Angel Skye hearts Brent

I am really starting to like Mark Adams site alot these days, as he manages to come up with little gems like this.

Actually, Angel does not need a "mutual friend" to reach out to Brent, IMO. Just get Brent's cell number, then send him a text message:

"hey brent its angel...so when we gonna start filming?"

Simple!

Ethan Speaks

Ethan Reynolds posted a new blog entry on his MySpace page recently (on the 18th, last Tuesday). Although he purports to answer "some of the big questions" in the post, he manages to avoid answering the REALLY big question: Is he still associated with his sex predator/con artist/manager Rick Altmann...or not?

In fact, reading through this, none of these answers are to what I would consider big questions at all. "Yes...I am single" LOL, no shit Sherlock! I think we all pretty much figured that out already, thanks to your Ex b/f and ex-webmaster. "Yes...I moved." Hmmm, OK, yes to Los Angeles I see from your MySpace profile. Thats nice. Maybe you can say "hi" to Jason Sechrest while you are there. Don't let him introduce you to any hedge fund managers, ok? "Yes...I am scared." Zzzzzzzzzz.... Who cares! C'mon...I'm sorry this is ridiculous. Is he still with the scumbag manager, or not? THAT is the $64 question EVERYONE has been speculating about!!! And he is NOT answering it!!! GAH!!!!! >:-(

Grrrr, frustration. Everything hangs on that question. If he has broken free of Rick Altmann (as poor Blair did), then people will be more willing to look at him as a victim, rather than a co-conspirator.

The fact that he has opted to NOT tackle the question leads me to think he is still with his manager. Partners in crime forever. Sigh.

Indeed, that being the case...the likelyhood he even authored this post himself is rather low. Double sigh.

Well, as long as this situation persists, this is one person who will NOT be offering him "drinks and hugs" if I ever see him out.

As for his future plans:

"I do know that I have another website being worked on. I do know that I will be on WEBCAM regularly so people can see me. I do know that I will be posting videos to go along with my words. That way you get my words directly from my mouth."

Assuming a ventriloquist is not involved, of course.

Twinks and Tigers and Hedge Fund Managers, Oh My!

Eh, this is just too good to relegate to an update to the previous post; according to J.C. Adams, Jason Curious is somehow mixed up in all this possibly (Jason is not sure, he can't remember...).

Update: "Parker is full of shit..."

LOL! of the Day

From J.C. Adams' Gay Porn Times:

"The press releases are zipping over the transom following industry publication XBIZ naming their “Top 100 Newsmakers of 2007″ today. Covering both gay and straight adult filmmaking, among those from our side of the street named to the list are...murdered Cobra Video owner Bryan Kocis (named with his accused killers Harlow Cuadra and Brian Kerekes), Michael Lucas, ...)

“I am very proud to be in such great company,” said Mr. Lucas"

The Motive Is Now Fully Revealed

Well…I was right again.

You remember, way back when lots of people were saying they just did not see a motive for Harlow and Joe to have committed this crime? And since they saw no motive, they MUST be innocent, regardless of the evidence against them? Sigh..I certainly do…I labeled the phenomenon “motive-on-the-brain.”

The truth is, motive is NOT a necessary element to proving a crime. We don’t know exactly why Harlow and Joe killed Kocis? WHO CARES! It doesn’t matter, go with the facts. If all the facts point to Harlow and Joe, then BOOM, they did it. End of story. Stop losing sleep over motive, it is not as all important as you motive-on-the-brain people seem to think it is.

But you know, many people following this case just HAVE to have their clear-cut motive. Drama queens that we are, I guess, we all want to be told a bedtime story, where the protagonists are all transparently driven. And if the facts pointed to someone without an obvious motive? Ehhhh, those pesky facts can just be chalked up to black helicopters or some such.

In the face of all this nonsense I made a prediction, early on when little was known about Harlow and Joe. While I admitted their motive for the crime was rather opaque right now, I predicted that over time it would become clear, as additional facts trickled in.

And like I said above…I WAS RIGHT!

Just like in the movie Fargo, where at the beginning of the movie the motive for Jerry to kidnap his wife is rather opaque…as the movie progressed, the motive became clear.

As of this week, and despite the efforts by people to cover it up…the motive of Harlow and Joe for the murder of Bryan Kocis has now been FULLY REVEALED.

And just like I said, the revelation came gradually. At the time of the arrest, the police gave a “gay porn rivalry” as the motive for the murder. The motive-on-the-brainers back then hooted in derision, calling it the “Velvet Mafia Reloaded.”

I suppose that may have seemed a bit far-fetched back then, initially. After all, what would a bunch of probably hetero police investigators know of the inner workings of the gay porn industry? But then, the affidavit goes public, and we get introduced to Police Informants #1 and #2. And then comes the prelim…and we actually get to see and hear Police Informant #2, Justin Hensley.

Justin Hensley’s testimony at the prelim is devastating. He lays the motive flat out, no weasel words:

“A former roommate of Kerekes and Cuadra, Justin Andrew Hainsley, testified he once heard the two describe Cobra Video — owned by Kocis — as their biggest competitor in the adult film industry. He said the two discussed Lockhart, saying the pair wanted to recruit him to work for their Web site, but Lockhart, who went by the stage name Brent Courigan, was under contract with Kocis’ company.“So the only thing standing in the way was Mr. Kocis,” Hainsley said.”

The motive-on-the-brain Harlowites were understandably distraught at this.

But they did not give up. First, they attacked Justin Hensley, saying he had a “deal” (a claim later proven by me to be false).

Second, they simply went into denial, saying regardless of what Hensley testified under oath to…the motive just did not make sense to them. Like a broken record, they kept repeating this over and over and over and over.

And you know, even I would have to admit that even with Justin Hensley confirming the motive…something seemed missing. Harlow and Joe thought they could get 6-7 figures, OK, well…I too would like to acquire 6-7 figures. I would also like a Malibu beach house, with Lukas Ridgeston as my houseboy. But would I murder someone in cold blood for any of these things? No. I am happy enough as is in my life, such that none of those material things above would EVER motive me to commit such a brutal death penalty offense.

So, for Harlow and Joe to have acted as they did, something else had to be there. Methamphetamine use? Perhaps, but there has been no clear evidence of this (yet). Harlow and Joe were simply psychopaths? No prior crimes of such nature from them, so one would have to assume no to that. So what could the missing puzzle piece be?

Well, about a week ago, that missing piece of the puzzle fell into place: DEBT. Massive debt. Debt WAY beyond whatever income ability they had to pay off, in the months just prior to the murder. The true picture of this staggering debt came in a recent exchange between comments to an Elm post, and a PC post in response to it.

Now, the interesting thing about this final puzzle piece is that it was hidden in plain sight. PC had written of Harlow and Joe’s debt on many different occasions, usually in connection with reporting on the forfeiture proceedings. But it was not until last week that PC had summarized ALL of Harlow and Joe’s debt in one easy to read balance sheet. And not only that – very important details about the nature of that debt was revealed for the very first time. More on that later.

The other reason this debt posting came as such a shock was that we all had been the subject of a massive disinformation campaign by the Harlowites concerning the nature of this debt. The Harlowites had admitted there was close to $1 million in debt, BUT they always explained it away with the spin that they had a lot of money coming in, and the debt was manageable. Harlow and Joe were current on their bills until the arrest, they claimed numerous times, this last Elm post being the latest such incident. This time, however, I decided to call them on this…just like I did when they were spinning “Justin Hensley has a deal.” And what happened was, PC made his debt post in response…and in doing so literally blew that oft-repeated Harlowite talking point clean out of the water.

