Randolph homeowner faces $308G fine, jail
A house in Randolph that is co-owned by a woman who ran a high-priced brothel out of a mansion in Morris Township in the 1990s has been cited as an illegal locale for multiple renters by a municipal court judge, who imposed a $308,000 fine.
Edwin Accinni, who is married to former "Morris Township Madam" Judith "Kelly" Dempsey, is appealing a Randolph Municipal Court conviction this summer for violating a township zoning ordinance that bars the renting of rooms in single-family homes.
Accinni, who co-owns the house with Dempsey, did not show up for the trial before Municipal Court Judge Ira Cohen, who found him guilty in absentia and ordered Accinni to pay a fine of $308,000 and spend 90 days in jail.
The Accinnis used to live in the house on Prince Henry Drive but now live in Florida. They reportedly had a tenant in their 2,886-square-foot Colonial-style home on Prince Henry Drive place ads on Craigslist to attract tenants, who paid between $600 and $750 each to rent a furnished bedroom and share the kitchen. The house has six bedrooms including two in the basement, according to court records.
Defense attorney Michael Ascher has filed an appeal of the conviction that is scheduled to be heard Friday before state Superior Court Judge Catherine Enright in Morristown. Ascher declined comment on the case and on the Accinnis, but legal papers he filed with the appeal state that Edwin Accinni never received proper notice to appear this past summer for trial. The appeal argues that the trial Accinni never attended included "a plethora of prejudicial and irrelevant evidence."
"Moreover the ordinance is invalid since it attempts to control social issues through a land use regulation," Ascher wrote.
The $308,000 fine was based upon a calculation of monthly rents paid for the bedrooms between 2011 and Sept. 3, 2014, when the zoning violation summons was issued. The court file shows that the zoning officer wrote a letter to the Accinnis in November 2012, advising that the township had information that rooms were being rented in the single-family home.
Issuance of the zoning summons occurred after one tenant -- who testified at the municipal court trial -- called police to report he had a fight with another renter who had a cat and that his cable box was stolen from his room and his belongings thrown on the lawn.
Tax records list Edwin and Judith Accinni as the owners of the Randolph house. In 1998, when she was known as Judith "Kelly" Dempsey and dating Edwin Accinni, Dempsey was charged with running a brothel from her mansion -- called "Sunnymede" -- in Convent Station. Clients paid $225 an hour for its services.
Dempsey pleaded guilty to promoting prostitution and in May 1999 was placed on probation, ordered to forfeit about $72,000 and to perform community service. In August 1999, Dempsey was found prostituting herself from a motel room in Hanover, with Edwin Accinni standing guard outside the motel room door.
Dempsey, who got married to Accinni at some point after her conviction, received a violation of probation and was sentenced to the Morris County Jail for 270 days, of which she served 93 days. Accinni, who never admitted to any crime, was admitted to the county's pretrial intervention program for his role in the alleged prostitution scheme from the motel room and was put on probation for a year.
Staff Writer Peggy Wright: 973-267-1142; pwright@GannettNJ.com.