2 plead guilty in Bolaris 'roofie and roll'

The two Eastern European "B-girls" who allegedly roofied and rolled Fox 29 weathercaster John Bolaris by coaxing him to "do shot" in South Beach better hurry up and "do guilty" before they do serious jail time.

Two other defendants in the South Beach "B-Girls" ring - Anastassia Mikrukova, 24, of Estonia, and Agnese Rudaka, 23, of Latvia - pleaded guilty yesterday to immigration fraud charges.

They were the first of the 17 defendants to enter pleas, and they both agreed to testify against the others for lesser jail terms.

The two women who supposedly sent Bolaris on his foggy, two-day bender - Anna Kilimatova and Marina Turcina - have yet to enter pleas, but Bolaris, according to his attorney, is pleased that the case is progressing.

"The fact remains," said A. Charles Peruto Jr., "that John is one of several victims, and he feels vindicated by these pleas of guilty. It's been a long ordeal."

Bolaris himself declined to comment.

Mikrukova and Rudaka face a maximum of five years in prison when they are sentenced Aug. 31, but because of their early pleas and agreements to cooperate they will likely get less than a year.

The two appeared in court yesterday wearing shackles and baggy beige prison garb, each wearing her hair in a tight ponytail braid. They spoke in Russian with the help of an interpreter only to answer questions from U.S. District Judge Jose E. Martinez.

Federal prosecutors said that the two women were part of a group of "B-girls" - short for "bar girls" - imported from Russia and Eastern Europe who prowled legitimate South Beach nightclubs looking for wealthy male tourists. The men were invited to supposedly exclusive clubs and plied with liquor and champagne for which they were charged exorbitant amounts - in some cases, tens of thousands of dollars.

Prosecutors have identified at least 88 victims. Many got so drunk they didn't realize how much had been charged on their credit cards until much later, according to the FBI. The B-girls generally got to keep 20 percent of what they extracted from their victims.

Bolaris told the Daily News last month that Turcina and Kilimatova came up to him at a bar, and he ordered them wine.

A few minutes later, the three were sitting by a pool bar and the girls asked him if he did shots. Bolaris said no, but "one of them started rubbing me, opened my mouth, and said, 'Do shot.' "

Bolaris said that the women slipped him a roofie - a date-rape drug - and the next thing he remembers is waking up in a taxi, his shirt stained by red wine and a "huge painting of a woman's head" next to him. After tracking down the women to straighten things out - including getting his sunglasses back - Bolaris said that the girls drugged him again.

He wound up with $43,000 in charges on his American Express card, which the company declined to forgive. Bolaris is now suing American Express, claiming that the company failed to protect him against fraud. He is seeking more than $50,000 in damages.

This story contains information from the Associated Press