Ashley Alexandra Dupre: Ashley Alexandra Dupre's Family Heartbreak

Before she was known as "Kristen", the woman at the center of the prostitution scandal that forced New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's resignation, 22-year-old Ashley Alexandra Dupré was simply Ashley Youmans, a small town girl from the New Jersey shore who yearned for her father and struggled with her family's split. After her parents, William Youmans and Carolyn Capalbo, broke up, Ashley "used to cry about that and say how much she missed him," childhood friend Erica Kane tells PEOPLE. Adding to the heartache was her older brother Kyle, 26, who was incarcerated after a 2000 drug arrest, according to the Asbury Park Press. (More recently, on Monday, Kyle pleaded guilty to heroin charges and is expected to be sentenced to probation on April 14, according the newspaper.) But after her mother married oral surgeon Michael DiPietro, Ashley, who was in elementary school at the time, would say even more so "how much she missed her dad. She always used to talk about that," says Kane. "[Her life] looked perfect. She was a beautiful girl, boys thought she was pretty and she got along with everybody. But she wanted her real family. She wanted her real father and her mother together and her brother back in the house. She wanted everybody under the same roof."

Before she was known as "Kristen", the woman at the center of the prostitution scandal that forced New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's resignation, 22-year-old Ashley Alexandra Dupré was simply Ashley Youmans, a small town girl from the New Jersey shore who yearned for her father and struggled with her family's split. After her parents, William Youmans and Carolyn Capalbo, broke up, Ashley "used to cry about that and say how much she missed him," childhood friend Erica Kane tells PEOPLE. Adding to the heartache was her older brother Kyle, 26, who was incarcerated after a 2000 drug arrest, according to the Asbury Park Press. (More recently, on Monday, Kyle pleaded guilty to heroin charges and is expected to be sentenced to probation on April 14, according the newspaper.) But after her mother married oral surgeon Michael DiPietro, Ashley, who was in elementary school at the time, would say even more so "how much she missed her dad. She always used to talk about that," says Kane. "[Her life] looked perfect. She was a beautiful girl, boys thought she was pretty and she got along with everybody. But she wanted her real family. She wanted her real father and her mother together and her brother back in the house. She wanted everybody under the same roof."

Eliot Spitzer: Paterson Becomes New York's First Black Governor

New York's Lieutenant Governor, David Paterson, was sworn in as the state's 55th Governor Monday, one week after reports linking former governor Eliot Spitzer to a high-priced call girl ring rocked the state and led to Spitzer's resignation. Paterson, who is legally blind, becomes the first African American governor of New York state and only the fourth in the nation's history. From VOA's New York Bureau, correspondent Barbara Schoetzau has the details.

David Paterson was greeted with wild applause by fellow lawmakers and elected officials from New York and neighboring states as he took over the helm of state government.

Paterson spent 20 years in the capital, Albany, where he was a popular state senator representing Harlem before he became lieutenant governor in 2006. He chose a joint legislative chamber as the site of his swearing in ceremony. In his address, Paterson sought to restore confidence in a population still reeling from the news leading to Spitzer's downfall and shocks on Wall Street.

"Today is Monday," he said. "There is work to be done. There is trust that needs to be restored. There are issues that need to be addressed. And all of us as we set to it must be aware of one truth that rises above all else: it is that New York families are more challenged today than they even were yesterday."

Paterson, who is legally blind, memorized much of his speech, peppering it with jokes and personal references. But he also struck a note of seriousness, stressing the need for bipartisan efforts to improve the state's economy and get the annual budget passed. New York state is known for its acrimonious annual budget debates and contentious politics.

"They call what we do public service for a reason," he said. "Because it is not politics. It is not parties. It is not power that counts at the end of the day. Those interests can vanish in a moment. It is the service that endures. It is the service that is our mark. My colleagues, isn't that what called us to work in government the first place?"

The audience gave Paterson a standing ovation as he called on legislators to put personal politics aside in favor of the interest of the people.

Paterson, a 53-year-old Democrat, comes from a prominent political family with deep roots in New York.

He takes office with enormous good will on both sides of the political aisle. Former Governor George Pataki, a Republican, calls him a terrific person.

"He's a person of intelligence and integrity and a friend," he said. "Most importantly, someone who respects others in public office. I just hope that he has a tremendous success and see no reason why he should not."

Paterson has promised to pursue most of the reform agenda of his former running mate, Eliot Spitzer, who was elected in a landslide in 2006. New York's senior US Senator, Democrat Charles Schumer, says he believes Paterson can enlist bipartisan support for reform.

"He will show the legislature a great deal of respect and I think that's important," he said. "But I also think there is a fundamental strength there and he will sit down and try to reason with them and say 'Look we have to change this, we have to change that'. I think in a certain sense, it is going to be far more positive than people imagine."

The nation's only other sitting African American governor, Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, was among those attending the ceremony as were the governors of neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut. President Bush called Paterson before the ceremony with good wishes.

