Conspiracy allegations against the Mayor and Sheriff's Deputies | Business

Sensational allegations are being made tonight by a Times-Union investigative editor.

J. Robert Port claims that Mayor Jennings took part in a conspiracy to have a woman arrested for prostitution while she was employed by the editor's wife in a downtown massage parlor and also living with the editor and his wife at the time.

Port, in an interview with The New York Times, said that the mayor was in cahoots with city and county law enforcement officers. He claims these officials were retaliating for Times-Union articles that resulted in the doing-away with the county's drug unit.

A spokesman for the mayor says it's all nonsense and says the prostitution arrest was entirely on the up and up

The Green Garden Asian Spa or “massage parlor” is located on the second floor of a building on North Pearl Street, and that's where Mia Liu, 53, was arrested in March and charged with misdemeanor prostitution by Albany Police.

The Green Garden is owned by the wife of J. Robert Port, she relocated the spa to downtown Albany after sheriff's deputies investigated reports of suspicious activity at another massage parlor she ran in Colonie

But Port told The New York Times that the prostitution arrest resulted from a conspiracy by Mayor Jennings, sheriff's deputies, and city detectives, because the TU had done stories of alleged abuses by John Burke, the head of the county's drug unit, which has since disbanded.

Albany's police chief denies any such retaliation.

Port told me over the phone that The New York Times story speaks for itself and declined further comment.

His boss, Editor Rex Smith, told me that the newspaper was not prepared to go as far as Port in claiming a conspiracy against the Time-Union

But, why did the TU not at least report the prostitution arrest, given that Smith says he knew the woman was living with his editor and his wife?

Sheriff Craig Apple says he's ordered an internal investigation into the whole matter

A spokesman for Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings denies any involvement by the mayor in the prostitution arrest. The mayor was a patient in Albany Medical Center, after getting a knee replacement on Wednesday. He's said to be doing okay.