SAN DIEGO, Calif.—As AVN has noted before, some of the best reporting on the Girls Do Porn trial has come from Tarpley Hitt of Newsweek's The Daily Beast website—and with today's revelations, Hitt continues not to disappoint.
Her article, which was posted today and can be found here, focuses on a motion filed this past June by plaintiffs' attorney Brian Holm and designated as "Motion No. 2445." In it, Holm recounts statements made to him in depositions of, and interviews with, more than 100 women who were allegedly defrauded by Girls Do Porn, and particularly by actor/director Andre Garcia, the man who had sex with the women for videos which were eventually posted on the GirlsDoPorn website and elsewhere, without the women's knowledge or permission.
According to Hitt, the reason for filing the motion was to head off the defense from using statements that Jane Does 2, 11, 14, 20, 21, and 22 made during depositions where "the defense had made a habit of positioning Garcia extremely close to the alleged victims during depositions, where he would interrupt the women as they spoke." Holm argued that the interactions between Garcia and the Jane Doe giving the deposition would be used by the defense to make the civil case against the company into a "miniature rape trial" of the women.
"During deposition, Defendants tried to impeach Jane Doe No. 2’s overall credibility by pointing out that she went back to Garcia’s apartment the day after the rape to retrieve a jacket she had left there and was again forced to have sex with Garcia and go to dinner with him," the motion states. "Defendants argue these actions conflict with Jane Doe No. 2’s claims that Garcia had previously sexually assaulted her after filming. Thus, according to Defendants, Jane Doe No. 2 was lying about the assault in her declaration and cannot be believed for anything she says."
Other women told of how Garcia would attempt to lure them to his apartment using various ruses such as that the women should sleep at his apartment after filming because it was closer to the airport than the hotel where the women were staying, or that he needed to make a pitstop at his apartment and would invite the women up rather than having them wait in the car—and once inside, he would attack them. Others said that he simply waited in the hotel room with the women until everyone else left, and then he would assault them, while still others said he would commit the assault in his car.
Holm's motion also went into some detail on how Garcia allegedly tried to get his "co-stars" to have sex with him off-camera. Some of Garcia's "pick-up lines" included his telling the women variously "that the woman was the most attractive woman he has ever filmed, that the woman should quit what she was doing and move to San Diego to be his ‘girlfriend,’ and that he could take care of her if she moved here because he is rich."
Hitt recounts many more allegations by both plaintiffs in the lawsuit and others who declined to join the suit, some of them, according to the motion, "to avoid the trauma of plaintiffs having to relive these events."
The trial of Jane Does 1-22 versus Girls Do Porn, owner Michael Pratt, videographer Matthew Wolfe and Garcia is continuing in Superior Court in San Diego.
Pictured, l-r: Garcia, Wolfe, Pratt