ELIOT SPITZER'S : New York get new governor

ELIOT SPITZER'S campaign slogan was “Day One, Everything Changes”. On Day 439, everything finally did. The famously self-righteous Mr Spitzer stepped down as governor of New York because of allegations that he had had sex with expensive prostitutes and was possibly facing federal charges. David Paterson, his lieutenant, was sworn in as the state's first black governor on March 17th.

Mr Paterson is nothing like his steamrollering ex-boss. He is unabashedly candid: he and his wife, he said, have had affairs and, when asked whether he had ever employed a prostitute, he smiled and said: “Only the lobbyists.” He is self-effacing about himself, even his blindness. His swearing-in speech to the state Assembly and Senate demonstrated this; it was humorous, full of gentle jibes and calls for compromise. He joked that when Joe Bruno, the formidable majority leader of the state Senate, invited him to dinner he accepted, but vowed to take a food-taster with him.

New Yorkers elected Mr Spitzer, an Albany outsider, on a mandate to battle corruption and to clean up state affairs. Mr Paterson, by contrast, is an Albany insider and has been in state government for two decades. His father is a former New York state secretary. His audience were plainly happy to have one of their own in charge. And it was clear that the legislature is eager to move on from what, even by Albany's standards, has been a rough week, not to mention a vitriolic year. Mr Spitzer's abrasive style alienated many people and did much to paralyse his own efforts at reform.

With a reputation as a good negotiator and compromise-finder, Mr Paterson may create the bipartisan consensus Mr Spitzer needed. But E.J. McMahon, of the Empire Centre for New York State Policy, predicts that goodwill will take him only so far. Mr Paterson will need every ounce of charm to pass a $124 billion budget and to close a $4.4 billion deficit by April 1st. Although he has said he will remain committed to the budget plan's outlines, he has not ruled out raising taxes. He must also convince the state to approve New York City's congestion-pricing plan by the end of the month or risk losing $350m in federal funding. It is not clear how much of the rest of Mr Spitzer's agenda he will keep.

Mr Paterson's legislative record gives only a hint of what his own plans may be. As an assemblyman, he introduced a number of bills (most of which went nowhere), including one that would have made it a crime for the police to shoot to kill a suspect. He considered extending voting rights to some illegal immigrants. He wanted to increase state income tax, and is a good friend to unions. Mr McMahon reckons Mr Paterson could well be the most left-of-centre governor New York has ever had. But he also admits it is difficult to predict what he will actually do now he is the state's chief executive.

Doug Muzzio, a politics professor at Baruch College, thinks Mr Paterson may get a bit of help from state lawmakers, who are anxious to show they are not dysfunctional. But if they don't, will Mr Paterson be tough enough to force his former colleagues to behave? And what about Mr Spitzer's plans to clean up Albany? For all his charm, Mr Paterson may well be too much of an insider to be effective.

Woman behind Governor's fall

SHE left a broken home on the Jersey Shore at 17 and came to New York to work in nightclubs as a rhythm-and-blues singer. Now, at 22, she is the unwitting and as yet unseen star of the seamy drama that is the downfall of Governor Eliot Spitzer.
Kristen, the high-priced prostitute described in a federal affidavit as having a February 13 rendezvous with Mr Spitzer at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, has spent the last few days in the expensive ninth floor apartment she rents in Manhattan's Flatiron district. She appeared briefly in court on Monday as a witness in the case against four people charged with running the prostitution ring, Emperor's Club VIP.
In a series of telephone interviews on Tuesday night, she said she had slept very little over the past week due to the stress from the case. "I just don't want to be thought of as a monster," she said as she told the tiniest titbits of her story.
Born Ashley Youmans but now known as Ashley Alexandra Dupre, she spoke softly and with good humour as she added, with significant understatement: "This has been a very difficult time. It is complicated."
She has not been charged. The lawyer appointed to represent her, Don Buchwald, told a magistrate in court on Monday she had been subpoenaed to testify in a grand jury investigation.
A person with knowledge of the Emperor's Club operation confirmed that Ms Dupre is the woman identified as Kristen in the affidavit. Mr Buchwald confirmed various details of her background but would not discuss the contents of the affidavit.
Ms Dupre said on the phone on Tuesday night that she was worried about how she would pay her rent, since the man she was living with "walked out on me" after she discovered he had fathered two children. She said she was considering working at a friend's restaurant or, after the lease on her apartment expires, moving back with her family in New Jersey "to relax".
She did not say when she had started working for Emperor's Club, or how often she had liaisons. Asked when she met Mr Spitzer and how many times they had seen each other, Ms Dupre said she had no comment.

On her MySpace page as it appeared on Wednesday morning, Ms Dupre described her "odyssey to New York from New Jersey through North Carolina, Miami, DC, Virginia and Austin, Texas." Public records show that she lived in Monmouth County, New Jersey, in 2001 and in North Carolina in 2003.
Music is her first love, and on the MySpace page Ms Dupre mentions Patsy Cline, Frank Sinatra, Christina Aguilera and Lauryn Hill among a long list of influences, including her brother, Kyle. (She also lists Madonna, Mary J. Blige and Amy Winehouse as her top MySpace friends.)