So we’ve got Paul on to just set us straight about a topic we were on last week. And that’s about the Ward Four councilman in Amsterdam, Rodney Wojnar, who would hire, I think in some cases, some maybe drug-addicted women.

Quinn: Yes. Women that probably are struggling through some stuff. Right.

Cantara: They would come to his house to clean. But after, he would pay them to clean, but then he would also coerce them to show him their breasts and punch them in the stomach. Is he charged with anything, Paul?

Paul: Yeah, so he’s charged with third degree patronizing of a prostitute, which is a misdemeanor. And you know, he’s sort of looking at this and he’s saying, “Hey, you know, there’s really no prostitutes here. You know. These are women that I knew,” and people who have, they have actually lived with him for a short time. They could come by his house unannounced. He said, “These are relationships that I have. And yeah, I would pay them to clean my house, and sometimes I would help them out when they are short on money.” But then of course, they have alleged that they are getting paid for the activities that you just said. So it is bizarre, and I’m not quite sure what the Prosecutor is going to do this.

Quinn: But there is such a thing as, and I’m here to tell you, I was asked to punch somebody during a sexual situation that, you know, there was no money involved.

Cantara: He didn’t do it, by the way.

Quinn: I didn’t do it.

Paul: Yeah.

Quinn: But there is like a kink. it’s like a kink. It’s a, you know, a control thing.

Paul: Yeah.

Quinn: But, yeah, so it happens. And if they paid her for it and it’s not sexual…

Cantara: But he paid her for the cleaning services.

Paul: Well I guess, I mean, if you think…

Cantara: How does he prove that he paid her for the cleaning and not for the…

Quinn: It’s got to be messy already.

Paul: Well, you know, I guess they’ve got to prove it the other way around, beyond a reasonable doubt, that this is what was happening. And you know, at the end of the day, it’s just, it’s bizarre. It’s one of those things that is out in the public and everybody… It’s just got that feel to it where everybody is paying attention. But I believe it’s going to go away really quietly. There’s a court date coming up. And I think there is going to be a plea to something. There won’t be any jail time. But of course, there’s just going to be a lot of continued unanswered questions of what’s going on in that councilman’s house.

Quinn: He’s still got to go to the store and be that guy…

Cantara: He’s got to be that guy..

Quinn: …who likes to pay his cleaning ladies to get punched.

Paul: That’s exactly right. It’s not going to go away.

Cantara: If this was just a regular guy, not a councilman, would this even be a story? Would it even be something that the police would care about?

Paul: One makes an argument it may or not even be prosecuted. Right. The fact that he’s an alderman or a councilman certainly gave it the juice to not only be prosecuted, but certainly to make the news. But, that’s what happens. You know. You put yourself out there, and you know, you’re going to run part of a town or a city, you know, you’ve got to make sure that, you know, that you are real careful what you are doing. And of course, here, there might be something much more sinister going on. You know, there might be a prostitution component to it. But I just don’t think we’re going to find out. I think it’s going to go away very quietly at the court date that they have coming up later in August.

Cantara: It’s going to go away quietly, but it sure did roar its head up for that guy.

Quinn: It did. It did.

Paul: It did.

Cantara: Poor bastard.

Quinn: Yeah. Hey Paul, Marybeth Tinnings is out. Am I pronouncing that right, Tinning?

Paul: You did. Yeah.

Quinn: This is the one that you, your first case as a civil defense person.

Paul: Yeah.

Quinn: Are you concerned for your well being? Are you taking precautions now that she’s out after this many years?

Paul: No. But I did meet her. You know. I met her husband and got to know her through different things, you know. But again, we are talking, oh, just, you know, back in 1990, you know, 1989 or something.

Quinn: Just a kid.

Paul: So I think she’s forgotten about me. Yeah.

Cantara: I hope so.

Quinn: Yeah.

Cantara: I hope so.

Quinn: Oh man, well listen, thanks Paul. We appreciate you being on this show as always, my brother.

Paul: All right guys. I appreciate it.

Quinn: And when you do figure out what happened yesterday, you know, we should talk about it to some point here.

Paul: Okay.

Quinn: Because I don’t know if they even know…

Cantara: I feel like the lawyers are going to be in the news for a long time.

Paul: Yeah.

Quinn: There are lawyers that don’t know what the other lawyers are saying up there, because they are not entirely sure what the law is on this. It’s crazy.

Paul: Yep. It’s an unprecedented question of what’s going to happen to a President at this point. If what Cohen said is proven, then the President is guilty of the federal crime of dealing with the campaign finances. But what happens beyond that, we’ll have to wait and see.

Quinn: There you go.

Cantara: All right. Paul Harding from Martin, Harding and Mazzotti. 1-800-LAW-1010 and 1800law1010.com. Thanks again, Paul.

Paul: Okay.

Announcer: Quinn and Cantara. Mornings on PYX 106.