The Bruce Bemer trafficking case ended with the Connecticut Supreme Court reversing every one of his 2019 convictions. A Danbury jury had found the Glastonbury businessman guilty of four counts of patronizing a trafficked person and one count of accessory to human trafficking, and a judge sentenced him to ten years in prison. In September 2021, the state’s highest court unanimously ruled that prosecutors never proved he knew the young men he paid for sex were trafficking victims, ordered a not-guilty judgment on all counts, and closed off any retrial under the double jeopardy clause. Civil lawsuits from his accusers, backed by a $25 million asset set-aside, continued separately.
Who Bruce Bemer Is
Bemer built his fortune through Bemer Petroleum, a Glastonbury, Connecticut, fuel distribution company with about 50 employees and more than 12,000 customers that has operated for over five decades.1Bemer Petroleum. Bemer Petroleum Homepage He also owned the New London-Waterford Speedbowl, a short-track racing facility that hosted NASCAR-sanctioned events until his 2017 arrest.2Hartford Courant. Danbury Jury Finds Glastonbury Businessman Bruce Bemer Guilty of Patronizing a Trafficked Person
The Trafficking Ring He Was Tied To
The prosecution grew out of an investigation into a sex trafficking operation run by Robert King of Danbury, Connecticut. King ran the ring for close to thirty years, recruiting vulnerable young men from sober houses, group homes, psychiatric facilities, and the streets.3WGBH News. An Easy Target: Sex Traffickers Prey on Drug-Addicted Young Men Most victims were suffering from addiction, emotional trauma, or developmental disabilities. King and his intermediaries posed as friends or sponsors, then re-addicted the men to drugs to keep them dependent, housing them in a trailer park where escalating debts for drugs, food, and rent functioned as a kind of indentured servitude.
Intermediaries sometimes described as “fixers” recruited young men according to Bemer’s preferences and brought them to his Glastonbury business facility after hours. Bemer admitted to police and the FBI that he had paid men for sex and that King had been arranging encounters for twenty to twenty-five years, involving eight to ten young men over that stretch.4Connecticut Judicial Branch. State v. Bemer, SC 20195
Two co-defendants resolved their cases before Bemer went to trial. William Trefzger pleaded guilty in February 2018 to patronizing a trafficked person and served one year in prison followed by ten years of probation in exchange for his testimony. King himself pleaded guilty in August 2018 to conspiracy to commit human trafficking and received twenty years, suspended after four and a half years, followed by probation.5Hartford Courant. Leader of Danbury-Based Sex Trafficking Ring Sentenced to 4 Years in Prison King’s plea deal required him to testify against Bemer, but he did not end up doing so.6Danbury News-Times. Leader of Danbury-Based Sex Trafficking Ring Gets Sentence
The 2019 Conviction
Bemer was first arrested on March 29, 2017.7CT Insider. CT Businessman Convicted of Sex Trafficking His trial took place in April 2019 at Danbury Superior Court before Judge Pavia, with Assistant State’s Attorney Sharmese Hodge and State’s Attorney Stephen Sedensky III prosecuting. The state’s theory was that Bemer had exploited vulnerable men through his long relationship with King. Bemer acknowledged paying for sex but denied knowing anything about trafficking.8Danbury News-Times. Bemer Convicted on All Counts in Danbury Sex Ring
On April 10, 2019, the jury found him guilty on all five counts: four counts of patronizing a trafficked person, each a class C felony, and one count of criminal liability for trafficking a person.2Hartford Courant. Danbury Jury Finds Glastonbury Businessman Bruce Bemer Guilty of Patronizing a Trafficked Person He faced up to sixty years and was sentenced to ten. He remained free on bond while his appeal moved forward.7CT Insider. CT Businessman Convicted of Sex Trafficking
Why the Connecticut Supreme Court Reversed the Convictions
On September 29, 2021, the Connecticut Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion in State v. Bemer, 340 Conn. 804, reversing every count.9Connecticut Judicial Branch. State v. Bemer, 340 Conn. 804 Justice Mullins wrote for the court.
The case turned on a knowledge requirement written into Connecticut’s patronizing statute. Under General Statutes § 53a-83(c), paying for sex is ordinarily a misdemeanor. It becomes a class C felony only if the patron “knew or reasonably should have known” that the other person was a trafficking victim, meaning someone induced into sexual conduct through fraud or coercion. The Supreme Court held that the state’s evidence never cleared that bar and rested instead on what it called “impermissible speculation.”
