GRAND HAVEN, Mich.—Poor David Werking. The 42-year-old lived with his parents in Grand Haven until he married his sweetie Mary, but after the couple's divorce, he moved back in with the P&M on October 5, 2016, and he naturally brought his porn, music CD and sex toy collection with him. And while it's not known how often (or even if) he used any of those materials to get off while staying with the folks, what is known, according to the judge's opinion in the case, is that "tensions between David and his parents were running high," and "On August 23, 2017, David called the police after an 'incident,' and the officers asked David to leave the home for at least three days." Well, that "three days" turned into a couple of years, but David quickly realized that he'd left all his porn and toys in storage in his parents' basement—all 10 boxes of it.
When David discovered he'd left the precious cargo (including a lot of classic VHS tapes) behind, he asked his (very conservatively religious) parents to ship the stuff to his new home in Muncie, Indiana—and not only did they refuse, his mom dumped it all in the trash.
So on April 10, 2019, the younger Werking sued in federal court, and on November 10 of this year, U.S. District Judge Paul L. Maloney issued a Summary Judgment Order in favor of David, stating that, "In this case, there is no question that the destroyed property was David’s property. Defendants repeatedly admitted that they destroyed the property, and they do not dispute that they destroyed the property. Therefore, the Court finds that there is no genuine dispute of material fact on David’s statutory conversion claim. As such, summary judgment under Rule 56 appears appropriate."
The judge intends to award David the full value of the destroyed items, which David claimed totaled $25,557.89, but has given both David and the defendants, Beth and Paul Werking, until February 16, 2021, to submit verified estimates of the value of the destroyed items. David is asking for triple damages, since many of the items are irreplaceable. However, Dr. Victoria Hartmann of the Erotic Heritage Museum in Las Vegas has been hired by the parents' attorney to attempt to place a value on the destroyed items.
The court record of the proceedings contains a plethora of email correspondence between David and his parents, and in one of those emails, dated March 17, 2018, dad wrote, "It is not natural or normal for a person to have sex with his or her Mother.
"It is not natural or normal for a person to have sex with their Father.
"It is not natural or normal for a person to have sex with their Brother or Sister.
"It is not natural or normal for a person to have sex with their Son or Daughter.
"It is not natural or normal for a person to have sex with any child, related or not. It is not natural or normal for a person to have sex with an animal.
"I found DVDs depicting all of these detestable practices in your collection. Such things should not be promoted, celebrated, or glamorized. Any civilization that tolerates or promotes these acts will not survive. Any individual that puts this garbage into his mind (whether or not he commits these acts) will also suffer. It should be no surprise to anyone that a person who watches this stuff every day will have nightmares and/or strange dreams.
"You apparently believe that 'all sex is good sex' or that 'one can't have too much sex.' This lie was foisted on the world by Alfred Kinsey in the fifties. I don't know who sold this bill of goods to you but it should have been obvious to you that it is not true. It's like saying that 'all food is good food,' or 'all drugs are good drugs.' If you eat nothing but sugar and carbohydrates for 20 years you will get diabetes and die a horrible miserable death. If you take ibuprofen [sic] every day for aches and pains you will ruin your stomach lining and get ulcers (or worse).
"But alas, the list above was not the end of what I found. I also found videos depicting slavery, torture, rape, and gang rape. That you would buy and watch films depicting such violence is beyond the pale. I have no words to express the depth of my shock and disappointment."
One problem, though: The Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office reportedly reviewed the material (though it's unclear whether they reviewed the tapes/DVDs themselves or simply researched the titles) and determined that none of the material included any child pornography or legally actionable content.
"Believe it or not, one reason for why I destroyed your porn was for your own mental and emotional heath [sic]," dad's email concluded. "I would have done the same if I had found a kilo of crack cocaine. Someday, I hope you will understand."
So, what did get destroyed in the elder Werkings' porn purge? In all, David's collection contained 427 VHS tapes, including such recognizable classics as Zazel, The Chameleon, Caligula, Debbie Does Dallas 1 & 2, The Good Girls of Godiva High, V The Hot One, Things Change: My First Time, My Bare Lady, Night Dreams and lots more lesser titles; 1605 DVDs, including Hard Soap Hard Soap, Babysitting the Baumgarteners (sic), Sorority Sweethearts, Thanks For the Mammaries, Coming of Angels, The New Devil in Miss Jones (3-disc set), Bon Appetit, Randy the Electric Lady, Crocodile Blondee, The Animal In Me, Doctor Desire, Star Wars XXX, Private Life of Pamela Mann (2-disc set), Coed Fever, Garage Girls and so many more; and 45 "never used" sex toys, including plenty of lube, a few dildos, some bondage apparatus and "Fleshlight Alien Freaks Dildo." (A full list of the claimed items is here.)
There's probably a lesson to be learned here: Don't count on your parents preserving any porn you may leave behind when you move out.
