Conviction Fraternal orders Fraternal and initiatory orders Buffalo, NY, USA · 2009

US v. Tills: retired judge, 18 months, Mann Act (Royal Order of Jesters)

Request a correction or reply

Record class

Context only

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Royal Order of Jesters member, former judicial and law-enforcement officials

Organization

Royal Order of Jesters

Archive classification

This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.

This record is retained as context. The cited evidence documents interstate and international transportation for prostitution and concealment through official access, but does not establish that spiritual doctrine, practice, or authority materially enabled the harm. The relevant recorded role is Royal Order of Jesters member and former judicial and law-enforcement officials.

Other spiritual authority or belief

Scope decision

The federal record establishes prostitution-related conduct at Jesters events and convictions of named members or associates. It does not establish that Masonic belief, ritual or spiritual authority coerced the women, so the record remains context rather than a core map case. N2 QUESTION SETTLED (2026-07): the federal record was checked directly for any indication that the victims were subject to the defendants' religious or ritual authority. There is none. The coercion mechanism was money and the women's vulnerability, including undocumented status; no source states the women were members, initiates, or under any Masonic spiritual authority. Tills's additional abuse was of JUDICIAL office. The context classification is confirmed, not provisional. The alleged Brazil sex-tourism strand was investigated by the DOJ, which declined to prosecute; a civil TVPA suit proceeded against a commercial tour operator who was not a Jesters member. No criminal conviction exists on that strand. Appellate search: the federal proceeding is United States v. Tills, No. 1:08-cr-00242 (W.D.N.Y.), terminated 24 August 2009 — the docket number already recorded in this record's proceedings. No appellate docket was located in July 2026. Searching the surname alone is unreliable here: it returns tens of thousands of unrelated matters, and the docket number is what identifies this case.

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2009-08-13 · guilty plea and sentencing — Ronald H. Tills

U.S. District Court, Western District of New York (No. 1:08-cr-00242-WMS). Ronald H. Tills, retired New York Supreme Court Justice, pleaded guilty in September 2008 to transporting women across state lines for prostitution in connection with Royal Order of Jesters gatherings, and was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment and a $25,000 fine. Among the facts: Tills recruited a woman who had appeared before him in court — an abuse of judicial office.
2009-05-07 · guilty plea and sentencing — John Trowbridge

U.S. District Court, Western District of New York. John Trowbridge, retired Lockport police captain, pleaded guilty on 20 March 2008 and was sentenced to two years' probation and a $10,000 fine.
2008-12-09 · guilty plea and sentencing — Michael Stebick

U.S. District Court, Western District of New York. Michael Stebick, Tills's law clerk, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four months' home confinement, two years' probation, a $5,000 fine and forfeiture of the motor home used to transport the women.
Date in cited record · guilty plea and sentencing — Michael Lesinski

U.S. District Court, Western District of New York. Michael Lesinski, retired Erie County sheriff's deputy, pleaded guilty on 19 November 2010 to concealing prostitution offences connected to a Jesters convention and was sentenced in April 2011. Exact sentencing date not established from available records.
2008-11-20 · related disposition — brothel operator

U.S. District Court, Western District of New York. Len Wah Chong, the brothel operator who supplied the trafficked women (not a Jesters member), was sentenced to six years.
Date in cited record · primary-source citation recovered

See citation. In the Matter of Ronald H. Tills, a Suspended Attorney, Resignor — N.Y. App. Div., 4th Dept., 67 A.D.3d 1457, 887 N.Y.S.2d 905, resignation accepted and name stricken from roll of attorneys, filed 2009-11-13 (order dated Oct. 29, 2009). Corroborates identity of Ronald H. Tills (retired NY Supreme Court Justice) shortly after his federal Mann Act sentencing. Not a criminal appellate opinion — no such opinion exists for US v. Tills (No. 1:08-cr-00242-WMS, W.D.N.Y.). Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/9463934/in-re-tills/

Documented coercion mechanisms

interstate and international transportation for prostitution
concealment through official access

Cited record

Sources

Prison Legal News (2010) 'Retired New York Supreme Court Justice Sentenced to Prison for Sex Trafficking', Prison Legal News [reporting United States v. Tills, No. 1:08-cr-00242, W.D.N.Y.]. Available at: prisonlegalnews.org (Accessed: 14 July 2026).: 'Retired New York Supreme Court Justice Ronald H. Tills, 74, has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for a felony charge of transporting prostitutes across state lines (a violation of the Mann Act).' The prosecution arose from an FBI investigation into the ‘Royal Order of Jesters, a Masonic group that has 191 chapters and 22,000 members nationwide’; per contemporaneous court reporting in the Lockport Journal, women were transported ‘to Ashland, Ky., for a conference of the Royal Order of Jesters’, and two other members — a retired police captain and a former court law clerk — were also convicted. Note: these convictions concern named individuals and one chapter's conduct, not Freemasonry or the Jesters organization as a whole.
prosecuting authority disposition U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of New York, "Former Erie County Sheriff's Deputy Sentenced for Failing to Report Jester Prostitution in Canada" (Apr. 11, 2011).: The prosecuting authority records Michael Lesinski's conviction and sentence, his transport of women to a Royal Order of Jesters national convention in Canada, commercial sex with members, and his effort to conceal the offense from customs officials.

Source provenance

Source access and integrity log

This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.

Source and tier basis: https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2010/apr/15/retired-new-york-supreme-court-justice-sentenced-to-prison-for-sex-trafficking/ Legacy citation preserved without a normalized source tier or evidentiary-role code. SHA-256 3bc205dac261ce0593946cf216fc0f87e0390c38726e5eebeec2e63d7cbbf1c7
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Source and tier basis: https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/buffalo/press-releases/2011/former-erie-county-sheriffs-deputy-sentenced-for-failing-to-report-jester-prostitution-in-canada Corpus classification: prosecuting-authority; evidentiary role: disposition. SHA-256 65fb3a4aa71f9a84a552d3f471fbaf83a79d9aa468ef4c59a218e6de4f85c67d
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger

Named in this record? Request a correction, report a changed disposition, or submit a response.

Related record

Related cases · Fraternal orders

Browse all 2 Fraternal orders records

← Explore all cases