歪歪漫画

MINNEAPOLIS 鈥� Minnesota Republican strategist and donor Anton "Tony" Lazzaro has been behind bars at the Sherburne County jail since his arrest on suspicion of child sex trafficking charges in August 2021.

Now, after over a year of motions and federal court appearances, there are signs the case could be moving forward to the next steps.

Lazzaro, who faces 10 charges for allegedly paying minors for sex, now has a jury trial date set for March 20 after more than a year of hearings in which his defense team attempted to get the charges thrown out and even pushed to get his Ferrari back from the feds.

Prosecutors claim Lazzaro lured five victims for sex and attempted to lure a sixth between May and December 2020. Lazzaro has been in custody since federal authorities arrested him at his Minneapolis apartment in August 2021. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors, aiding and abetting sex trafficking of a minor and related obstruction charges.

Lazzaro鈥檚 co-defendant Gisela Casto Medina, the former University of St. Thomas College Republicans chair accused of assisting Lazzaro in recruiting minors for sex, is scheduled for a change of plea hearing Monday, Dec. 19, at the federal courthouse in downtown Minneapolis.

2021 mugshot

Medina, who faced charges including aiding and abetting sex trafficking of a minor, and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors, pleaded not guilty to her seven charges in fall 2021. She was arrested in Florida and has stayed in a halfway house since entering her plea, though has been able to obtain short releases for holidays.

Medina is accused of finding girls on social media and arranging meetings with Lazzaro, as well as trying to pay them not to speak out.

Lazzaro鈥檚 indictment on sex trafficking charges led to upheaval in the Minnesota Republican Party. His close association with former party chair Jennifer Carnahan contributed to her resignation in August 2021. Carnahan condemned Lazzaro鈥檚 alleged actions and denied knowledge of any illegal activity.

The FBI searched Lazzaro's apartment in December 2020 and returned to arrest him in an early morning raid on Aug. 12, 2021. Since his arrest, he has had about a dozen different attorneys represent him in the case, and has pursued several strategies to shake off the charges.

In his motions to dismiss the charges, he made claims ranging from alleging the government targeted him for his wealth or political role, to arguing others accused of similar conduct had not been prosecuted on the same charges.

Lazzaro鈥檚 attorneys in August 2022 argued to federal Magistrate David T. Schultz that the trafficking charges should be dropped as the FBI and Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension had accessed privileged calls between Lazzaro and members of his defense team.

In November, Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz rejected both the privileged calls motion and a motion containing claims of political discrimination. Lazzaro had appeared as a contributor on Fox News in the past, and his attorney in a court filing claimed Lazzaro was set to appear on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on the day of his arrest to speak on a "prominent Democratic United States representative from Minnesota."

Federal authorities continue to hold Lazzaro鈥檚 2010 Ferrari convertible, which prosecutors claim he used to pick up a victim. The government seized the vehicle in August 2021.

The car is one of several assets federal agents seized, including gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash. Authorities have since returned the cash and precious metals, which they seized in a December 2020 search warrant.

Steven Kessler, a New York attorney who represented Lazzaro on forfeitures in the case, argued that the government has no right to keep the vehicle since it was not core to the crimes he is accused of committing. There was 鈥渘o evidence he took to the streets in his shiny Ferrari鈥� to meet potential victims, Kessler argued in court in March, later pointing out that the feds did not seize a non-luxury vehicle of Lazzaro's.

While his co-defendant Medina has been able to stay in a halfway house and get leave during holidays, Lazzaro was denied pretrial release by a judge last year.

Schiltz shut down a push by Lazzaro's attorneys to obtain release, citing concerns that Lazzaro, 30 at the time of his arrest, would continue to threaten government officials and attempt to influence his alleged victims.

Lazzaro had attempted to interfere with the investigation, Schiltz wrote in his ruling, noting that a Minneapolis police officer had testified at an earlier detention hearing that Lazzaro had tried to persuade a victim and parent to enter a nondisclosure agreement for $1,000.

Lazzaro had asked Medina to obtain one of the alleged victim鈥檚 silence by going to her workplace and giving her 鈥渁 bottle of alcohol and cash.鈥�

Schiltz wrote in a November 2021 order that a Minneapolis police officer testified that Lazzaro had told the Minneapolis officer he knew where he lived and that Lazzaro had attempted to collect personal information on an FBI agent involved in the investigation, something the judge called 鈥渧ery troubling.鈥�

The officer also testified that Lazzaro said the assistant U.S. attorney assigned to the case, Laura Provinzino, would regret pursuing criminal charges against him.