LOS ANGELES – Film permits requested by the porn industry have all but ceased in Los Angeles County as producers decide how to work around much opposed law that requires actors to wear condoms during shoots.
Film LA, the non profit organization that processes permits for motion picture, television and commercial production across Los Angeles, has seen applications for permits from the adult film industry plummet to only two so far this year. In previous years, an estimated 500 film permits are requested by the adult film industry annually.
“Most production companies have ceased shooting in LA County,” said Diane Duke, chief executive officer of the Canoga-Park based Free Speech Coalition, the trade organization for the adult film industry. “They have other options in other states and communities.”
In March, calls and inquiries from the adult film industry bombarded the city of Camarillo asking if there was a condom ordinance there.
As a result, the City Council placed a moratorium on adult film shoots for 45 days until it could decide, possibly later this month, what it will and won’t allow.
“All I can say is a number of inquires led us to be concerned that we should look at this and decide if this is something we want to do,” Don Davis, assistant city attorney for Camarillo, said of the adult film industry’s sudden interest.
The decline in film permit applications and the porn industry’s interest in Camarillo is an example of the ripple effect of Measure B, the ordinance that Los Angeles County voters passed in November that requires actors involved in explicit shoots to wear condoms. The law also requires adult film studios to apply for public health permits and for the county Department of Public Health to lead inspection and enforcement efforts. Health permits need to be attached to FilmLA applications.
As quickly as the ordinance passed, producers at many adult film studios threatened to leave the San Fernando Valley, where most pornographic movies have long been made, and, if possible, the state.
“Whether it’s Camarillo or another California city that is in the news because of Measure B, we strongly believe that the law is wrong, which is why we are challenging it,” said Steven Hirsch, founder and co-chairman of Universal City-based Vivid Entertainment. Hirsch and others have said the industry is watching and waiting for the outcome of a lawsuit filed by Vivid against Angeles County. The suit calls Measure B unconstitutional, saying it violates actors’ rights to free speech and expression.
Arguments are set to begin next month in U.S. District Court.
“We now need the court to rule on our case,” Hirsch said.
Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, said it’s too early to tell if the industry is moving out. But the region will feel an economic impact if studios and production companies leave. Waldman said VICA was opposed to Measure B because it meant an estimated loss of 10,000 production jobs that the adult film industry attracts, including makeup, lighting, carpentry, transportation, food service, payroll processing, Web design and actors. The adult film industry has been estimated to generate between $1 billion to $11 billion a year.
“I think the industry is still trying to figure out what it’s doing,” Waldman said. “I think it’s going to be a trickle effect, but one day we’ll all ask, where did all this money go?”
He said the industry likely wants to stay in Los Angeles because it already has a built-in infrastructure and relationship with the San Fernando Valley. But the law may eventually squeeze filmmakers out.
“At some point they would have to make the decision to move to another state,” Waldman said. “I think it’s coming.”
So far, cities in Ventura County have not exactly held up “Welcome Home” signs to pornographers. Police were called to an unsanctioned film shoot recently in Newbury Park. Fearing the industry would move to their neighborhoods, the Simi Valley City Council passed its own condom ordinance that also required the use of dental dams to protect performers from oral sex. The ordinance was passed before Measure B became law.
And Thousand Oaks has a rigorous signature requirement, which would prompt the adult film industry to tell neighbors if any nudity were occurring. “We have signature requirements on all filming, and that might be a hindrance,” said Geoff Ware, co-compliance manager for the city of Thousand Oaks.
The issue is under consideration by the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, an official said.
“We’re just looking into it now, but there hasn’t been any formal action taken by the Board of Supervisors,” said Michelle Yamaguchi, with the county executive office.