It turns out, PC had some never revealed info concerning Harlow’s debt, namely, his late payment info:

"Accounts that were late on or before May 2007:
American Honda Finance: 30 days late for March, April & May 2007
DAIMLERCHRYS: 30 days late for February & May 2007
BMW FIN SVC: 30 days late for February, 60 days late for May 2007
Chase 2: 30 days late for April, 60 days late for May 2007
GMAC Mortgage (2nd Mtg): 30 days late for March & May 2007
Chase: 30 days late for May"

As you can see, the Harlowite talking point that “They were not behind in any of their payments before their arrests” turns out to be a bald faced lie.

The Harlowites then tried to save face and construct a fall back position, saying “They were not behind in any of there payments before the murder.” Skoff. Even that was a lie. Fact is, the first 30 day late notices above appear in February, meaning the due dates for those payments were in January…very probably before the murder, or certainly right about the time of it. But once again, new revelations about the nature of the debt makes it clear that Harlow and Joe were in deep insolvency months before the murder, well beyond their ability to pay.

According to credit info provided by PC, Harlow was WAY over limit on most of his credit cards; here is the breakdown on that:

Chase 1: $50,000 limit - $55,071 owed = $5,071 OVER LIMIT
Discover Fin: $4,000 limit - $3626.00 owed = $374.00 available
BofA: $18,000 limit - $40,117.00 owed = $22,117 OVER LIMIT
Chase 2: $100,000 limit - $119,113 owed = $19,113 OVER LIMIT
AMEX: $11,556 owed; AMEX is squishy when it comes to credit limits, however, it looks like they were finally cut off (see info concerning Joe's frantic call to credit card companies below).

Except for a piddling sum left on Discover, all their cards were maxxed out...nay, WELL over the limit. There is only one conclusion you can make from all this…in the MONTHS prior to the murder, Harlow and Joe were running a credit card Ponzi scheme. They were robbing Peter to pay Paul (or, in this case, B of A to pay Chase Manhattan), taking cash advances on one card to make minimum payments on other cards, in addition to whatever other spending whim Joe might have had at the time.

And according to an anonymous informer over on Elm blog (you know, I wasn't planning on using "former escort's" claims here, BUT, I have just received independent confirmation...from a surprising source, I might add...of much of what “former escort” says; so, I am going to be cautiously trustful of what he has to say, for now), Joe had been frantically making phone calls to Harlow’s credit card companies, pleading for these over limit credit extensions. Again, this all occurred MONTHS prior to the murder.

So, “They were not behind in any of there payments before the murder” is also essentially a lie. If you need to borrow more just to make your minimum payments, you are, in reality, NOT making REAL payments on your debt. In fact, you are merely adding to it, making the situation more desperate.

Just to give you all an idea of how bad this debt was, and that there was simply no way they had the income to manage this debt…if we assume $4000/mo was the payments on their two mortgages (a conservative estimate I derived from a mortgage calculator), the total *minimum* payments due for Harlow and Joe in May were:

Cars: $6,627.00
Credit Cards: $17,103.00
Mortgages: $4,000.00

Total = $27,730.00

Now, just for fun, lets see if Harlow could manage this debt on his escort income alone. If we assume Harlow charges $200/hr, that means that to simply keep up with just the *minimum* debt payments in May, Harlow would have to “work” for:

27,730 divided by 200 = 138.65 hours

…over a one month period. Thus for May, Harlow’s legs would have to be in the air on average of approximately 4.5 hours a day, day after day, for 31 consecutive days.

I doubt even the so-called “Studwonder” possesses that kind of endurance. So no, Harlow (nor Joe) were not going to hump their way out of debt. They obviously needed a sudden, massive boost in their "Boybatter" web site operations, which by this time had no doubt begun to lose steam in a VERY crowded online porn market. They needed some razzle-dazzle to attract a new wave of subscribers, and (thanks to Justin Hensley) we know for a fact they saw Brent Corrigan as their savior in this regard.

And there you have it: Debt; massive bone-crushing debt, clearly beyond their income to pay off. This is the missing piece to the motive puzzle.

So you see, Harlow and Joe were not facing a choice between contentment and making 6-7 figures; it was a choice between extra-humiliating bankruptcy and making 6-7 figures.

This is important. Think about what we know of Harlow and Joe’s character (especially Joe’s, who seems to have dominated this relationship). They were “normally rather "flashy" and flamboyant, enjoying exotic vehicles, extravagant dinners, and making contacts for their escort business and pornographic video business.” They “collect expensive Rolex watches as well, and own approx five or six.”

And how do you suppose this went over with their peers in the small and insular Virginia Beach/Norfolk gay community? “Harlow and Joseph (aka Trent) are both known to be arrogant assholes around here in Norfolk/VB” one commenter on Towleroad opined. Another wrote: “Knowing both Joe, and Harlow. They are not respectable people… they got caught, and I hope that they pay the price.”

Comments like these shows that their wealth-flaunting arrogance made them somewhat reviled in their own home town. Thus, the humiliation of a bankruptcy would have thus been an especially bitter pill for Harlow and Joe to swallow, as their many enemies in the local gay community would have been THRILLED to have a schadenfreude moment at their expense.

So you see, the real choice before them was not a normal life, or making 6-7 figures…but rather, the UBER public humiliation involved in descending back to their white trash origins…or making 6-7 figures. And knowing what we know of Joe’s unstable personality in particular, the former was NOT an option for him.

Like I said…there’s your motive! Notice that it is not all financial…in fact, I would say the emotional element (i.e., to avoid shame) was probably a greater motivation than the strictly financial greed element, all things considered. Emotionally “arrogant assholes” are always quite desperate to avoid falling off their public pedestals.

Harlow and Joe thus had motive UP THE WAZOO for this crime…thanks to this valuable new debt info; there is simply no denying that fact now.

And you know what? I STILL have more to say on all this! But this post has gone on long enough, so I’ll save it for a “Part II.: A Little Bedtime Story” which will be written with all you motive-on-the-brainers in mind. I will trace the commission of this crime, looking at it from Harlow and Joe’s perspective and motive (which we now know). Thus a speculative narrative; however, every point will be supported by KNOWN FACTS (as opposed to relying on black helicopters and imaginary government conspiracies).

Not only that...but this new debt info is also incredibly useful in explaining much of their bizarre post-murder behavior, which I will trace through as well.

This new debt revelation was TRULY the last missing piece to the motive puzzle. I can see now why Elm was so desperate to change the subject when it came up, and why the Harlowites now threaten legal action against anyone who mentions it.

Lee Bergeron Becomes A Hamburger Mogul

(OK...STILL working on that new Harlow and Joe post...but in the meantime, here is a new story we here in the Kocisphere can really sink our teeth into!

Hmmm...restaurant opened in San Diego 14 months ago. I guess we now know where all those BCO profits were reinvested!)

"Epicurious Eating: Lucky Buck’s
Get ‘Lucky’: Buck’s is an imaginative burger joint
by Frank Sabatini
Published Thursday, 13-Dec-2007 in issue 1042

At last, the arrival of an independent burger joint in Hillcrest that is fast becoming a culinary icon much like Hodad’s is to Ocean Beach or Crazy Burger is to North Park.

