Producer Ike Sanders knows he didn't do anything wrong, but when the cops are calling an Internet casting call for a porn movie "promoting prostitution," the truth can be a hard sell to a mid-West jury.
"There was like a plea bargain before trial, and the reason for that is because I was looking at five years," Sanders told AVN.com. "He [the prosecutor] was going to slam me for not taking the couple of years of probation that they offered me earlier in the year, and I decided to fight; I wanted to take it all the way. And this comes from my attorney; he said he was looking out for me and I understood that, but on the same token, he said it's up to us to prove to the jury that what I am doing is not promoting prostitution; it's up to us to prove this to the jury, so I'm not sure if he felt we could prove that to them or not."
The result is that, pursuant to a plea agreement inked on Dec. 13, the day before his trial was to start, Sanders will spend up to 38 more days in county jail, starting in early January.
As reported here in mid-September, Sanders' business was to solicit scripts from third parties, who would pay him to hire actors to perform the scripts, which Sanders would shoot on videotape, and the resulting product would be owned by the person funding the project – call it "designer amateur porn." Sanders got his actors through ads on the Internet, and last summer, a couple of undercover cops responded to the ads and came in for interviews, allegedly to appear in Sanders' productions.
"The only thing that they had to try to use was the conversation that they had, that they taped from the interview," Sanders said. "The conversation would not have helped them. I knew that they were cops, so I knew exactly what I should say and shouldn't say, and basically it [the talent agreement] says that they're to be paid if they perform the script. It did not say that they're being paid for sex; it says that they're being paid to perform the script, that they would get paid for acting."
But the scripts were hardcore, and the state was Missouri, which isn't bound by the California Supreme Court's decision in People v. Freeman, which deemed the performers in adult features not to be prostitutes. So Sanders was charged with one count of promoting prostitution in the second degree – a felony – and one count of patronizing prostitution, which was a Class B misdemeanor.
"My lawyer told me, 'You don't have to fight this, because if you do try to fight, they're gonna slam you. They're gonna put you in jail for five years because you didn't take the deal,'" Sanders explained. "And so he thoroughly made me understand there was a lot riding on the decision. You know, I'm fighting the jury, I'm fighting the judge, I'm fighting the prosecuting attorney and I'm fighting the police officers, who are the only people they were going to use as witnesses. From my understanding, it wasn't going to happen the way we wanted it to happen. They were going to try to cheat; they weren't going to allow me to win, plain and simple."
"So we basically took the deal," Sanders summarized. "The felony for promoting prostitution was amended to a misdemeanor, which I feel I won that case because now there's no felony on my record and I don't have to file as a sex offender. I have to do 60 days in jail, of which I already have 22 days in from just after my arrest, so all I have to do is 38. I got all of my equipment back; that was a good thing. That was part of the agreement, that I get everything back that they took, so I got all of that back. So all in all, I feel I won."
And with good behavior, Sanders may not even have to do the full sentence.
"Possibly I'll do a couple of weeks or so," Sanders said. "I'm glad I dodged the trial, I dodged the five years, and I dodged probation, because that was another thing: They tried to offer me five years probation, and I'm like, 'Hell, no – I'm not gonna be under you guys' supervision like that.' So once I do these 38 days or less, it's over and I'm able to start back up in a different location and live happily ever after."
Somewhat disenchanted with St. Louis, Sanders plans to reopen for business in another area, possibly California. But it won't be easy, especially since the arrest came just as he was about to sign a $100,000 contract to produce content for a Webmaster. He says he lost some other work offers as well, plus the attorney fees and costs for the current case.
"So right now, I'm looking to get everything back together," he said. "I'm looking to work on some projects for retail distribution."
Producers looking for new but seasoned directorial talent can contact Sanders at [email protected].
