Sharon Mitchell says that Santino Lee has now been included in the Niki Lae geneology. Lae has been tested HIV positive. Lae was discovered last week to be positive and was given a confirmatory test which also came back positive. But, in between the two testing periods, Lee and Lae worked together - which was Friday morning.
Mitchell: "Santino brought this young lady into AIM to pick up her [confirmatory] test results Friday. They came in at 3 pm. I asked them if they had worked at all. They said no. I said are you sure because we need to know. They said no, no, no. Monday night a producer [from All Good Video] called me in tears and said, 'I think one of my directors fucked up.' The producer said Santino and this young lady worked the day of her confirmation. He [Santino] knew that she was positive and that I was taking confirmatory tests. And they went on a set and worked anyway."
Mitchell said Niki Lae came into AIM last Thursday to pick up her first test results which were positive. Mitchell redrew her blood, told her she had a positive reading and that there was a need to confirm it. "I redrew another DNA, an ELIZA and a Western Blot," Mitchell said. "I sent them out all to different labs. They came back the next day [Friday] all positive. Friday morning they went ahead and worked.
Mitchell: "Here's where I'm at. It was a blowjob scene, and I don't know who he's worked with after that. Granted, we know we can say a blowjob is not high risk, however, I hate to say this. They lied to me about working. As a counselor, now I have to assume maybe they lied to me about other things, and I have to assume there were other behaviors that went on between them. I asked them if they had worked. They said no even though they had just come back from a scene."
Mitchell says Lee had been escorting Lae around, giving her rides to and from. "He had taken her in for the preliminary tests," Mitchell added. "I assumed he was her support. When I disclosed her positivity I included him because she needed some support. But this is a bonehead move on their part. The industry needs to know. He's at risk."
Santino Lee was contacted immediately after we spoke to Mitchell. He gives a different story and says that he tested Monday and should have his results back later in the week. Lee also claims that Lae's first test, as he understands it, was deemed "inconclusive," not positive.
Lee: "I picked Niki Lae up around 12 noon at LAX when she came into town last week. We immediately went to AIM because she was supposed to pick up her test that Sharon did with her in Vegas. We get there and Sharon's looking for the test. The next thing you know we found out that the test wasn't run until the 12th. She took the blood on the 6th. They didn't do anything with it for a whole week. They said it didn't count because it was indeterminate, that they waited too long, seven days, to test the blood. Did you get that story? It came back indeterminate. She said you're going to have to re-test. But seven days? That's ridiculous. Why didn't they page Niki and tell her what was going on?
"Previous to that, when Niki came from Florida to Vegas, she had a test that was done in Florida, but I told her that you're going to have a hard time getting people to accept it out here because it's not one of the tests from Los Angeles. She said, okay. That's when she had Sharon Mitchell do the test in Vegas. On Thursday, I was told the test was inconclusive that Sharon hadn't tested the blood until seven days after. I said, she's supposed to do a scene Friday at 2:30 with Ed Powers.
"What happened, was, I was supposed to do a b.j. scene Friday morning with another girl at All Good. But I had to pick Niki up because I was her transportation to Ed Powers. We go there [to All Good]. I was ready to do my scene with another girl but they wanted to switch it and put that girl with somebody else. Then they saw me with Niki. I had called them earlier and told them about Niki that she was coming into town and they said they probably could use her for Friday for a b.j. Now, I was under the impression that she would have her test Thursday. They knew of her coming in, and when I came to the set with her, Scott, said he was going to put me with Niki. Niki looked at me and said I thought I wasn't going to do anything. I said to her you weren't scheduled because you didn't have your test.
"I said, Scott, she doesn't have her test. It's at AIM. We have to pick it up after 12. He said, well, it's just a b.j.-thing. If you can get a copy to me today after she gets it, that would be cool. I said, well, no problem. That was at 8:30, mind you. After that, we go to the clinic to get her test. It still didn't come back yet. We went to eat something and came back, it still wasn't back, yet. Then we talked outside. The results finally came back around 5:30."
[Lee claims he and Lae originally went to AIM about 1:30pm. He said they didn't have the test till 5:30. Mitchell gives a different time line.]
Lee: "After we got something to eat, we came back around 2:15 pm. She had a scene to do with Ed Powers at 2:30. At 2:30 I told her to call Ed that we were running late. She said, no, I'll call him when the test comes in. I said you just told me he paged you. Shouldn't you call him and let him know what's going on? She said I'll call him in a little bit. I said whatever. We waited and waited until 5:30. By 3:30 I convinced her to call Ed. He was irate. He was convinced that she was doing an anal scene or something with me. He was upset. I said, Ed, she hasn't done anything. No anal scene, nothing. He said, 'You could have dropped her off at my house at 1. She could have waited for her test, there. They would have faxed it to me.' I said she didn't tell me that. She was riding with me. I'm trying to help her out, but I'm nobody's chauffeur.