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation introduced and supported Measure B – the “Safer Sex Initiative” – to prevent sexually transmitted diseases spreading from the industry to the mainstream public.
The ordinance took effect immediately in the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County and in the city of Los Angeles, which passed its own ordinance. But how it is implemented in the 85 cities that contract with the county’s health department remains uncertain. In addition, the law does not apply in Pasadena, Long Beach and Vernon because those cities have their own municipal health departments.
None of those cities have received inquires from the adult film industry, officials from those municipalities said. And none seem to want to be the next San Fernando Valley.
“We haven’t seen (film permits) by the adult film industry to my knowledge,” said Robert Shannon, city attorney for Long Beach. “We’re free to enact a similar ordinance to Measure B and it wouldn’t really be a big issue to remedy the issue.”
Vernon spokesman Fred MacFarlane also said his city has received no inquiries. He thinks it’s because Vernon is an industrial area, with only 120 residents and 1,800 business, mostly factories.
“I don’t think there’s a niche group out there wanting to see explicit sex acts done in a factory and Vernon is full of factories,” MacFarlane said. “I don’t think you’ll see a ‘The Girls of Farmer John’.”
MacFarlane said the city is waiting for a staff report by its health department to be presented within the month.
“I don’t know a community in Los Angeles that is looking forward to becoming home to the porn industry,” MacFarlane said. “I think everybody recognizes it’s a revenue generator, but it’s not something we want.”
Meanwhile, AIDS Healthcare Foundation continues to press the industry into following the law. In March, the group filed a complaint with the Los Angeles County Health Department against Chatsworth- based Immoral Productions, saying the company produced adult content without the use of condoms.
In February, on Valentine’s Day, AHF supported a proposed bill by Assemblyman Isadore Hall, D-Compton, that would require actors in porn films shot anywhere in California to use condoms.
Adult films are protected under the Freeman decision of 1988, when the state of California tried to prove that Harold Freeman, a producer and director of adult films, was pimping actors. The California Supreme Court disagreed. As a result, the making of hardcore porn was allowed in California.
Only New Hampshire has a similar law. But Matthew Newton, director of the New Hampshire Film & Television Office, said he has received no inquiries.
“All inquires have been from the media,” he said. “I haven’t received one call from the industry.”
Newton said he is uncertain how his state would react to an influx of adult film production.
“It’s not an industry I’ve ever dealt with and it’s not a sector of the film industry we’re looking into having,” Newton said. “It’s a little bit out of scope of what we’re trying to do here.”
Officials from the Film Office in Nevada, where many think porn production would fit in because of the state’s progressive views on prostitution, have said they have received no inquiries and have not courted the industry.
The adult film industry largely opposes mandatory condom use because they say viewers who turn to porn to watch sexual fantasy would be turned off. Actors also have said self-regulation – which requires porn actors to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases every 15 to 30 days – works well. Once an actor has completed testing, his or her name is entered into a confidential database, viewed only by directors on sets. Performers also fear that the industry will move underground to avoid government regulation, which could place actors and actresses at risk from those who avoid getting tested for STDs.
But besides Measure B, the industry also feels shut out in general, Duke of the Free Speech Coalition said.
“Whether warranted or not, California has a reputation of being unfriendly to business and this senseless crusade against the industry does nothing more than support that reputation,” Duke said. “This is no time to play Russian Roulette with a vital industry that provides tens of thousands of living wage paying jobs for Californians.”
Davis, the assistant attorney from Camarillo, said his community likely isn’t looking to become the next porn capital of the world.
“I would suspect given this community, they would not want that,” Davis said.
from The Daily News
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Related Posts:

