LOS ANGELES—Adult starlet Shay Evans faced an intensive cross examination during Tuesday’s administrative hearing at the California Labor Commissioner’s Office over her allegations that LA Direct Models owner Derek Hay stopped booking her after she refused his advances during a trip to Hawaii in April 2017.
The hearing was presided over by Special Hearing Officer Patricia Salazar at the downtown Los Angeles office of the Department of Industrial Relations Division of Labor Standards Enforcement for the State of California. Evans, Hadley Viscara, Sofi Ryan, Andi Rye and Charlotte Cross are the five former LA Direct clients who have filed complaints with the state, claiming the agency and Hay repeatedly took advantage of them.
“You had a total of 11 bookings from April 2017 to September 2017 … after the trip to Hawaii with Derek,” Hay’s attorney, Richard W. Freeman Jr., told the adult starlet during his nearly two-hour cross examination of her.
Evans had testified in September that after she refused Hay’s sexual advances during a trip to Hawaii with Hay and other LA Direct clients, Hay had abruptly stopped booking her.
Freeman also noted that Evans had been booked for several feature dance engagements during the same period, through LA Direct’s feature dance agency, The Lee Network.
But Evans, who now goes by the professional name Gia Milana and is represented by Nexxxt Level Talent, argued that the bookings were the result of producers seeking her out and her own efforts to book herself.
“Brazzers went around LA Direct and requested me,” she said from the stand, in reference to a July 2017 shoot with Brazzers. “They wanted me and another performer because we looked a lot alike and they wanted us to play sisters.”
Besides Brazzers, Evans said she booked shoots for Digital Playground and others without the assistance of LA Direct or Hay.
As for the feature dancing engagements, Evans said those bookings were arranged prior to the Hawaii trip.
After the hearing, Freeman commented further on Evans’ testimony. “It certainly seemed to me, in particular with Shay Evans as we cross examined her, that a number of the claims and contentions that she made in the course of her initial examination weren’t accurate to say the least,” he said. “It certainly appears as though she is presenting a version of facts/allegations that aren’t necessarily supported by underlying documentation and records and materials and her own postings and comments and I think it certainly raises some credibility issues.”
Freeman also took issue with Evans’ allegations that Hay insisted she attend a private karaoke party in 2017 where she and several other LA Direct models were allegedly groped and repeatedly propositioned by drunken men at a private home where there was no security. He noted that in a Twitter posting, she wrote that she “had fun” at the event.
But Evans said she purposely mischaracterized the event in the posting for her fans as part of her Shay Evans persona, which is known for sexy and quirky social media postings.
Evans’ attorney, Allan B. Gelbard, said after the hearing that Evans did well despite the defense’s efforts to assail her credibility. “There was a lot of information and a lot of it was irrelevant and a lot of it was trying to make her look bad, but the core of her claims were untouched and I think she’s doing quite well.”
The hearing resumes today.
