Cambridge city councilor, prominent former MGH doctor among alleged brothel customers named in court

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Cambridge City Councilor Paul Toner and former Massachusetts General Hospital oncologist James Cusack Jr. are among 11 new alleged brothel customers from Massachusetts and New Hampshire identified in court on Friday.

Toner, a former schoolteacher and former president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association who is serving his second term as city councilor in Cambridge, is to date the highest profile of alleged sex buyers of the high-end brothel ring run out of buildings in Cambridge, Dedham, Watertown, and Virginia.

“Paul Toner is a person I’ve known my entire life. He’s a man of high character. He loves his family, and his family loves him,” said defense attorney Tim Flaherty. “He’s a hardworking city councilor, and the city of Cambridge is very fortunate to have him on the city council.”

Cusack is the former director of Oncology Labs at Massachusetts General Hospital. A hospital spokesperson said Friday that Cusack’s employment ended in May 2024.

Cambridge District Court Clerk Sharon Casey found probable cause for all of the alleged sex buyers. The men identified in court on Friday hail from Bay State communities including Marblehead, Concord, Exeter, Belmont, Cambridge and Charlestown.

While none of the men appeared in court, Casey informed their counsel that she would file charges against all of them.

All of the men will be required to show their faces at their next hearings in several weeks or warrants will be issued for their arrest, Casey said.

Last week, the names of a dozen accused sex buyers, from communities including Winchester, Lincoln, Concord, Newton, and Waltham, were made public.

Cambridge Police Lt. Jarred Cabral on Friday detailed the allegations against the men as he read from police reports:

• Steven Riel, of Laconia, New Hampshire
• Nathaniel Welch, of Concord, Massachusetts
• Jeff Henry, of Exeter, New Hampshire
• Fred Rosenthal, of Marblehead, Massachusetts
• Timothy Ackerson, of Waltham, Massachusetts
• Matthew Fulton, of Belmont, Massachusetts
• Howard Redmond, of Tewksbury, Massachusetts
• Anurag Bajpayee, of Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Paul Toner, of Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Paul Grant, of Charlestown, Massachusetts
• James Cusack Jr., of Boston, Massachusetts

The phone subscription of Fulton, one of the alleged sex buyers, was linked to MIT by Cambridge Police, investigators said.

“Fulton agreed with another that is user of the brothel phone to engage in commercial sex with an unidentified female with the stage name Tiki for 60 minutes for the price of $540,” Cabral said during the hearing.

Investigators say the full list of 28 suspected clients include scientists, professors, politicians, and corporate executives.

“These are mere allegations. All of my clients are presumed innocent under the law,” said defense attorney Lorraine Belostock.

During the first round of hearings last week, only two accused sex buyers appeared in court: 29-year-old Jason Han of Concord and 28-year-old Mark Zhu of Lincoln.

The alleged sex buyers identified in court on March 14 included: Jonathan Lanfear, 56, of Winchester; Patrick Walsh , 66, of Swampscott; Pinhao Chao of Newton; David LaCava, 47, of Waltham; Jason Han, 29, of Concord; John Doran, 75, of Wellesley; Pablo Domingo Maceira, 39, of Roslindale; Peter MacGillivray, 60, of Boston; Yihong Zou, 30, of Boston; Boya Zhou, 27, of West Roxbury; Kerry Wu, 54, of Natick; and Mark Zhu, 29, of Lincoln.

The public court hearings have drawn supporters of victims of the commercial sex industry, who said the alleged sex buyers should be held accountable.

“When you were interacting with your phone, trying to get these services, like these women are a merchandise, they’re not. They’re human beings,” said Ivette Monge of Ready Inspire Act.

Audra Doody, a sex work survivor, said naming the alleged sex buyers brings transparency to the problem of the commercial sex trade.

“This is sending a clear message to all the sex buyers out there that your name is going to be out there, and you’re gonna have to be held to the same consequences as we are,” Doody said.

Additional names are expected to be announced during the next round of probable cause hearings on March 28.

So far, through two rounds of hearings, a total of 23 people have been named in the brothel case.

Toner was elected to the Cambridge City Council in November 2021 and began serving on the council in January of 2022, according to biographical information provided on the city’s website.

In 2022, Toner earned $86,505 for his role as city councilor, according to an online salary database.

Toner, a father of two, started his career as a seventh- and eighth-grade social studies teacher at the Harrington Elementary School in Cambridge, his city biography states.

In 2001, he was elected the president of the Cambridge Teachers Association. Toner went on to be elected vice president, then president of the 113,000-member Massachusetts Teachers Association, where he served from 2006 to 2014.

The attorneys for the Boston-area “John Does” identified in the black books of the sophisticated interstate high-end brothel network have desperately tried to keep their identities private, arguing that revealing their names violates their privacy.

In 2023, then-acting Boston U.S. Attorney Josh Levy said the clientele of the brothels included politicians, big pharma executives, government contractors with security clearances, professors, lawyers, accountants, and scientists.

A pair of Boston-based media outlets had filed to view criminal complaints against the alleged clients of a prostitution ring, however, the SJC also sided with the clerk’s decision to keep the complaints sealed until the first show-cause hearings are held in Cambridge District Court.

In November 2023, authorities arrested Han Lee, Junmyung Lee, and James Lee on charges of running a commercial sex network in Watertown, Cambridge, and Virginia, where buyers paid up to $600 per hour for a wide array of advertised sex acts.

Han Lee, the 42-year-old leader interstate commercial sex ring, was sentenced earlier this week to four years in prison followed by one year of supervised release.

“Han Lee didn’t just recruit women to sell their bodies for sex – she built a criminal enterprise designed to thrive in the shadows, evading law enforcement while profiting off her victims like commodities,” U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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