Condom Requirement For Porn Filming Approved By Voters

Los Angeles’ New Adult Film Condom Law Has Holes

Simi Valley Mayor Says Porn Industry Not Wanted

LA Council Tentatively OKs Porn Condom Ordinance

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Wilfried Knight

Wilfried Knight an acupuncturist and porn star of French extraction, reportedly committed suicide last week in Vancouver, though his death was only confirmed by friends on Monday night. His husband, Jerry Enriquez, reportedly hanged himself in their home on February 21, 2013 and Knight was the person to discover the body.
In a series of lengthy blog posts on his personal site (NSFW) before his own death, Knight wrote that he and Enriquez were forced to move to Canada after Knight’s student visa expired because, although the couple were legally married in Canada in 2011, the U.S. Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) prohibits the federal government from recognizing legal same sex marriages or affording same sex spouses rights normally afforded to heterosexual spouses — including the right to sponsor one’s spouse for a green card.
Knight wrote:
Never mind our commitment, our years together, i was to be thrown out. My partner knew it and decided to look for a job in the only country that would allow us to be together and marry: Canada.
And i know what most people will say: Why didn’t you guys marry in Washington, or California, or NYC? Well, IF YOU ARE TWO GAY MEN FROM DIFFERENT NATIONALITY, STATE MARRIAGE DOES NOT MATTER, EVEN IF ONE IS AMERICAN: IT NEEDS TO EXIST ON THE FEDERAL LEVEL TO APPLY TO A MULTINATIONAL COUPLE.
Knight wrote that Enriquez secured a job in Vancouver in 2012 with the yoga-and-sportwear company Lululemon, and the couple left America to try to start a life there. Instead, Enriquez was fired by Lululemon after a series of events that both left the couple embittered and Enriquez without employment, a visa or health insurance. Five months, and Knight came home to a sight not easily forgotten.
He had it well prepared. When i came back home worried for not receiving any answer to my texts, i found him there..hanging. I since then discovered the poor guy was on clonazepam and zoplicone to cope with the stress..which he had left there on the side with a bottle of wine he had purchased that morning…Which simply seemed aimed at me, in a way saying: “follow me and see you on the other side”.
In the posts he wrote before his own death, Knight repeatedly referred to his belief that Enriquez had meant for him to follow by leaving the pills and wine, even calling it “a last proof of love: he goes the hard way (who wants to die hanging?) and leave me the easy road.”
In the time that followed Enriquez’s suicide, Knight also discovered that the same laws that prevented recognition of their marriage in life prevented him from being recognized as a surviving spouse after his husband’s death.
BUT, if you like me have met your partner and lived in USA before, purchased goods, a condo together, well, if you are not from the same nationality, even if state gay marriage exist, in the absence of a will, the living partner left gets….NOTHING.
Knight added that Enriquez’s sister and brother would be packing up what was left of their possessions in the States and keeping the proceeds, despite having been on good terms with their brother in life.
Immigration Equality, a U.S.-based nonprofit which works to help same sex couples remain together despite legal barriers to the recognition of their marriages, estimates that there are 35, 820 same sex couples in the United States who face the same painful choices that Knight and Enriquez did in their lives: comply with U.S. immigration law and separate; live out of compliance with U.S. law; or move abroad. Communications Director Steve Ralls told Raw Story in a statement:
Suicide under any circumstance is a tragedy and in this case that tragedy is compounded. Immigration Equality was not aware of Knight’s case and it’s difficult to know all the details surrounding his and his partner’s suicide. What we do know, however, is that no couple should have to deal with the difficult circumstances our immigration laws force so many into. That’s why we’re committed to changing the law as soon as possible. The separation and discrimination couples face is very real and very painful.
Immigration Equality had pushed the Senators who crafted the Democrats’ immigration reform legislation to specifically include immigration rights for the same sex spouses of U.S. citizens, and have pushed for a separate bill to address the needs of binational same sex families, the Democrats’ current immigration reform framework bill contains no mention of the immigration rights of same sex spouses.
In the last post before Knight’s own death, he said one of the points of his posts was, “US OR ANY COUNTRY SHOULD HAVE NATIONAL/FEDERAL GAY MARRIAGE TO ALLOW PEOPLE LIKE JERRY AN ME TO BE TOGETHER, EVEN IF FROM DIFFERENT NATIONALITY.”
from The Raw Story

Arpad Miklos

Gay performer Arpad Miklos reportedly took his own life Sunday in his New York apartment, several sources are reporting.
According to the Gay South Florida website, the 45-year-old actor was found Monday evening. Writer and friend Randal Lynch broke the news on Howard Bragman’sYouTube show Gwissues.
The Hungarian-born actor was discovered by Kristen Bjorn and moved to America shortly after his start in porn. Prior to that, he had worked as a chemical engineer. Miklos worked with John Rutherford, Jerry Douglas, Kristen Bjorn and Chi Chi LaRue, as well as European films. He primarily worked as a top and also did straight work for the Straight Guys for Gay Eyes website.
His more recent work saw him featured in the music video for the song “Hood” alongside artist Perfume Genius.
In June 2010 Arpad was chosen to be on the BUTT Magazine beach towels sold at American Apparel, for every towel sold a portion would be donated to the Ali Forney Center, an NYC organization providing housing and services to LGBTQ youth.
“He was a great guy, on top of that, there was a lot more to him than just that surface persona. He was a very active person in the gay community, he gave a lot of money to charities, and was overall a really good guy,” his friend Lynch has told reporters. “He was probably one of the biggest porn stars out there.”
Lynch also publicly stated that often drugs or depression are associated with suicide, but in Miklos’ case his reasons were his own.
“Haters can hate, people can speculate, but he’s not going to give a specific reason and give that satisfaction to anyone,” he said.
Through the years, Miklos won several awards for his work, inluding a 2005 GayVN Award for Best Solo Performance in BuckleRoos Part I. His most recent movie was 2010′s Crotch Rocket.
from AVN

Josh Weston

Hot House Video has confirmed the passing of gay adult performer Josh Weston, who entered the industry in 2001, when he signed with Falcon.
”Adult Superstar Josh Weston succumbed to HIV-related complications on Sunday, December 16,” reported the Hot House company blog.  “He was 39 years old. Weston started his career in 2001 as a Falcon Exclusive, starring some of their biggest hits from the early 2000s. After leaving that contract went on to work with other studios including Hot House where he headlined our hits Trunks 3 and Communion. Always warm and friendly and ready to laugh, Josh was loved by many and will be missed by all.”
The Sword’s Zach added, “Weston began his career as a dancer at the Nob Hill Theatre in San Francisco, and after being discovered there by Chi Chi LaRue, he quickly became one of the decade’s most iconic performers.
“Weston’s later work with several bareback studios was seen by some as controversial, but his flawless physique and legendary performances are what, I think, will be remembered most.
“Weston unfortunately joins a long list of performers who’ve died this year, including Erik Rhodes, Adam Faust, Corbin Fisher’s Sean, Roman Ragazzi, and more.”
from AVN