Thanks to Lee Bergeron, a house flipper-turned-restaurateur, we need only traipse to the east end of gaydom to encounter Lucky Buck’s, a veritable shrine to the all-American beef patty concealing secret spices and an equally guarded marinade that gets brushed onto the meat as it cooks on a flame-spitting grill..."

And you know what else this article means, folks? We here in the Kocisphere now have something beyond that grainy picture of him with the poodle! w00t!



Update: Lucky Buck's has a web site, which goes to show Lee is perfectly capable of hiring a quality web designer, if properly motivated. Hmmm, menu item: "Buck's On Fire," a tribute to Bryan, maybe?

Update 2: Another picture of Lee Bergeron:



Update 3: Lee Bergeron, after the CCBill hold on Brent Corrigan Online was lifted by the settlement agreement:

Another Gay Escort Scandal - Escorts Gone Wild

(My new Harlow and Joe post is turning out to be longer and more complex than anticipated to write; to tide you all over, here is a brand new escort brohaha):

SPOKANE -- Cody Castagna, the man who was charged on six counts Wednesday morning for his role in blackmailing a state legislator, has turned himself in to the Spokane County Jail late Wednesday evening....

Full story here.

One Year Ago Today...

...Lee Bergeron, Sean and Grant sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), essentially agreeing to agree to end the Cobra/LSG lawsuit:

The Fur Flies in Yet Another Escort/Porn Star Murder Scandal

Does Harlow have a "copycat?"

Well known escort/porn star Tiger:



...has been connected with the death of hedge fund manager Seth Tobias:



...oooops wrong photo, try this one:



...ah that's better. According to the New York Times:

"...Bill Ash, a former assistant to Mr. Tobias, said he had told the police that Mrs. Tobias confessed to him that she had cajoled her husband into the water while he was on a cocaine binge with a promise of sex with a male go-go dancer known as Tiger."

...wherein Mr. Tobias apparently had a heart attack, splashing about with said Tiger (or merely in anticipation thereof...who knows?).

Well...I've heard stranger murder-conspiracy theories involving escorts and porn stars, so perhaps this is not all that far-fetched.

Humbly, as always, at your service...jim.

Update: J.C. Adams picks up the story, and adds a few links.

Update 2: J.C. Adams posts an update linking Lexx Parker to Seth Tobias.

(T)Rent Boy Update

A reporter from the Dallas Voice (local gay paper) does some more snooping into the Benjamin Nicholas/Trent Lott rumor. And finds out, Larry Flynt may never confirm the story, even if true.

Why? Because Trent is resigning. That possibly makes him (in Flynt's view) no longer a target worth coughing up $1 million for.

Full story here.

Hmmmm. The Law of Unintended Consequences seems to be running amok here. Perhaps this $1 million bounty was not such a good idea after all; it has done more to impede and cast doubt on this whole story, than it has had in advancing it.

Humbly, as always, at your service...jim.

Brent Criticizes the Critics

Moving from debating about (and yachting with) Roy Coen back to Kocis-related matters, Brent has a new blog post up. It's an interesting one...a shotgun blast at various online and print media that have mentioned him in recent months.

GayVN news comes under fire for having a subtle pay-to-link policy in it's news stories (and thus not linking to him), and using older Falcon photos of him (I guess the real offense here is that they lack the BCI web address watermark?).

Next in his gun sites is JC Adams and his Gay Porn Times. More unhappiness with a perceived pro-Falcon slant to the story, and correcting some errors...one of which is unquestionably a huge and insulting one to Brent (or any civilized human, for that matter): "He’s been laying low since getting caught in the backdraft of the Bryan Kocis/Cobra Video murder, for which his former costar Harlow Cuadra, and boyfriend-partner Joseph Kerekes, are standing trial."


LOL, OK this complaint is legit, IMO; I too would be a tad upset at being falsely accused of co-starring with Harlow! And for the record, THIS does not count as co-starring. ------->

Brent's reply to this malignant slur:

"While there was initial interest in collaborative film work between Brent Corrigan and Harlow Cuadra, BoyBatter’s misunderstanding of the circumstances (namely our settlement with Cobra Video) at hand made it unlikely. Then the unthinkable occurred and the mere prospect of a collaborative effort became utterly impossible, and certainly unattractive to Brent Corrigan INC. We were not EVER costars."

This is somewhat interesting, as it addresses the whole motive question. Note that Brent makes clear a misunderstanding on the part of BoyBatter occurred...which is pretty close to what I originally theorized happened at that Vegas dinner, months ago when we first read the affidavit report on it.

Then Brent (BTW, as you can all see...I now hyperlink to BCI at every mention of Brent, and I will try to use only the freshest pics of him from his site, and TRY not to mention Falc...a certain studio...I must avoid the WRATH of BRENT! Don't hurt me, pleeeeeeze...!) says nice things about Just Us Boys and Angel Benton, and lukewarm things about Jason Sechrest.

Then he talks about Rolling Stone...ah, now things get interesting!

"The press is without a doubt, a necessary evil in our lives. I’m not proud and in no way endorse Peter Wilkinson’s portrayal of Brent Corrigan and Cobra Video in his article written for Rolling Stone. The clues to that aren’t in skewed facts, but Wilkinson’s defiance and disdain for me in writing his article. It’s in the details he deemed necessary to include, and his decision not to include others. An author like Wilkinson doesn’t have to lie to sway his readers’ opinion. Instead, they choose carefully which facts to include and which facts to leave out in order to steer the reader’s perception.

I cringe when I meet someone and they proclaim they read the Rolling Stone article. An overwhelming urge to set the record straight about everything to that individual washes over me each time I hear those words. This being particularly ironic to me because that’s what I was under the impression Rolling Stone was doing when they invited me to participate in the article. But silly me, I didn’t take into account the individual agenda of the journalist writing the piece. Furthermore, next time I’ll trust my gut instinct. I should not have ignored Wilkinson’s tinge of disdain that lightly emanated from him upon our first meeting."

Hmmm, interesting. And then, the Out article:

"OUT Magazine practically ignored the bigger picture at hand, which makes me feel less agitated than I do about Rolling Stone and Peter Wilkinson. Particularly, I can’t ignore what Out does for our community, and for that I thank them. I have an immense amount of respect for Out. Although Michael Joseph Gross didn’t get it all wrong, many of the facts he included in that article are in fact, inaccurate. For instance, my first shoot date for Cobra Video was February 3rd, 2004 and not September 2004. The article also states that my second shoot was in Florida, when it was actually filmed here in La Jolla, north of San Diego but close enough to still be considered local for me. Michael Joseph Gross also mixes up references to money and repeatedly mixes facts about the two different summers I spent in Dallas, Pennsylvania. Furthermore, the order of events and his perception of my last few months at Cobra appear to be mistaken."

Hmmm. I'm not sure what he considers "the bigger picture at hand" here, but the time and place corrections above are useful and appreciated.

Humbly, as always, at your service...jim

Update: A response from Jason Sechrest.

Update 2: Brent is nominated by fans for not one but two Cybersocket Web Awards; for Best New Adult Site and Best Porn Star Site.

Update 3: Angel Benton at Just Us Boys returns the love.

Update 4: J.C. Adams replies.

Update 5: In a new blog post, Brent flies to sunny Florida, meets his cast, and also runs into a couple fellow porn stars cast as cameos for Another Gay Sequel. The handshakes are chilly, as one of these porn cameos once had "taken the liberty of posting written, multi paragraph notices to the industry urging fans, viewers, journalists, studios, and producers not to buy my work, support my cause, or hire me for adult projects."

