Judge Lisa A. Richette sentenced "Big Daddy Redd" for using teen girls, calling his films "horrendous." [AVN agreed rating most of Big Daddy's tapes on the one-A scale.]
Redd broke down and cried Monday before he was sentenced to 71/2 to 15 years in prison for using underage girls in his productions.
"I hate this business," sobbed William Truett, 25, who in October was found guilty in a nonjury trial of four counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and other charges, including sexual abuse of children. "I'm just sorry for what I did."
Common Pleas Court Judge Richette, who during the trial saw videotapes and obscene photos of Truett having sex with teenage girls, said: "Mr. Truett, I have no personal feeling against you. I hate what you did, but I don't hate you.
"This court sat through many hours watching these horrendous tapes," said the judge. "It was a very disturbing, disgusting experience."
Truett produced the porn in his apartment at 23d and Walnut Streets. Big Daddy Redd Productions was a $200,000-a-year business, according to police. Truett starred in his films and produced more than 100 titles in a series called "Steamy Hot Sex," police said.
The defendant's mother, Donna Truett, a schoolteacher, and other family members and friends pleaded with Richette to give the defendant a second chance.
Truett's father, who died in 1995, allegedly abused women and may have beaten his son when he was a teenager, an uncle testified. Donna Truett testified that her son, who dropped out of Howard University after one semester, had been diagnosed as a youngster with learning disabilities and a low IQ.
"I don't see the connection," Richette snapped, "in what happened to him as a child and this vast enterprise he got himself into." Defense attorney Paul Hetznecker implored the judge to look at the "complexities" of his client's childhood and "biracial origins" and "the difficulties he had in school."
Truett's mother is white. His father, who lived in Texas, was African American. The parents divorced when Truett was about 2. "This case calls out for incarceration," Richette said. "His mother was a teacher. Why didn't she help him?"
Assistant District Attorney Eric Gibson, in urging a stiff prison sentence, said the case was "about money, pure and simple."
Truett's films were widely distributed in Philadelphia and nationwide, the prosecutor said.Two runaways, 14 and 15, testified at trial that they had met Truett on the street and that he asked them whether they wanted to be paid to make movies. They said yes. A third teen testified that when she was 14, Truett brought a video camera and several men to her home and she performed sex acts on tape.
Police arrested Truett last Feb. 9 and seized the equipment he used to make his tapes as well as a customized 1994 BMW and a 1995 Ford van. Police also raided sex shops around Philadelphia and seized Truett's tapes.
"You're a little mixed up. You're confused," Richette told the defendant before imposing sentence.