LOS ANGELES – The AIDS Healthcare Foundation claims in court that Los Angeles County used a bogus audit to demand millions of dollars to retaliate for its blowing the whistle on the county’s misuse of federal money, and for its support for a condom law for porn actors.
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation and its president Michael Weinstein sued Los Angeles County, its Department of Public Health, its Division of HIV and STD Programs and other officials, including County Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Gloria Molina, in Federal Court.
The foundation claims the county retaliated against it for its demand for enforcement of the law requiring condoms on porn movies made in L.A. County, and for objecting to the county’s alleged misuse of federal funding for HIV/AIDS patients.
The Health Resource Services Administration distributes federal funds under the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resource Emergency Act, and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation has contracted with the county since the late 1990s to provide health-care services using the money, according to the lawsuit.
The foundation claims the county misappropriates federal funding by failing to follow statutory guidelines, by, among other things, “grossly” understating the amount it spends on administration, and failing to use the funds in a “timely and effective fashion.”
It also claims the county spent federal money for a “lavish” media center.
“Rather than using its substantial funding to accomplish the goals in which it is tasked, Los Angeles County, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, and various of their divisions and leaders, have indulged in the gross misuse of resources, waste of public funds, favoritism, professional back-scratching, and retaliation against those that hold them accountable for doing their jobs,” the 39-page complaint states.
The county this year pushed through a $75 million contract with a private pharmacy administrator called Ramsell in just one day, without competing bids, the complaint states.
The foundation says it sued the county in Superior Court for violating competitive bidding rules, and won a judgment invalidating the contract in June.
After the foundation criticized the county and its officials publicly, the county reacted with “considerable hostility,” the group says.
“In their latest campaign to harass, intimidate, and defame AHF [AIDS Healthcare Foundation] defendants pursued a phony audit, which manufactured findings based on inaccurate information, and is the purported basis for defendants’ threatening to withhold over $1.7 million dollars in payments to AHF,” the complaint states.
The county claimed that the AIDS Healthcare Foundation had overbilled $1.7 million for its services and asked it to pay the money back, according to the complaint.
The foundation claims that county officials “ramped up their threats” in the months before the general election, when the group was campaigning for Ballot Measure B, which requires porn film actors to wear condoms.
Voters approved the ballot measure in November, and it will go into effect this month, according to the lawsuit.
“In addition to creating a bogus audit and disingenuously demanding millions of dollars from a nonprofit organization, defendants have escalated their attacks on plaintiffs by parading this audit in front of other providers and the public at large,” the complaint states.
The foundation also claims the county favors health-care providers who make campaign contributions, and who do not challenge or question the county’s use of funds.
It claims the defendants reallocated $1.2 million to the Tarzana Treatment Center at the expense of the plaintiff’s organization in the Antelope Valley.
“Defendants’ retaliatory act of cutting 100 percent of its funding to AHF in Antelope Valley not only caused AHF significant monetary loss, but was done at the expense of patients, further demonstrating defendants’ malfeasance and ill will toward plaintiffs,” the complaint states. “Those interests directly conflicted with defendants’ statutory obligations to allocate AIDS funds most effectively and with absolute undivided loyalty to the interests of the populations they serve.”
The county also cut $3 million in services to HIV/AIDS patients when it refused to award a contract to the foundation group for a benefit program, according to the complaint.
“Such a heartless and irrational decision can only be attributed to a desire by defendants to punish plaintiffs for their criticism of defendants’ mismanagement and ineptitude, and to eliminate any major competition for funds for defendants’ favored agencies – i.e., the agencies that uncritically tow DHSP’s line,” the complaint states, abbreviating Division of HIV and STD Programs.
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation seeks compensatory and special damages for retaliation, violation of the False Claims Act, constitutional violations and defamation.
It is represented by house attorney Samantha Azulay.
The county did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
from Courthouse News
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LOS ANGELES – A measure that would require porn performers to wear condoms while filming in Los Angeles County was approved by voters.
The measure garnered 55.9% of the vote after a hard-fought campaign,
“This is a major referendum on the subject of safer sex,” said AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein.
The measure is sponsored by the foundation, which has been pushing for years to protect adult-film performers from HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Under the measure, the cost of the law would be paid for by porn producers, who would have to purchase a public health permit, much like tattoo parlors. Violators would be subject to fines and misdemeanor criminal charges.
Weinstein said the question now is whether the adult-film industry and the county government will cooperate.
“We have shown our resolve that we are not going to give up on this issue,” he said. “Now that the people have spoken so overwhelmingly, it is the responsibility for the Board of Supervisors and the county Health Department to act immediately to enforce this law.”
Supporters of Measure B cast the issue as one that would protect worker safety — like requiring construction workers to wear hard hats and help keep the public safer from disease.
Opponents said they didn’t want the creation of an unwanted, ineffective county bureaucracy. They said the industry should be trusted to police itself, and that performers are regularly tested for disease.
They also said that consumers do not want to buy pornography in which condoms are used.
from The Los Angeles Times
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Related Posts:

Los Angeles’ New Adult Film Condom Law Has Holes

Simi Valley Mayor Says Porn Industry Not Wanted

LA Council Tentatively OKs Porn Condom Ordinance

A federal court in Illinois awarded the damages of $150,000 per movie to Flava Works – the creator of the pornographic films.
The figure is believed to the biggest awarded in a file-sharing case.
The award is thought to be so large because the accused, Kywan Fisher, did not defend himself against claims that he pirated the movies.
In court, Flava Works presented evidence which it said demonstrated that Mr Fisher was the person who put copies of its films on a BitTorrent site.
In its evidence, Flava revealed that it had embedded unique codes in the copies of its films that customers pay to view. Digital detective work connected the code in the pirated films back to Mr Fisher, who had earlier signed up as a customer of Flava and paid to view the movies.
Once shared via BitTorrent the films were downloaded or viewed 3,449 times, said Flava during its court statements.
Flava claimed Mr Fisher had exhibited “willful copyright infringement” and violated the terms and conditions of the pay-to-view video service he signed up for.
US Judge John Lee noted Flava’s evidence in his summary and said in light of that and the lack of any defense or objection by Mr Fisher, he had no choice but to issue a default judgement in favor of the adult movie maker.
It is not clear whether Mr Fisher will appeal against the judgement or whether he can pay the fine.
Mr Fisher was one of 15 people that Flava pursued for pirating its movies. However, the cases against all the others were dropped earlier this year for lack of evidence.
Many content creators, including movie studios and record labels, have pursued pirates in the courts using net, or IP, addresses as evidence.
However, many of these cases have been dropped as in May, a US federal judge ruled that an IP address was not sufficient evidence to accuse a person of being a pirate.
from The BBC
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PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA  – U.S. Marshalls raided a Palm Springs warehouse Thursday after a media company lost a $5 million copyright infringement suit over adult films.
The armed officers seized thousands of DVDs from a warehouse at 188 W. San Rafael Drive and a home at 972 Tierra Lane.
BelAmi, an international production company well-known in the gay pornography industry, and its distributor had won a lawsuit against David Aldford and Media West Entertainment over copyright of 33 films.
U.S. District Court Judge R. Gary Klausner issued the order to seize the counterfeit discs on Oct. 10.
When the officers and the film company’s attorneys showed up Thursday, they found “tens of thousands” of counterfeit DVDs and a large replicator to copy discs, BelAmi attorney D. Gill Sperlein said.
“With so much attention paid to online piracy these days, I hope this highlights the huge problem the DVD business has been facing for over a decade,” Sperlein said Friday.
“People like David Aldorf going unchecked for years while making money on the back of hardworking producers, single-handedly helping to kill off the DVD business as we know it.”
A phone number listed for Media West Entertainment had been changed Friday, and court documents do not list an attorney. The voicemail box was full at a phone number listed for Alford’s home, one of the seizure locations.
“If you’re calling regarding your delayed shipment, we apologize for any inconvenience,” the voicemail greeting says. “We experienced a shipment of defective DVDs from our supplier and have been fervently working to resolve the issues.”
BelAmi and Euro Media Partners LLC first filed the complaint in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Dec. 7, 2011.
They claimed that Alford sends brochures to a large database of customers, who order from a catalog of DVDs via the phone or online at a password-protected site.
The production company had twice threatened legal action against Alford for selling counterfeit and copyrighted DVDs, but reached settlement agreements with him both times, according to the complaint.
In the third legal standoff, BelAmi and Media Partner filed suit and listed the titles of 33 films that they claimed Alford was illegally selling, including “Boot Camp,” “Cover Boys” and “Police Boy.”
On June 28, the court ordered Aldorf to turn over all copies of the 33 films listed in the suit. On July 10, the court ordered him to pay $4,975,000 plus $103,100 in attorney’s fees.
“Let this be a reminder to pirates that there are companies who will fight to protect our content,” BelAmi COO Stuart Davis said in a statement Friday.
Aldorf is scheduled to appear in court Nov. 15 before Magistrate Judge Patrick J. Walsh.
from The Desert Sun