Hehe, well of course, we have NO idea who this mystery porn star/producer is, but Brent reports that he does not hold a grudge, and will not let a little antipathy interfere with the general sense of la dolce vita he is experiencing on the set in SoFla.

Trent Lott's Male Escort

Or so it is being alleged. No word on whether Trent Lott ever visited a Montana dude ranch, however.

Hmmm. Color me "skeptical" at this point, for three reasons:

1) All the evidence seems to consist of the denials by this escort being parsed into admissions;
2) The escort in question, Benjamin Nicholas, has had some credibility issues in the past - some kind of plagiarism scandal concerning his blog, if memory serves; and
3) Like my momma always told me, if it is too good to be true, it probably is.

Update: Story spreads to Huffington Post, although the overall tone there is skepticism as well.

Update 2: The "Big Head" blog that broke the story is now publishing all the emails from the escort. LOL, remind me to never make an "off-the-record" comment over there! In any case, yeah, it's my Point #1 above in spades: This whole story consists of a bunch of non-denial denials being parsed into admissions by an overeager blogger. And I'm not sure, really, who is playing who here...whether Benjamin saw this as a way to get cheap, easy publicity, or this Big Head guy wanted to "create" a scoop. Or both. In any case, I am seriously doubting the real Trent Lott is involved here, in anything but an imaginary way.

Update 3: Dan Savage talks to Benjamin Nicholas, who still denies everything and says he is "hoping that the national media doesn’t pick this up." Meanwhile, according to Savage: "Unfortunately for Nicholas, the national media is picking this story up: the ABCNEWS producer and investigative reporter that broke the Mark Foley story just called. She wanted to know how she could get in touch with Nicholas about Trent Lott."

But we'll see. Humbly, as always, at your service...jim

Deal or No Deal

Rather than speculate about rumors of an upcoming plea deal, or educate on the overwhelming prevalence of them in our criminal justice system, or make a failed hoax attempt about a deal implicating cooperating witnesses, I’ve decided to take a more cultured, sophisticated approach to this whole deal deal:

Lets make a game show out of it!

Everyone who want to play submit an entry: WHO will make the first deal, WHEN will this deal be announced, and WHAT will the terms be?

So, each eligible entry must contain 3 guesses:

1. Harlow or Joe?
2. Month deal will be announced in the media? And
3. The maximum sentence agreed to under the deal, in years (or “life” for life)?

Everyone who gets all three correct is a winner! If no one hits all three, the winner is chosen amongst those who hit 1 and 2 above, and got closest in sentencing years. Life = infinity (so is not a good choice for tie-breaking purposes).

If no one gets 1 and 2, or if there is NO DEAL…no one wins.

The prize? That coin of the realm here in the Kocisphere…bragging rights!

So, comment and submit your entries NOW! :-)

Humbly, as always, at your service...jim

The Harlow Apology

(One of the main purposes of this blog is to explore some of the lesser talked about aspects of this case, that I have felt never got quite the attention they deserved. The granddaddy of all these under-talked about topics is the Harlow Apology.

Below is a slightly modified repost of an exhaustive explanation and analysis of the Harlow Apology I did, back on the Harlow & Joe...On Trial Blog.

It's amazing how many times the issue of Brent and Grant's involvement comes up, despite the shining, incontrovertable truth of the Harlow Apology. It seems to me, some of the bloggers in this case are agenda driven to simply forget the Harlow Apology, to sweep it under the rug, and just pretend it does not exist. Causing me to remind everyone of it's existance, over and over again, in comment after comment!

Notice that no one ever challenges the Harlow Apology whenever I bring it up. It's because they can't. It's logic is impeccable, it's conclusions inescapable. No, the typical response of those adverse to it's meaning is to simply ignore it, hoping the inconvenient truth of it's message will just go away.

Anyways, here it is again, in it's first very own FULL BLOG POST...a LONG OVERDUE HONOR...spreading it's glorious rays of truth once again throughout the Kocisphere...ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: The Harlow Apology!)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's just extraordinary to me how little people know about perhaps the most CRUCIAL piece of evidence in this entire case: The Harlow Apology.

...

The scene is La Jolla, CA. In at least two conversations, Brent and Grant are part of a police surveillance and recording operation, the purpose of which, IMO, is not so much to gather evidence against H & J (although that is no doubt going to be a useful byproduct of the sting operation), but to clear up an important loose end in Sgt. Hannon's investigation: the extent to which (if any) Sean and Grant had any prior conspiratorial involvement with Harlow and Joe in planning the murder.

In other words, the main purpose of the WHOLE Blacks Beach taping operation was to answer the burning question: Did anyone "put them (Harlow and Joe) up to it?"

And what was the answer?

Well, the thing to keep in mind is that the answer here derives not so much from what H & J unwittingly said into those police recording tapes...but WHAT THEY DID NOT SAY. Had S & G been involved, conspiratorially, with H & J in planning the murder, the entire two-days of recorded conversation would have been LACED with references by H & J to their co-conspiratrial involvement.

But there are absolutely no such references in those tapes.

In fact, it gets even better than that for S & G. According to the affidavit, Brent and Grant asks Harlow a question (paraphasing): "Gee, why did you guys kill Kocis? You know we NEVER wanted you to do this. It's brought alot of unwanted suspicion on us in fact."

Now, this is what we call a loaded question.

If you notice, the most important part of the question here is not the question itself (Why...?) but the premise (we NEVER...). In other words, it's a trick. How Harlow responded to this trick loaded question is CRITICAL.

Now, if S & G were guilty, Harlow would have immediately objected to the premise. He WOULD HAVE said something like "Wha???? What you talkin' 'bout??? You ASKED US to do this!!!! You put us UP TO IT!!!"

But Harlow did not say that, did he? Oh no!

In fact, if Harlow had just shrugged his shoulders at this point, said nothing...that would have exhonerated S & G. Silence indicates assent in this instance - assent to the premise in the carefully loaded question.

But Harlow did more than give silent assent to the premise! Hoo boy did he ever! Harlow actually gave Brent and Grant a HOME RUN! Harlow gave NON-SILENT FULLY VERBALIZED AGREEMENT to the premise! He APOLOGIZED to them! He actually said he was sorry, for murdering Kocis w/o Grant and Brent's prior knowledge! Says so, RIGHT THERE IN THE AFFIDAVIT ("...As a response, both Cuadra and Kerekes made apologetic statements for their hardship." Affidavit pg. 30)

And as I've said MANY times before: You do not apologize for something someone wanted you to do. You apologize for something someone DID NOT want you to do.

THE HARLOW APOLOGY. LEARN IT. REMEMBER IT. EMBRACE IT. LOVE IT!

As you can see, it completely exhonerates Brent and Grant. Which was, like I said, most probably the whole point of this Blacks Beach police operation...to tie up this loose end in the case. And as you all can see, it got tied up in favor of Brent and Grant. Decisively, for all time.

The Harlow Apology prooves not that Brent and Grant are victims of this crime, along with Bryan Kocis...not perpetrators. And no amount of jailhouse spinning by Harlow and Joe will change this fact.

Silent Whisperings

Since I've started my own blog, I've begun to get requests via the comments feature to open direct private email communication with someone; or just for-my-eyes-only comments, not to be posted.

My thoughts on the former are, that since I have given Elm and Jakester such a hard time for opening direct private communication with the participants, it would be hypocritical of me to start dabbling in the same sort of thing.