"At 5:30 she gets the results. I was with her. Sharon talked to her by herself then called me in to help her just in case she was going to go crazy. She [Mitchell] explained to her everything she should do and gave her numbers. I explained, well, she was supposed to do a scene with Ed, and as far as that's concerned, that was the only thing she was supposed to do. I didn't say anything about the b.j.-thing. I knew sooner or later that was going to come out, anyway. Sharon asked if she had done anything here. She didn't ask if me and her did anything together. She [Niki] said no. I just let her go ahead and say that. After that, she called her husband and told him what had happened. We made arrangements for her to get a flight out. Not that night. She left Saturday morning."
[Lee reemphasizes the word "indeterminate" in describing Lae's first test results in telling this story.]
Lee: "It seems like they're trying to make a scapegoat out of me. Seven days before you test blood? After you take it? I've never heard of that. Even if it came back positive or indeterminate, I still wouldn't consider it as an admissable test. I never heard of letting blood sit for seven days. Whoever was handling the blood was incompetent. I didn't hear nothing about "positive" last Thursday. I heard "indeterminate." That's why she re-tested and took two vials of blood. Mind you, Sharon was in the room alone with Niki. Niki came back and told me it was indeterminate. She started to get scared and upset because of that. I told her don't worry about it. You'll be okay.
"From my understanding I found out something else that was disturbing as well. AIM is a good thing that's happening. It's great for the industry. But from understanding, the reason they can get a PCR-DNA test back so quick is that they skip one whole method. They do it by RNA instead of RNA and DNA. I've been going to the other testing center in Venice and they always do that test by both methods. That's why it takes two days. Not trying to down AIM, but I'm not going to be a scapegoat for anybody."
[Lee apparently called Sharon Mitchell after our talk, and Mitchell called back with another update. Mitchell said stories weren't jiving.]
Mitchell: "I'm trying to go back and retrace my steps and think of who had all the information at one point. It just sounds like a deliberate risk and I don't know that anyone would do that. I need to go back over stuff, so I talked to Santino. I don't have any inconsistencies with my paperwork. The first day that she [Lae] came to pick up her test, that was Thursday afternoon. She was really mad. She was booked for Ed. Ed was mad, but it was urgent. But Santino was escorting her. When I looked at her test I said, hold on one minute. I brought her back, closed the door and had her in my office. I said this test is detected for HIV by PCR-DNA. I said, however, along with six other samples that I drew at CES, Airborne didn't pick it up on time so it sat for about four or five days. That's not pushing it. But if there was a problem in the laboratory, it would have come back indeterminate. An indeterminate would say, okay, maybe the EDTA which is like the preservative didn't go well and none of the inhibitors scanned at all. Okay, that would tell me there's a problem at quality control so I need to redraw. But that wasn't the case. This came back detected."
G. Ross: "Santino kept using the word 'inconclusive' and 'indeterminate' "
Mitchell: "Nobody said that. Here's what happened. I didn't bring him [Santino] in for that primary disclosure, but I did tell her, 'On rare occasions we have false positives. I hope that's the case. But to be on the safe side we must redraw.' But the test did say 'detected.' I even gave her a copy. This is what Santino tells me. He said, she didn't say that. She said it was indeterminate. I'm trying to think what the fuck's going on here? All we know is what we have on paper. Here's the bottom line. Regardless, if the test didn't come back yet, why would you work with someone?"
(Eli of All Good Video would not make comment on the record except to say that Santino Lee's account of what happened Friday morning is not "verifiable".)
The following is information which Niki Lae provides of herself on the 'Net: Lae writes: "I'm in Rodney Moore's CREME DE LA FACE 30, I SWALLOW, and LUSCIOUS LATINAS 1; Ron Gold's PRIVATE MOMENTS #421; Mike South's MIKE SOUTH'S BLOWGIRLS VOL. 1; Fantasy Productions (2 vids); GM Video's NAKED CITY 1998 VOL. 1 and NAKED IN TAMPA BAY 1999 VOL. 2; I survived an in-depth video interview with Dirty Bob; just finished 2 hot videos for Angel Cummings; and others are planned.
NIKI NOTES: DATE OF BIRTH 7-11-70; WEB PAGE? www.nikilae.com GOING TO THE 2000 CES? OF COURSE! I can't wait! It will be my first time! I'VE BEEN TOLD my ass is awesome! MY FAVORITE EXPRESSION IS live life to the fullest with no regrets. BORN AND RAISED IN beautiful Tampa, Florida. MY SPECIALTY? Ask Ron Jeremy and Mike South! I CAN DO blowjobs for hours and hours! I STILL WON'T DO anal...yet! I'm working on it, though! I WANT to do more videos! RECENTLY, I HAVE BEEN working on my new web page."
Jeremy said he couldn't think for the life of him who Niki Lae is and where he was supposed to have met her.