Gay porn companies forced a man to inject models’ penises with a prescription enhancement drug and fired him after he poked his thumb with a syringe during a shoot, the man claims in Superior Court.
Ronald Baker claims Adult Entertainment Broadcast Network and others required employees to inject “models” with TriMix, which came via U.S. mail without prescriptions.
The complaint states: “Defendants require employees, who are not models and are not trained or certified in any manner to give injections, to inject controlled substances for erectile dysfunction using a hypodermic syringe into the model’s penis. The model can then maintain an erection for multiple hours in duration, during which time substantial shooting of the film can take place at one time without lengthy breaks to ensure the actor maintains an erection.”
Baker says the models were not screened for HIV, sexually transmitted diseases or hepatitis before the injections. And he claims the companies had no policies, protocols or plans to prevent or respond to exposure to blood-borne pathogens.
“After months of refusing directions and pressure by his employer to inject models with TriMix, plaintiff followed the directions of his employer and injected TriMix into a model’s penis. While replacing the cap on the syringe, the tip of the syringe pierced the cap and plaintiff’s thumb,” the complaint states.
Baker, hired as a grip, says he quickly washed his hands and was told to stop the shoot.
Although the model said he was HIV-negative, the companies could not confirm that and “had no idea how to respond to plaintiff’s apparent exposure,” the complaint states.
Baker says he tested negative for HIV and hepatitis C after the incident.
But upon learning how the companies procured the drug, he refused to continue giving injections and hired an attorney. The companies stopped paying his wages and health benefits shortly after that, he says.
“Defendants required its employees to perform injections when they have no skill, training, licensure or special knowledge to perform such injections. They are not medical professionals and no medical professionals are on site at the time such injections are being performed,” the complaint states.     “It is significant that defendants required its employees to perform injections in the penises of models engaged in pornography in which the employer does not know the HIV or hepatitis status of the models injected. Such conduct is startling given that the models are engaging in sexual conduct at the behest of the employer to shoot pornographic films for profit.”
Baker says he suffered severe emotional distress and will need to be rechecked for diseases.
Also named as defendants are Falcon Studios & Raging Stallion Studios; Data Tech Ventures LLC; and Datatech Enterprises LLC c/o Falcon Entertainment and Datatech Systems LLC.     Baker seeks punitive damages for wrongful termination, negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress, and violations of the business and professions code and the Labor Code.
He is represented by Elisa Stewart with Stewart & Musell.
from Opposing Views
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Ryan Idol

More than a year after his conviction, a one-time gay porn star who beat his former girlfriend over the head with a toilet tank lid has been sentenced to 12 years in state prison for attempted murder.
Sacramento Superior Court Judge Troy L. Nunley imposed the term Wednesday on Marc Anthony Donais, 46, who established a reputation in the 1990s as one of the top stars in his genre under the name of Ryan Idol.
According to the victim’s testimony at trial, Donais entered the woman’s apartment the night of Sept. 5, 2009, and told her, “I came over here to kill you.” The two had been involved in a relationship, but the woman — whose name is being withheld because she is a domestic violence victim — said she cut it off when she caught him having sex with his male lover.
The woman said Donais stormed into her bathroom while she was taking a bath of her 48th Street residence and began to beat her with the porcelain lid until “I felt blood gushing down my shoulders.”
Donais’ sentencing had been delayed since his September 2011 conviction so his attorneys could prepare a motion for new trial that Nunley ultimately denied.
from The Sacramento Bee
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Related Post:

Former Gay Porn Star Ryan Idol Convicted Of Attempted Murder

Erik Rhodes

Falcon Studios contract star Erik Rhodes, 30, died at 5:30 a.m. Thursday morning in New York from a heart attack during his sleep.
Falcon officials, including Adam Q. Robinson, Falcon’s vice president of production, issued statements through various social media outlets this morning about Rhodes’ passing.
“It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of Erik Rhodes this morning. Erik died of a heart attack in his sleep,” Robinson tweeted. “Erik has been an amazing friend & part of the Falcon family for 8 years, a man of steel on the outside but all teddy bear on the inside.”
Chris Ward, Falcon/Raging Stallion Studios president, offered the following statement: “We are deeply saddened by Erik’s passing. He was a part of our family and we are devastated.  Our thoughts are with his loved ones.”
A tweet on Rhodes’ Twitter account reads, “Erik Rhodes has left us this morning at 5:30am his family and boyfriend Riccardo are in deep pain, please respect this sad moment.”
“It is with utmost sadness that we make the announcement of Erik Rhodes’ passing,” the company said in a press release. “We offer our condolences to Erik’s family, friends and loved ones. He was a genuine and caring man with extraordinary attractiveness and a massive muscled frame. Erik was an equally beautiful human being who lit up a room, and brought fun and joy to our studio and his fans that was unparalleled. He was a giving person with a special wit, and he put his all into every performance. He wanted to give his fans the best he could every single time he stepped in front of the camera. Rest in peace, Erik and know that we are celebrating your life and your achievements, but we will miss you and all the special moments you have given us forever.”
Rhodes, born Feb. 8, 1982, was an openly gay man, who topped and bottomed both professionally and in his personal life. He performed in 44 scenes for Falcon Studios, most recently in Body Shop, co-starring Landon Conrad, Marc Dylan and Trenton Ducati.
Rhodes began his career with Falcon by signing as an exclusive in September 2004 at the age of 22, shooting only one scene prior to joining the Falcon team. He remained an exclusive ever since. Rhodes also directed eight Mustang Studios titles during his career. He recently began shooting with Raging Stallion Studios after it merged with Falcon in early 2011. His videography includes more than 40 scenes filmed over the past eight years.
He was also a troubled man, by many accounts, struggling with drugs and depression.
“My name is James … I have worked in the adult entertainment industry for the last 7 years of my life under the name Erik Rhodes. I’m not sure how I ended up here, and I don’t know how I have survived this long … all I do know is that it can a very lonely place and sometimes I need a blog to get shit off my chest. So take it or leave it … here it is,” reads the profile on his Tumblr blog “Erik Rhodes: A Romance With Misery.”
Many of his blog posts and several of the comments left on his blog refer to his drug use, and recent binges.
“Well to be honest i’m on steroid overload right now… (not thats its much different from normal, but i’m just more focused looking to attain a certain goal),” he wrote two months ago. “For the first couple months, really up until last week, after my break-up, (which i’m sick talking about) but my strange lifestyle right now seems to be a direct result of it, well, anyways i was abusing Meth… and i mean hard… and since i’m not small boy and i wanna feel my high… i was shooting up syringes full of the shit… .8 – .9…  ask any meth head and they get retarded off .3… but i got myself to the point where if my high didn’t feel like a partial seizure i wasn’t happy with it.”
Rhodes later updated the post to say he had written it in response to a man who wrote and asked him about trying meth for the first time.
“I was hoping it would be something to change his mind, something to let my failure be his guide and hopefully have him not venture down that road,” he wrote. “But of course the whole story gets cut apart and i’m made to look like an asshole. I mean i go out of my way to make myself look bad enough only to have headlines written only about the juicy part of the story. Retarded.
“Oh well, whatever sells tickets to the circus.”
His last post was four days ago, in response to a fan who said he was about to start a steroid cycle and wanted suggestions because he wanted to “be as huge as you.”
“My cycle right now … 3000 mg of Test Enanthate a week, 2500 mg of Nandrolone Decaonate and 300 mg of Trenbolone Acetate. With 5iu of Human Growth Hormone everyday,”Rhodesreplied. “I’m waiting until I pop. Or my liver fails … which ever comes first.”
No other details on Rhodes’ death were immediately available.
from AVN

PIERSON, FLORIDA – A Volusia County high school teacher accused of having a YouTube video titled “Gay Threesome Sex” appear on a projector in front of his class resigned this week rather than face termination.
Jose Rosario-Gonzalez, 53, a ninth-grade social studies teacher at T. Dewitt Taylor Middle-High School, which serves grades six to 12 in Pierson, resigned on Tuesday.
According to Volusia County Schools, Rosario-Gonzalez was informed on May 25 that allegations against him, if substantiated, would lead to a recommendation of his termination.  He chose to resign instead, school officials said. He was put on 3 days unpaid leave before he resigned.
According to officials, a student’s parent reported that Rosario-Gonzalez had his computer hooked up to a projector in his classroom, and, after he accessed YouTube, the title of the sex video appeared.
Rosario-Gonzalez, who has taught for 12 years, did not deny the incident and said he “did this on his own time, in the privacy of his home and it was never his intention to show students,” according to school documents.
Several students made written statements confirming that the entire class saw the title of the sex video.
“Mr. Rosario was on YouTube, he scrolled through his videos and there was history videos except for one,” a student wrote.  “This was one was titled ‘Gay Threesome Sex.’  The whole class was saying ‘eww’ and ‘What is that doing on there?’ and he just kept scrolling and didn’t say anything.”
School officials said there were several files on Rosario-Gonzalez’s computer classified as homosexual pornography.
Rosario-Gonzalez received an overall “satisfactory” evaluation in 2009 and 2010, according to school documents.  His evaluation for 2011 was redacted for confidential reasons.
Local 6 went to Rosario-Gonzalez’s home, but he said didn’t want to comment on the incident. Local 6 looked into his teaching history in the 14 years in Pierson and found allegations of Rosario-Gonzalez being inappropriate with the students.
The first allegation was in May 2006 when he made improper comments to a student. Two years later, he was cautioned for straying away from teaching guidelines when he didn’t have a classroom plan in place for a substitute. The substitute was convinced by students to show an inappropriate video in class, according to records.
That same month, Rosario-Gonzalez was reprimanded for failing to accurately calculate the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test time cutting 20 minutes out for students.
More recently, reports in October 2011 Rosario-Gonzalez received another letter of reprimand for posting a link to his inappropriate and sexual blog, directing students to go there for class notes and tests.
from WTSP TV
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Jun Lin