So, what is happening is, I'm not responding at all to these requests for direct email powwows. I hope this is not being misinterpreted as rudeness. It's just that, if I'm gonna talk the talk, I'm gonna walk the walk. It's principles not rudeness.

Plus with all this IP tracing mania out there, I really don't want to be broadcasting my home town to email recipients...even those I trust. Which includes most everyone here, BTW. I've made the call early on to remain anonymous; I am going to strive to keep it that way (for now).

My thoughts on the latter are, well, if you want to whisper sweet nothings in my ear, and ask that they not be posted, ok fine. I'll read 'em, and respect your request not to post. But obviously I shouldn't reply.

As always, humbly at your service...jim

Blair Says "Farewell"

"Hello everyone. I am writing this one last blog entry to let you all know this site will be taken down one week from today. This decision is pivoted on my eagerness to cut all ties from me to the porn industry..."

Goodbye, Blair.

Best of luck to you, Troy! :-)

Elmysterio Comes Clean

You remember how many times Elm and the other Harlowites have uttered those most sacred words of American jurisprudence: "Innocent Until Prooven Guilty?"

LOL, might as well ask how many stars are in the sky.

Well! TODAY we see how sincere they about that.

Thus scrivens Elm:

"As far as I am concerned I truly do think that they are going to be railroaded in to prison for life and or even killed for this crime."

Here's the definition of the word Railroaded: "INFORMAL. send along quickly or too quickly to be fair."

This trial is not until March of 2008! And the lawyers can get continuances, generally speaking, until the cows come home.

So, there is no "railroading" going on...no, this is the clearest sign yet that the Harlowites don't really give a damn about "I.U.P.G." At least the U.P.G. part.

Here is what I wrote in reply to this outrage, over on Elm's blog; it is worthy of being highlighted here, in it's very own blog post:

"You see? I KNEW IT.

I KNEW "Innocent Until Prooven Guilty" was a load off bullcrap, when coming out of your guys mouths.

I knew it! Said it all along...EVEN if Harlow pleads, or is found guilty (whatever), you guys would just shift to Plan C: Harlow, the Unjustly Convicted!

You see, this is one of the reasons it made my skin crawl every time you or Jakester uttered these sacred words...it's because I knew...I could just SEE the insincerity every time you guys wrote I.U.P.G.

You guys never did give a shit about the U.P.G. part, didja? Oh no! It was the "I" part, the "I" forever! Even after Harlow is "P.G.ed" he's "I". Oh what a LOL!

See everyone? I TOLD YA SO! :-D"

Harlow Writes a Letter

A letter to the editor of Out magazine, interestingly enough.

Naturally about the Michael Gross article...he liked it!

I was too cheap to buy the issue (December), but that's pretty much what he wrote; not much more, not much less. Check it out for yourself!

Ethangate Update

DRA-MA.

Blair has announced his intention to delete his video in a few days, saying it has served it's purpose.

Meanwhile, webmaster Keith is taking center stage, with a few more "clarifications" over on the rump of BBS he is still maintaining for whistleblower purposes. The comments are, once again, even more entertaining; grab some popcorn and be sure to read those too:

http://bratboyschool.com/bulletin/2007/11/clarity.php#comments

The battle being fought in the comments section is rather interesting: Is "Ethan" a co-conspirator, or a victim?

Keith is striving mightily for Ethan-as-victim (they grew up togther, so Keith is in a relatively good position to know this). However...this notion is not going over well with many others.

It is probably not helpful to Ethan's case here that the only two who have NOT come spoken are Rick Altmann, and Ethan. Everyone else right now has come out and slammed Rick. Thus, silence by Ethan naturally implies guilt. That right now is his main problem, IMO.

Like I said, grab the popcorn and check it out...Humbly, as always, at your service...jim

Oh GAWD, It's Brent Corrigan Reloaded!

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Ben and Ethan are Splitsville

OK, this is TOTALLY not Kocis related, but interesting nonetheless...

And it comes as no surprise, really...I am sure we have suspected this for weeks...but this answer in the comments section of Benjamin Bradley's blog finally spells it out, in clear unambiguous words:

"Angel,
I hope you understand that I have not meant to keep the truth from anyone. The only reason some things have not had light shed on the subject is because there are other people I have to consider. This isn't just about myself. I will be honest and say that Ethan and I are not together. This is the first official statement I have made on the subject. I wish Ethan the best. I really do. Like I said before, life takes twists and turns that one would never expect. I just want everyone to know that ProjectBE was about two people coming together to try and inspire and uplift others. That was always real. And while we are not together, I sill want to continue on the same path, whether I do it alone, or with a loved one.

I thank you so much for your understanding on the subject as it is a difficult one. However, I believe everything happens for a reason, and I only want to make the best of all that life dishes out.

Much love, BEN

Posted by: Benjamin Bradley | November 9, 2007 11:26 PM "

Jim's Greatest Comments, Vol. 1

The AaronAid series. It began with Elm's accusing Aaron aka Robert Wagner of being the murderer (in cahoots with bb, Brent, Grant...yep, those two worked with busom buddy Aaron and bb in this conspiracy, LOL!...the FBI and Luzerne County). But mostly Aaron; in the Elm theory he was the actual killer. The others just helped Aaron to frame Harlow and Joe. I think. Elm's theory was posted a while back, and was...um...complicated.

My challenge was to write a parody of this theory. But how does one parody a theory that is, in effect, already pretty much a self-parody of itself?

With difficulty, that's how. It wasn't easy, but I came up with a plan: AaronAid! Orginally conceived as a a three-part series, only two were ever completed...a third, alas, never went further than an outline.

AaronAid Part One (posted July 19, 2007 7:09 PM)
-------------------------------------------

Well I think this is just terrible. Here is Brent and Grant being accused of working secretly with Aaron and bb, to murder Bryan. Well call me crazy, but I just KNOW in heart they are innocent!

And besides...they are INNOCENT UNTIL PROOVEN GUILTY! (Yes I read this in a blog somewhere...now whose was it again???) Hence, what right have you Elm, to level such serious accusation! None! Because they are I.U.P.G.!

A feel I need to help these four, who I feel have been unjustly accused of a heinous crime. What should I do?

Well, first I'm starting up a MySpace page: www.myspace.com/fourwronglyaccusedbyelmysterio.

And second...I hereby announce the formation of a NEW legal defense fund! Now, Brent and Grant already have BrentAid. We know this. So, I'm not going to worry about those two. They are covered.

Soooo, with great fanfare (do do do DOOOO!), I would like to announce the formation of...

AaronAid !!!!!!

Here's the pitch (to be posted atop www.freeaaronandbb.com):

"Folks, Aaron (and bb) have been accused of a crime they did not commit. By Elm. And as a result...they might get raided by SWAT team, and arrested, and have all their assets frozen...you never know these days! And if that happens their legal bills will be out of control. Without your help, they'll have to rely on Cad for long-distance pro-bono work.

"Aaron is a sweet, fun-loving guy, who could have NEVER commited this crime. And bb...eh, well...ok bb and me have not exactly seen eye to eye on a couple issues in the past...but STILL, it is my sworn duty, as citizen JIM, to see to it that everyone in this land is I.U.P.G.!"

And there you have it, folks...AaronAid is born! As soon as I set up the web sites, order the hats and tee shirts...whew, much work ahead of me here...

Oh one last little detail. Money donated to AaronAid will go exclusively to legal fees...and, if needed, kidney replacement surgery.

