LOS ANGELES—Adult starlet Charlotte Cross outlined her tumultuous relationship with LA Direct Models owner Derek Hay during an administrative hearing at the California Labor Commissioner’s Office on Tuesday in the case involving the veteran talent agent filed by five adult performers who claim his agency illegally withheld their wages and other alleged misconduct.
During the hearing, held at the downtown Los Angeles office of the Department of Industrial Relations Division of Labor Standards Enforcement for the State of California, Cross told Special Hearing Officer Patricia Salazar that Hay would often undermine her relationship with other content providers.
“I had scheduled a modeling gig when I get a call from Derek saying he had a big shoot for Camsoda,” she said. “So I said I didn’t want to go, but he told me he had already booked it and if I didn’t go he would charge me a kill fee—$300—and that until I paid the kill fee, he wouldn’t book me to anyone.”
Cross went on to detail a strained relationship with Hay where she frequently felt intimidated and at odds with the agent over the direction of her career.
Also during the hearing, a male performer—whose name was withheld—told Salazar that he was blacklisted by Hay after he and his starlet wife failed to attend Hay’s birthday party.
But Hay’s attorney, Richard W. Freeman, Jr., denied their assertions, saying, “We’re still trying to understand and piece together the allegations and the petitions and actual evidence that may be relates to those allegations,” he said. “So far, there are a lot of unanswered questions of how the dots are supposed to connect here.”
The hearing, which began yesterday, will continue on Wednesday.