TORONTO, CANADA – On his blog, he liked to call himself Big Bad Justin, but in reality, according to his postings and his acquaintances, Jun Lin was a quiet, unassuming man who came to Canada from China to study engineering and computer science. As a cashier at a convenience store, he never missed a shift. He loved his cat and queued up for the new iPhone on the day it went on sale.
Now his parents are here to collect the dismembered remains of the victim of a murder that has appalled the world with its gruesomeness, videotaped and posted on the Internet.
“I’m going to Canada!” he posted on May 10, 2010.
Last week parts of him turned up in parcels mailed to Canada’s two main political parties. A torso was found in a suitcase on a garbage dump in Montreal, outside the apartment building where he is thought to have been killed. Police reported that what looked like a foot and hand, separately mailed to two Vancouver schools and discovered Tuesday, are thought to be linked to the case. Police are waiting for the head to turn up.
On his blog, the 33-year-old indulged his love for fashion, home-cooked food, Apple products, American TV and Andy his tabby cat.
A copy of what police believe is the video of the killing shows a bound, blindfolded man naked on a bed being stabbed to death with an ice pick, then dismembered.
Investigators suspect a 29-year-old Montreal man, Luka Rocco Magnotta of committing the murder and posting the video online. He was caught at a cafe in Berlin. Montreal police say he and Lin were dating, but no reference to the suspect has yet been found in Lin’s extensive online postings.
“I don’t know under what circumstances they knew each other, but for someone to target him, I never would have thought this,” said Zoya De Frias Lakhany, who was Lin’s friend and fellow student at Concordia University in Montreal.
Lin was a shy, straight-A computer student – “so nice, humble and honest,” said De Frias Lakhany, 21. “He was really involved in his studies and never missed class.”
On the Chinese microblogging site weibo.com, Lin wrote excitedly about moving to Canada. Upon arriving in Montreal, he kept up his mostly cheerful blogging, although he sometimes betrayed a sense of loneliness.
“Class is to begin soon,” reads one posting from last year, accompanied by a photo of an empty classroom. “I’m so nervous. Been out of school for so long.”
“I just realized I am 10 years older than my classmates,” he wrote a month later. “They can call me Uncle. It’s so crushing.”
More than 1,000 entries are scattered with photos he took of himself. In some, he stares at the camera, expressionless. In others, he makes faces or poses shirtless.
The photos were accompanied by discussions of his diet and plans for staying fit.
“My calves are getting so thick,” he complained one day. “I am on diet – chicken breast, broccoli, tomatoes, peas and whole-wheat bread.”
A few days later, he explained his weight gain: “I know why I am so fat in Canada. Butter and bread in the morning. I’m so fat,” he wrote.
Yet the photos show a slender man. Followers of his blog commented that he was cute.
Lin’s last blog entry, dated May 16, 2012, has drawn 40,000 comments, most of them expressing shock and condolences over his death. But some of the posters debate homosexuality, with many suggesting Lin’s sexuality led him into a dangerous situation. China’s government considered homosexuality a mental disorder until 2001 and it remains a sensitive topic in the country, where gays are frequently ostracized.
Friends and strangers have lit virtual candles on Lin’s blog. A Facebook page dedicated to Lin features photos of him traveling and posts demanding swift justice for Magnotta, a former porn actor who, authorities say, flew to Paris shortly after the killing and spent several days partying and evading police before his arrest in Berlin.
At the Montreal convenience store where Lin’s boss says he never failed to show up for work, a memorial is piled with flowers and sympathy cards written in English, French and Mandarin.
The Chinese consulate in Montreal said Lin’s family plans to speak with the media when they are ready.
De Frias Lakhany said her friend seemed happy in Montreal.
“He would take pictures of the snow and post them,” she said “He was sweet, never complained and smiled all the time.”
from The Associated Press
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