Eh, you never know! One of them might have kidney failure during this legal ordeal, and I think allowing for this possibility is a prudent measure.

So! This means that, if by chance I spend the donations on kidney surgery rather than legal expenses (mj), no one (mj) has the right to complain (mj) because I just ***explicitly*** spelled out (mj) in my appeal (mj) that the funds could be used in this manner (MJ!). Now is everyone clear on that? (mj mj mj mj mj mj mj...)


AaronAid Part Two (posted July 20, 2007 1:10 PM)
------------------------------------------------

OK, back to serious matters now...about two innocent boys, unjustly accused...

*****AaronAid Update!!!*****

OK fellow Aaron supporters...the "Free Aaron (and bb)" tee shirts are ON ORDER! Yay!

Yes indeedy, my Free Aaron campaign is rolling on! A friend recommended this clothing store out in San Diego to me, and after speaking on the phone to a very helpful Sales Lad over there, we'll have shirts soon. wOOt!

Now, I cannot heap enough praise on this helpful and kindly Sales Lad. As you can see by this transcript I recorded...he went the extra mile for us here...kudos to him!:

-----------------------------

Sales Lad: "American Apparel, can I help you?"

jim: "YES! I need 1000 cotton tee shirts, with the logo "Free Aaron (and bb)" silkscreened on them. Stat! Delivered with the next 24 hours, please."

SL: (long pause) "...OK, who the @#$% is this?!..."

jim: "My name is jim and I'm on a moral crusade to defend two boys, falsely accused of a heinous crime they did not commit, committed by someone else, who was not them."

SL: (another curiously long pause) "...I see."

jim: "And they are needed to raise money for their legal defense fund."

SL: "Uh huh. Could I...um...put you on hold for a sec?"

[30 minutes of elevator muzak]

SL: "I'm back, sorry for the wait..."

jim: "That's OK, I sure you must be busy over there."

SL: "Well, yes, as a matter of fact I sold over $1,300 worth of clothing last weekend alone...but thats neither here nor there. No, the reason for the long hold is I had to make a special call to the factory, and yes, I was able to place your order."

jim: "WOW thats super!"

SL: "Er yes, well, the only thing is, our factory was fresh out of cotton."

jim: "Really? Thats too bad. So what are they..."

SL: "...Made of? Burlap."

jim: "Burlap?"

SL: "Yeah burlap. And thats the other little thing too...they're not exactly shirts per se,...they're potato sacks. With a head hole cut in the bottom, and two arm holes in the side..."

-----------------

Anyways, long story short...thanks to this helpful Sales Lad, "Free Aaron (and bb)" shirts (okay, potato sacks) are on the way! : )

I'll be sure to keep you all updated with new Free Aaron developments, as soon as I think of them...


AaronAid Part Three (never got off the drawing board)
------------------------------------------------

In a nutshell, the outline of Part Three was as follows:
1. T-Shirts (ok, ok...potato sacks) get delivered.
2. Announce formation of the Free Aaron Blog. Moderated by "Bee." All are welcomed to comment! No viewpoints turned away!
3. Someone posts they did not like Aaron's performance in "Every Bareboned Schoolboy's Dream XVII."
4. "GODDDAMMIT THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A FORUM SUPPORTING AARON! GO TO HELL YOU MISERABLE WORM! FOAD! OH AND IF YOU DON'T LIKE ME POSTING IN ALL CAPS...FUCK YOU AND YO MAMA TOO!!!..." etc..
5. "Bee" is announced on a leave of absence from blog moderating duties, is replaced by "The Cherub of Veracity."
6. The Cherub announces a huge victory! The State has agreed to return a ball of lint from siezed from Aaron's washer-dryer; this is clearly a sign that the case vs. Aaron is weak.
7. etc...

...and this is as far as I got. I scrapped plans to complete it; it was not funny enough, IMO.

Would You Spend a Year in Jail for Harlow and Joe?

A Class 1 Misdemeanor in Virginia is the most severe class of misdemeanor on the books in that state; just one grade below a Felony.

The penalty in Virginia for a Class 1 Misdemeanor is jail for up to 12 months, and a fine up to $2500.

Now, what would you think of a so-called friend who asked you to do something for him, that might cause you to spend a year in jail, and pay a $2500 fine?

Now, I don't know about you, but I would NOT think much of this so-called "friend" after he tried to pressure me into this sort of uncomfortable situation. IN FACT, if this situation were to ever happen to ME, my first inclination would be to terminate this friendship, for a period of time equal to "forever, plus one day."

Yet, according to the latest news, this is precisely what Harlow and Joe began asking of certain friends and aquantances, apparantly, just after they murdered Bryan Kocis. To LIE to police for them, and give them a false alibi as to their whereabouts.

"Any person who knowingly and willfully makes any materially false statement or representation to a law-enforcement officer who is in the course of conducting an investigation of a crime by another is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor."

We know Harlow and Joe were in Luzerne County on January 24th; we know this from wireless emails, cell phone towers, motel logs, credit cards and Joe's own jailhouse interview. To explain all this evidence away, they now say they were on an innocent "camping trip" (LOL!) to the coal mining region of northeastern Pennslyvania. In the dead of winter. Uh...yeah.

HOWEVER, before that mountain of evidence trapped them in Luzerne County, they had tried to claim Harlow was with a "client" that day. Apparantly, they had made several attempts to find such a "client" willing to sling such bullcrap at the police. A client willing to commit a Class 1 Misdemeanor for them.

You know, I would not be surprised if Harlow and Joe DID INDEED manage to find such a sap. Some of the sycophants posting over on Harlow blog do seem that deranged, no doubt about it.

Is that poor sap now facing jail time in Virginia, I wonder?

You know, it's one thing to ask for donations from friends to help one out when facing prosecution. It is quite another thing, however, to ask your friends to COMMIT A CRIME and risk INCARCERATION to help you out. THAT is a whole new level of depravity, IMO...the kind of moral bankruptcy you would expect to see in serious felons and murderers.

Humbly, as always, at your service...jim

Prosecutor Charges Porn Store Owner -- For Selling Porn

I saw this link on the Drudge Report.

It's a news story from Virginia, interestingly enough. Those crazy Virginians...next thing you know, they'll be prosecuting the owners of male prostitute web sites -- for prostitution!

Oh...um...wait a minute...

Fargo

Fargo is one of my all time favorite movies. As it says at the outset, it is based on a true story (well, not exactly true…the Coen brothers who wrote/directed/produced the film “clarified” that claim after the film came out, saying instead it is based on bits and pieces of several stories), and is thus a relatively good example of art imitating life (as opposed to, say, life imitating art).

The interesting thing about the film to me is, that it is not really a whodunit, but rather a “whydunit.” It starts out with one of the main characters, Jerry Lundegaard (played by William H. Macy) plotting to kidnap his wife (a kidnapping which in fact turns into several acts of felony murder…the wife, a state trooper, two motorists, his father-in-law, a parking garage attendant and a “funny looking” hoodlum all end up dead as a result of this rather poorly planned kidnapping).

So, right off the bat the audience knows Jerry is behind the kidnapping. What we are left wondering about at the outset is: why? Jerry Lundegaard immediately comes across as a harmless looking, clean-cut, middle class guy…how can someone who looks like that get involved in a kidnapping and felony murder plot, associating with dangerous characters in dimly lit bar? Thus one of the sub-plots to this movie is a search for why and how. When asked by one of the co-conspirators (the funny-looking thug, played by Steve Buscemi), Jerry vaguely indicates that he needs money, but is otherwise very evasive: “…these are personal matters.”

