The following press release was sent out by Free Speech Coalition last evening shortly before FSC's participation in a Telemundo television interview which aired at 11 p.m.:
LOS ANGELES—The Free Speech Coalition, the trade association for the adult industry, has submitted a letter of complaint to the City of Orange over the refusal of its police department to investigate what is believed to be a criminal network defrauding and assaulting would-be adult performers.
The 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 them payment will arrive via direct deposit. The payment never arrives, and the victim only realizes the scam upon contacting the magazine.
The FSC letter 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 to rent a hotel room, where the alleged photographer convinced her to have sex while he filmed it as part of an audition. California Penal Code section 261(a)(4)(D) defines it as rape when a perpetrator fraudulently represents “that the sexual penetration served a professional purpose when it served no professional purpose.”
In this most recent incident, the woman reported the crime to the City of Orange Police Department. She was accompanied by attorney Jeffrey Douglas. The police refused to allow the victim to have the attorney present when she spoke with them, refused to provide a rape kit for the victim, and demanded that she allow them to duplicate the contents of her phone in order to proceed with the case. Denied access to her attorney, she declined.
The City of Orange Police told the victim that she was not the first to report victimization; a nearly identical report had been filed several weeks earlier. They did not pursue that case, either.
Eric Paul Leue, FSC Executive Director, says he hopes the letter to the City of Orange raises the profile and puts heat on the department to take action.
“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. 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.”
The Free Speech Coalition put the victim in touch with the Wayne Foundation, a survivor led counter-trafficking organization in Orlando. Penthouse Media, whose name was fraudulently used to lure the victim, paid for her ticket home.
In addition to the City of Orange City Council, Board of Supervisors and Chief of Police, the FSC letter was also sent to Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the Orange County District Attorney and the FBI’s Counter Trafficking Unit, among others. The letter can be found here.
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Free Speech Coalition, the trade association of the adult content production and pleasure products industry, can be contacted through its website.
