PHOENIX – When he and eight women he employed as models were arrested in 2013, William James Hartwell told police and the FBI he expected the law would bust him eventually.
He probably did not expect the case to stick. On Friday, a jury convicted Hartwell, 56, of 10 charges including operating a house of prostitution, pandering and sexual assault.
From before his indictment to the day of his conviction, Hartwell maintained his company, New Media Studios, produced constitutionally protected self-expression by helping clients live out their fantasy of starring in a porn film. The company operated in a nondescript, unmarked building near Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and solicited customers and models through classified ads on websites.
“We run a safe, legal business,” he told officers at the time, apparently banking on a lack of specificity in Arizona law: Prostitution is illegal in the state, but statutes do not specifically prohibit the production of pornography.
His attorneys called the enterprise a service.
“All sexual conduct that took place at the studio was for the purpose of exploring and expressing an individual’s sexuality via safe and legal adult content creation,” they argued in court documents.
Hartwell’s employees were not as kind to him or the endeavor. Several of the women pleaded guilty to prostitution charges and agreed to testify against their former employer in exchange for reduced sentences. Two of the women were the source of the sexual assault charges, claiming he attacked them when they said they didn’t want to work for him anymore. Hartwell was acquitted of one sexual assault charge.
According to court documents, prospective customers were told they should not give money to anyone but a receptionist, and only for the purposes of renting equipment and paying studio fees. Investigators said the women were told they didn’t have to worry about being charged with prostitution because they would never actually handle any money or otherwise directly take payment for sex.
And sex, the women testified, is exactly what they were there to provide. They told clients they were paid to appear in explicit photographs, but “whatever happens, happens.”
In order to back up the ruse, the women insisted clients shoot a brief video or take 10 photographs before getting down to business.
The studio reportedly raked in $40,000 monthly.