In this blog post, I am going to skip over the other sub-plots in this excellent movie (ie, the murderous rampage of the bungling kidnappers, and the search for them by the intrepid and very pregnant Marge Gunderson), and focus only on the Jerry Lundegaard sub-plot…why does he want to put his wife at risk by kidnapping her, and how did he ever devolve to such a level of criminality?

The Coen brothers give us our first clue towards answering these questions, in the TruCoat scene. It depicts Jerry at work, just a typical day as a car salesman in Minneapolis. A customer and his wife are with Jerry at the showroom, and they are not happy. It seems they ordered a new car from Jerry, and Jerry is informing them that due to an “accident” the car comes with this expensive TruCoat sealant they did not ask for, or desire. And Jerry is telling them they cannot take possession of the car without paying an extra $500 for the unordered and unwanted sealant.

Well, the customer complains bitterly, and eventually Jerry goes into the back room to argue the customer’s case with “his boss.” But not really. Turns out, he stands around the break room instead, chatting about a hockey game with a co-worker. He never intended to talk to the “boss.” It is clear the whole thing is a scam. Jerry is lying to this customer…a lie which he is obviously well versed in. It is a lie that he has performed, over and over again, as part of his regular duty as an ordinary car salesman.

JERRY: Well, he never done this before, but seein' as it's special circumstances and all, he says I can knock one hunnert off that TruCoat.
CUSTOMER: One hundred! You lied to me, Mr. Lundegaard. You're a bald-faced liar!
(Jerry sits staring at his lap.)
CUSTOMER: ... A fucking liar -
WIFE: Bucky, please!
(Jerry mumbles into his lap) JERRY: One hunnert's the best we can do here.
CUSTOMER: Oh, for Christ's sake, where's my goddamn checkbook. Let's get this over with.

So, you all can see the purpose of these scene in the movie, I am sure…it is to point out that Jerry, by being a car salesman, is a habitual liar. Now, you may say, “well, those are just lies, not kidnapping or murder…” and car salesmen (and people in similar disreputable industries) make little white lies like this all the time, big deal. But what you have to keep in mind is the sheer volume of lying Jerry must engage in, day after day, as part of his sales job. It’s the quantity of the lying, not so much the quality, that you can see is probably the beginning of Jerry’s decline into more serious criminal behavior.

The next important scene revealing Jerry’s decent towards murder comes while he is in his office; he answers a most unwelcome phone call from an official at GMAC. Long story short: It seems Jerry has advanced from the nickel and dime lying of your average car salesman, to felony fraud and grand larceny. He has scammed GMAC for $320,000…for loans on apparently non-existent cars to fictitious customers. And GMAC wants the non-existent VIN numbers from him.

So, we the audience can begin to see the progression here: first petty lying, now criminal fraud. This GMAC scam seems a bit akin to identity theft; it makes you wonder if the buyers for these non-existent cars are fake or real? It is obviously a more complex fraud than, say, simply misrepresenting the nature of an item for sale, but criminal fraud it is, indeed; and we the audience can surmise that such serious criminality must have sprung from the day to day habit of lying, alluded to above; which loosened his moral compass to the point such decent into felonious behavior became, in fact, a relatively small and believable step to undertake.

It is not clear what Jerry did with this $320,000 of GMAC money he took, except that he must have lost it somehow (gambling? bad investments?) and he now finds himself heavily in debt. And with no chance of getting any mercy from his parsimonious father-in-law, has finds he HAS to try something desperate…hence, the audience finally has the mystery revealed…the why and how of Jerry Lundegaard’s decent to kidnapper and murderer is now fully explained.

If someone were to tell me “Gee, thins was a good movie, but I just don’t understand Jerry’s motive here,” I would naturally assume this person had been taking too many bathroom breaks during the movie. The why and how evidence is plain, and clearly revealed in those key scenes. To understand Jerry, you just have to watch those scenes.

And at the end of the movie, when the cops finally catch and arrest him…it is hard not to feel a little sorry for Jerry Lundegaard. Still, as the audience knows, kidnapping and murder are crimes…for which the penalties must be paid.

Humbly, as always, at your service...you betcha! jim

So, Who Is This jim Fellow, Anyways?

Eh, probably no one you know! :-)

But at the beginning of this new blog (my first), it would probably be appropriate here to look back, and see how I became interested in all this at the outset.

Like I've said before, I am not a big porn person. I've never seen a Brent Corrigan and/or Cobra Video before, oddly enough...yet here I am today, blogging and commenting extensively on closely related matters...

Well, actually, that's not TOTALLY true I guess: I have seen snippets of Brent porn. Curiousity got the best of me, not too long ago; and I clicked on one of the You Tube clips of Brent, posted over at DeWayne's site. And, from what I saw...eh, it wasn't bad! What I saw, as I recall, was Brent C as a lonely young twinkling, pining away for nearby Brent Everett. Who I guess lived in the same house, for some reason? I dunno the full plot, this was only a clip...

Anyhoo, Brent is in his bedroom (?) bemoaning, "Oh I wish I could meet him (Brent E), he is so gorgeous and musclely...but I am so shy, woe is me!" (I am paraphasing here)

Then, BC goes out of his (?) room, and sees BE in the kitchen, pouring himself a tall, cool, refreshing tastey glass of tap water (Cobra must have been really low budget back then). "Oh, there he is, pouty lips and all...I must work up the courage to say 'hi' to him." (BC rests head and pounds fist on wall).

Well, unfortunately, BC has to travel around a blind corner to get to the kitchen, and in doing so bumps into BE walking the other way...spilling tap water ALL over BE's threadbare wifebeater tank top.

BE gets upset. He angrily rips off his wet tank top. BC's face and eye movement at this moment is almost perfect mix of fear, embarrassment, remorse, and lust (not bad...like Jody Wheeler has said, BC does have considerable innate acting talents...and based on this one scene here, I'd have to agree).

Well, BE takes it out on poor BC by pinning him against a wall, and forcibly French kissing him. Yeah, that'll teach him!

This goes on for a minute or so, then the You Tube video thankfully ends. I say thankfully, in that if it had continued for a few seconds more, I would no doubt have viewed kiddie porn, and been obligated to run to my kitchen and gouge my eyes out with a spoon!

Okay. So, OTHER THAN THAT, no, I have never seen a Brent Corrigan and/or Cobra Video. Hence I am not what you would call a "fan."

No, the first time I bacame aware of Brent's existance on this planet was happening to read the Gay Web Monkey article (written by, it turns out, Jody Wheeler).

The thing that grabbed me was the opening lines of this article...Jody mentions that just prior to the interview, HIRED PRIVATE DETECTIVES had BARGED into the bar where Brent was doing a public meet and greet or something like that, gotten some photographs, then fled, with security in pursuit....causing a no small amount of ruckus.

Well. When I read this, I thought, WTF? A porn producer send hired goons across country to intimidate an 18 y/o? Are we back in the days of Al Capone now? Naturally, I read the whole article (which I probably would have only skimmed, at best, otherwise) and it was at this point that I first learned about Brent and the whole underage Cobra thing.

Fascinating stuff, to say the least. Sleazy porn producer hires 17 y/o, 17 y/o comes out, porn producer hires goons in retaliation. DRA-MA! Quite interesting. And no doubt a public relations fiasco for Cobra Video (here's a handy tip for everyone: don't send hired thugs out to physically intimidate an opponent in public, just before they are sitting down to do a nationally distributed magazine interview).

