Well, I stand corrected from my previous post; there is one bit of interesting pre-hearing news to blog about here!
Edward Lewis, the reporter who has been covering the Kocis case for the local Times Leader has written an editorial today, entitled "Reporting Gay Porn Murder an Education."
EDWARD LEWISVery interesting!
5:56 AM
EDWARD LEWIS OPINION: Reporting gay porn murder an education
LUZERNE COUNTY sure has its share of high-profile and dramatic murder trials in recent memory. There were other notable cases that ended in plea deals which avoided a trial altogether.
But there is one case awaiting trial that is unique in many ways.
Harlow Cuadra, 26, and Joseph Kerekes, 34, stand accused in the January 2007 slaying of Bryan Kocis in Dallas Township. Kocis’ home on Midland Drive was set on fire to cover up the fact that the 44-year-old was stabbed more than 30 times, investigators believe.
Arrest records indicate Cuadra and Kerekes -- both from Virginia Beach, Va. -- killed Kocis, whom they believe was their main rival in the adult gay movie business.
The alleged motive and circumstances of the death came out as investigators learned more about the murder. Arrest records indicate that Cuadra and Kerekes wanted to start a business venture with Sean Lockhart, a model/actor in San Diego, Calif.
There was a problem.
Kocis and his company, Cobra Video, had exclusive trademark rights to Lockhart and Lockhart’s stage name, Brent Corrigan.
The contract prevented Lockhart from working with Cuadra and Kerekes.
I’ve been a reporter for nearly 10 years, mostly covering crime and courts.
But reporting about this case was certainly different than all the other murder cases that I’ve covered.
Before investigators learned about the motive, they released a picture of a partially nude male known only as “Drake,” who had a scheduled meeting with Kocis the night he was killed.
When the Drake picture was published, my voice mail and e-mail were inundated with tips from those involved in adult pornography.
The Virginia Beach connection
One of the callers, a person from Virginia Beach, told me to check out a few adult Web sites and a Myspace page.
After signing up to get my own Myspace account, I followed this person’s advice and found Cuadra’s Myspace page. His picture strongly resembled the Drake picture.
Cuadra and I made contact through e-mail that eventually led to several telephone interviews.
Cuadra denied any involvement in the murder. Investigators say otherwise.
When the criminal complaint was filed on May 15, 2007, investigators placed Cuadra and Kerekes at Kocis’ home on Jan. 24, 2007, by tracing their e-mails and cell phone signals.
E-mails were also traced to their Virginia Beach home – messages sent to Kocis just days before he was killed, the criminal complaint says.
When Kocis was killed, there was an explosion of rumors, conspiracy theories and innuendoes on Web sites and blogs that cater to gay pornography.
Cuadra and Kerekes even set up their own Web sites seeking donations to help with their defense fund. Cuadra was auctioning his personal belongings -- including his hot tub of love, as he called it.
This case has certainly been different to report.
I say that because it not only involved common journalism practices of interviewing investigators and witnesses, but trying to make sense out of all those Web sites and blogs to which I was never accustomed.
Edward Lewis, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7196.
3 comments:
"When Kocis was killed, there was an explosion of rumors, conspiracy theories and innuendoes on Web sites and blogs that cater to gay pornography."
Yeah, I noticed that too. :-)
"This case has certainly been different to report.
I say that because it not only involved common journalism practices of interviewing investigators and witnesses, but trying to make sense out of all those Web sites and blogs to which I was never accustomed."
Yep!
Frankly Jim I was a little disappointed in the Ed Lewis commentary no one seems to be able to grasp the big picture here.
The story of Sordid Gay Porn in Norman Rockwell America.
Some people do..
I think I mentioned this before...
In July last year right after J & H arrived in PA my friend Jim (Not you of course) ;) was working at Saks in Mission Valley two tourists were in the store were discussing all the places they visited when the man asked where is this nude beach? ;)
Jim said oh Blacks well you go,,,
Oh are you nudists?
The woman laughed oh No We just wanted to see where they did this sting operation in the Gay Porn Case.
Jim was like huh what Sting, what gay porn case?(Not reported at all in San Diego)
The woman and her husband proceeded to do a fairly accurate rundown of what had happened so far in the Kocis murder investigation.
FYI Jim is a lurker on most of our blogs and is well aware of what had been discussed ;)
Jim and I were amazed that a couple who could be described as typical middle class E.PA residents knew all about Joe and Harlow and Bryan Kocis.
It was HER summing up at the end that was missing from Ed Lewis article.
She said "Too think this man was making gay porn all those years with boys in a residential street just like ours"
Her husband chimed in...
"And convicted for underage porn too according to the papers"
She added "This is the kind of thing (Porn) you think happens in California not Eastern PA and that boy in the case(Brent) how was this legal (It wasn't)
Her hubby popped up "Well he is 20"
Her retort "Well he sure was not THEN!
Jim then asked well what do you think will happen?
He responded "I think they have this one sealed and delivered, tapes don't lie"
That was in JULY 2007 Jim well before the Prelim in August 2007.
Guess they won't be in the jury pool ;) (They were from Wilkes Barre)
Yeah, you know, Rolling Stone made the same horrific mistake, not giving the "pre-history" of the murder the space it deserved.
Of course, this is just a small op-ed, there are so many "inches" he has to write in, so the omission is a little more reasonable here.
But yeah, you can never truly understand this murder without knowing of the Cobra underage scandal that preceeded it.
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