ORANGE, Calif. – Part of what is believed to be a nationwide criminal network is defrauding and sexually assaulting would-be adult performers in Orange, Calif., and city authorities are neglecting their duty to investigate, according to a complaint filed with the city and other entities on Friday by adult trade association Free Speech Coalition.
The alleged scam, detailed in an industry alert on June 22, lures women into fake auditions for a high-profile magazine layout. Instead of a photoshoot, the women are pressured to have sex with the photographer, who then films the event and tells the women payment will arrive via direct deposit. The payment never arrives, and the victims only realize they have been conned upon contacting the magazine.
The FSC’s letter of complaint details one such incident, reported to police on June 21, in which a single mother from Florida was convinced to pay for a one-way ticket to Southern California and rent a hotel room. There, a man claiming to be a photographer convinced her to have sex while he filmed the act as part of an “audition.”
Among the definitions of rape in California Penal Code section 261(a)(4)(D) is fraudulent representation “that the sexual penetration served a professional purpose when it served no professional purpose.”
Accompanied by longtime adult industry attorney Jeffrey Douglas, the Florida woman reported the crime to the City of Orange Police Department. According to the victim, the police refused to allow Douglas to be present when she spoke with them, refused to provide a rape kit and demanded that she allow them to duplicate the contents of her phone in order to proceed with the case. As she was not allowed to speak with her attorney, she declined.
The police subsequently declined to pursue the case, citing lack of evidence.
According to the victim, City of Orange officers said she was not the first to report such an assault: A nearly identical report had been filed several weeks earlier. The victim said police did not pursue that case, either.
“It is outrageous that the City of Orange is aware of an ongoing scam that involves fraud, sexual assault and possibly human trafficking, but refuses to investigate it,” said FSC Executive Director Eric Paul Leue. “We now know of at least half a dozen women targeted as victims in four different states. We suspect there are many more who have not reported it. By allowing this to continue, the City of Orange is essentially granting permission for this network to continue to defraud and assault women.”
FSC put the victim in touch with the Wayne Foundation, a survivor-led counter-trafficking organization in Orlando, Fla. Penthouse Media, whose name was fraudulently used to lure the victim, paid for her to return home.
In addition to the City of Orange City Council, Board of Supervisors and Chief of Police, FSC also sent the letter to U.S. senators Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein, the Orange County District Attorney and the FBI’s Counter Trafficking Unit, among others.
