HUDSON COUNTY, NJ—If there's one thing Hudson County really shouldn't have any trouble with, it's adult entertainment. After all, the county is directly across the river from New York City, which not too long ago was one of the three main centers in the U.S. where adult movies were shot (the other two being L.A. and San Francisco), not to mention there are several BDSM clubs in Manhattan. There are also at least 10 strip clubs not more than five miles from Jersey City, the county seat—and of course, at least a dozen past and current porn stars like Joanna Angel and Micky Lynn can call the state home.
And yet... PORN COOTIES STRIKES AGAIN! This time, the victim is one Kristen Hyman of Bayonne, who between 2010 and 2012, working under a pseudonym, made a small number of BDSM videos and also participated in some private domination gigs, until nearly five years later, she found her true calling: to be a police officer. Hyman entered the New Jersey Police Academy in late December of 2016, but on May 26, just six days before she was to graduate, her past as a dom was revealed, and the county Sheriff's Office suspended her without pay, charging that she had, according to the news website NJ.com, failed to disclose on her application that "she made bondage videos and saw clients privately for money."
"In citing the reasons for her suspension," the site reported, "the sheriff's office noted 'the proliferation of video and audio records ... and or the promoting on social media ... has resulted in the Hudson County Sheriff's Office being the subject of inquiry and ridicule among law enforcement.'"
What none of the articles about Hyman disclose is how the sheriff's office found out about Hyman's earlier activities, since all were done under a pseudonym, and in any case, according to Hyman, she "ended such activities five years ago and called it "stupid stuff I did when I was a kid'"—plus she's not currently getting any royalties from those five-year-old videos.
But that made no never-mind to the sheriff's office. It found some of Hyman's dom videos online and compiled a set of screengrabs of her appearances, including one that showed her "cradling an unknown male's head with eyes closed who is possibly passed out." The same website where the authorities got the video images describes Hyman as "a true sexual sadist who hurts people not because she has to, but because it truly brings her pleasure."
NJ.com noted, "A sheriff's office investigator said that in the videos, Hyman is seen using items 'such as whips, and kicking the groin area to inflict pain upon the recipient. In most cases the recipient is naked and/or bound.'"
But perhaps it's important that Hyman herself never appeared "naked and/or bound," nor did she participate in any on-camera sex acts—so, one has to ask, what's the big deal?
Still, according to an article in the Washington Post, "Court documents show that Sheriff Frank Schillari concurred with the discipline against Hyman, saying it was necessary to protect the department’s integrity and to prevent her from taking an oath of office 'for which she is not entitled.'"
Fortunately for Hyman, Hudson County Superior Court Judge Mary Costello didn't see it that way, and ordered Hyman reinstated in the academy, where she was allowed to graduate with her class on June 8 and become a full-fledged police officer—though the sheriff nonetheless assigned her to "modified duty" pending her disciplinary hearing, which is scheduled for June 27. At that time, according to her attorney, Hyman could receive punishment of anything from notations on her record up to her termination—"or she can be allowed to go on with her career as a sheriff's officer." (It may be noteworthy that the the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office declined to file any criminal charges related to Hyman's actions.)
Sadly, however, the incident is just another example of how anyone who's ever been connected, no matter how slightly, with the adult entertainment industry can find herself discriminated against, even though she's done nothing illegal—and in this case, never even appeared nude or had sex on film!