But I was not interested enough to follow it any further. For fun, I checked out Brent's web site, and then forgot about the whole thing until January of 2007. Like I said, I am not a big follower of porn and porn stars.

Then, on Towleroad, I read about the Kocis killing. Wow! Al Capone is dead! My interest is rekindled. Thru links, I am lead to the Jason Curious site (where I had never visited before).

Those early days, Jason's news desk was seemingly the only place in town talking about this story. Jason was doing an update practically every other day. Comments were going into the HUNDREDS (as opposed to the dozens, for his other porn-related posts). And what struck me immediately back then was the obviously FIERCE partisanship I witnessed, between pro- and anti-Brent forces. The Brent bashers were CONVINCED that Brent and some guy named Grant (who? I wondered) did the killing. BROKE into the Kocis home, SLASHED his throat, STABBED his corpse, BURNED his house, then calmly walked out to their waiting sports utility vehicle, DRIPPING MURDER FROM THEIR FINGERS.

Hmmm. I was skeptical. Seemed to me, back then, that someone capable of sending hired minions cross country to skirmish with security would have raised the art of making enemies to a science. Surely, there must be more than this Brent kid and this Grant fellow (who I learned was a boyfriend/manager) who hated this Kocis mobster enough to kill him.

At one point, one the anonymous Brent bashers (that is one thing in particular I noticed about the Brent bashers, unlike the Brent supporters...the bashers where ALWAYS anonymous) made the point that Brent was supposed to have done a Donkey Punch (?) the previous weekend, but out of guilt and running from the law no doubt missed that appearance.

Hmmm. What the heck is a "Donkey Punch?" Well, I Googled it, and that led me another San Diego based blog, Alexsander, which covered the club scene down there. And sure enough, for that weekend, there was a little post about the host, Alexsander, at said Donkey Punch that weekend...with an accompanying photo...a VERY interesting photo!




LOL! Needless to say, this was the moment that jim decided to stop being a mere lurker. :-)

I posted the Alexsander link, saying "Hmmm, you seem to be mistaken, as Brent did seem to show up for that Donkey Punch, not a care on his mind..."

The Brent bashing troll (and his friends) had a minor heart attack when I posted this! "Whaaa! How...how...could this be? How DARE he go out clubbing after a murder like this, HOW DARE he!!!"

LOL...never mind how they had been going on about how Brent NOT going to Donkey Punch prooved him guilty...now, showing up, he disrespects the dead. Heads I win, tails you lose! Hmm, so thats how this game is played, I thought...

Anyhow, there you all have it...the BIRTH of JIM! To this whole online Kocis drama, anyways.

Now, besides a nostalgic look back on my mysterious origins to all this, this post actually has another purpose. That being, I wanted to draw attention to this forgotten photograph, above. Let look at it again, shall we?




Now, what is interesting about this photo is, remember when I said (in my very first comment) that it looks like Brent was at Donkey Punch, unconcerned, not a care on his mind, apparantly?

I COULD NOT HAVE BEEN MORE WRONG!

THINK about this photo...and WHEN is was taken! The date of this Donkey Punch would have Saturday, January 27. The Kocis murder was on the 24th. NOW...what interesting thing we now know happened between the 24th and the 27th?

I'll tell you! According the affidavit (which of course had not existed, way back when I made my very first comment) on January 25th Harlow called Brent at work. "Go to the WNEP web site" he tells Brent. Ooopsy, "I guess my guy went overboard." According to the affidavit, Brent runs home from work, um...upset!

WWWWWow. Within 48 hours of getting what must have been the SHOCK of his LIFE, this phone call from Harlow...here he is, in THIS photo...dancing on box in club in his underwear. Wow. Well, the only thing I can say here is...quel trouper!

LOL! I dunno about you guys, but if someone had called me up, and said, "Hey jim check out this news story, I just chopped your old bosses head off...BTW lets do lunch soon, I want to work with you!" um...I think I might consider cancelling my appointments for a few days.

And that's what I find amazing about this photo. What was going through Brent's mind when this picture was taken? What decided him to go on with his scheduled appearances, RIGHT after this bombshell phone call from Harlow? In hindsight, it probably WAS the right call, to just go on as normal (consider the Brent bashing troll on Jason Curious, "oh he's guilty, he obviously missed Donkey Punch"), but that's ONLY in hindsight, I think. I'll bet the actual decision must have been excruciating.

And this is kinda the sort of thing I want to do on this new blog...to explore the forgotten little tangents of this case (like this amazing photo) that have really not gotten the attention I think they deserve.

Humbly, as always, at your service...jim

Brent Corrigan's Lips Can Now Touch Alcohol, Woohoo!

Happy 21st birthday to Brent!

The Rules

We are going to go with the no personal attack policy of PC's blog. You can attack an idea; you cannot attack a fellow poster.

Examples:

"Your theory is stupid": OK
"You are stupid": BAD

Pretty simple, huh? OK...other rule, comments should be reasonably on topic with the subject of the post. This will probably be liberally interpreted.

And that's about it, really. Comment moderation is ON, but stick to the simple rules here and I'll send 'er on thru.

Humbly, as always, at your service...jim

Introduction, and Welcome!

On January 24th of this year, a brutal murder and arson took place in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. The victim, Bryan Kocis, was a gay porn producer, most famous for unwittingly hiring an underage porn star (Brent Corrigan), then vindictively filing suit against him in retaliation for revealing said underage status.

Right after a legal settlement between Corrigan and Kocis was reached, Kocis was murdered. His throat was slit, he was stabbed 28 times, and his house was burned to conceal the crime.

After months of careful investigation, two Virginia male escorts were arrested for the crime: Harlow Cuadra and Joe Kerekes. The motive appears to have been an overwhelming desire to film with the formerly underage porn star Brent Corrigan, and the murderers viewed Kocis as an impediment to that ambition.

The purpose of this blog is not to cover the trial; http://handjtrial.blogspot.com/ already do that superbly. Neither is it to engage in fanciful theories that the police got the wrong men; the evidence against Harlow and Joe is so overwhelming it simply leaves little doubt that they are guilty. Thus, the trial scheduled to occur in March is a mere formality...assuming a plea deal does not occur first, of course.

No, the purpose of this blog is to examine the root causes of this tragedy. Was it the bitter and emotional Corrigan litigation that spurred Cuadra and Kerekes to unilaterally decide to bring vigilante justice to Kocis? Perhaps something mental about Harlow and/or Joe, that turned them into cold, calculating murderers? Some flaw in their character or upbringing? Or was it as the Out Magazine article opined, some vague concept about the anonymity of the internet? We'll look at each of these the theories in turn, and try to answer that most basic of questions: Why did this happen?

Plus, we'll look at the consequences and aftermath of the murder. What kind of sentence will Harlow and Joe receive? What will become of Kocis' now defunct company, Cobra Video? What effect has this drama had on the enigmatic motivation behind all this: Brent Corrigan? And what of the defenders of Harlow and Joe...what causes them to persist in their disbelief of the evidence right under their noses? How will they react when they plead and/or are found guilty?

And any other thing that happens to strike my fancy. In particular, I have in mind to cull the archives of all the other blogs in the Kocisphere for some of my more notable past comments...jim's greatest hits! All gathered here, in one convenient blog!

Humbly, as always, at your service...the one and only! jim