MINNEAPOLIS – A federal jury returned a verdict of guilty against Republican operative and major donor Anton Lazzaro for sex trafficking. Guilty on all counts, the jury said. The charges involved five girls ages 15 and 16. Jurors went into deliberations Friday afternoon and returned the verdict three hours later. The mandatory minimum sentence will be 10 years. Lazzaro, 32, testified in his own defense. He acknowledged the sex but insisted that he neither recruited nor paid the girls. Prosecutors alleged that Lazzaro met his co-defendant, Gisela Castro Medina, on a website tat lines up wealthy men with younger partners, and that he paid her to find other sex partners. Lazzaro maintained the website was no different than other dating sites. He denied that he had an agreement with Castro Medina, then 18, to recruit girls for him. Prosecutor Melinda Williams called Lazzaro a “predator.” Lazzaro’s attorney, Daniel Gerdts, responded that trafficking victims typically don’t benefit financially. He also noted that Lazzaro gave cash and gifts to people with whom he never had sex.
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Lazzaro. The jury of six men and six women deliberated three hours.