The court took each of the prosecution’s main arguments and rejected it:
- The two-decade relationship with King. Being a longtime patron of a pimp, the court wrote, “does not impute knowledge of the pimp’s recruitment or retention methods.” No evidence showed Bemer had witnessed King’s tactics or been told about them.
- Bemer’s wealth and his occasional payments to King for odd jobs. The court found nothing tying Bemer to the financial infrastructure of the trafficking operation beyond paying for individual encounters as a customer.
- The victims’ addiction and mental health problems. Bemer’s interactions with the men were brief and involved little conversation, and at least one victim had deliberately hidden his drug use from Bemer because he knew Bemer would disapprove.
- The communications with King about which men to meet, sometimes with photographs. Those exchanges showed Bemer selecting from available options as a customer, not directing or knowing about coercion.
The court summed up by quoting the principle that “mere friendship or association with a known criminal does not establish a logical connection with the crime.”
The accessory count fell with the rest. Accessorial liability under § 53a-8 requires the accessory to share the criminal intent of the principal, so without proof that Bemer knew the men were trafficked, the state could not prove he intended to help King commit trafficking.
Can He Be Retried?
No. The Supreme Court remanded the case with a direction to enter a judgment of not guilty on every count. Because the reversal was based on insufficient evidence rather than a procedural error, the double jeopardy clause bars any retrial on the same charges.9Connecticut Judicial Branch. State v. Bemer, 340 Conn. 804
The Civil Lawsuits
The criminal reversal did not end the civil exposure. In December 2017, Bemer agreed to set aside $25 million in assets to cover potential liability in pending civil suits. Under that arrangement, he had to turn over all of his financial data, under seal, to plaintiffs’ attorneys, who would decide which assets to attach for future settlements. At the time, six accusers had filed suit under the pseudonym John Doe.10Hartford Courant. Bruce Bemer, Glastonbury Businessman Accused in Sex Ring, Puts Up $25 Million in Civil Case
By 2024, at least five civil cases were reported to be heading toward trial. One plaintiff, identified as James Doe, alleged that Bemer had engaged in a pattern of inappropriate contact and sexual exploitation when the plaintiff was sixteen or seventeen years old, in 1992 and 1993. The complaint alleged assault and battery, reckless and wanton conduct, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, and it claimed physical injuries, emotional distress, and reduced earning capacity.11CT Insider. Glastonbury Bruce Bemer Sex Trafficking Civil Suit
Plaintiffs’ attorneys also sought a court order requiring Bemer to disclose whether he was HIV-positive, saying victims were entitled to know his status so they could seek medical care. Lawsuits alleged that Bemer had engaged in unprotected sex without disclosing his HIV status.12Hartford Courant. Attorney for Sex Trafficking Ring Accusers Seeks HIV Test for Bruce Bemer Bemer challenged a pretrial order requiring him to undergo HIV testing on constitutional grounds, arguing it amounted to an unreasonable search, and the Connecticut Supreme Court was scheduled to hear that appeal in October 2019.13NBC Connecticut. Court to Hear Appeal of HIV Test Order in Trafficking Case
The 2020 Stabbing at His Home
On December 29, 2020, while Bemer was free on bond awaiting his appeal, he was stabbed inside his Glastonbury home by his longtime domestic partner, Jason McCormick. According to the arrest warrant, Bemer was in his home office when McCormick, then 47, entered with two steak knives and attacked him without provocation. Bemer suffered eight stab wounds to his back, leg, and chest, a laceration to his shoulder, and a broken femur. He did not realize he was bleeding until he reached his garage and called 911. Officers found McCormick in the basement with self-inflicted knife wounds.14Hartford Courant. Glastonbury Businessman Bruce Bemer Attacked With Two Steak Knives, Stabbed Eight Times
McCormick, who had prior drug and weapons convictions, was charged with attempted murder, first-degree assault on an elderly person, and second-degree threatening.15CT Post. Man Accused in Glastonbury Stabbing of Live-In Partner He later pleaded guilty to first-degree assault under a deal that dropped the attempted murder charge. The agreed sentence was ten years, suspended, with three years of probation, meaning he avoided immediate prison but faced up to ten years of incarceration if he violated the conditions of his release.16Yahoo News. Bemer’s Ex-Boyfriend Admits Stabbing