Judge Al Flora?

From today's Citizen's Voice: "Flora considers run at county judiciary..."

The comments to this post should be interesting and colorful. Elm, you wanna go first? :-)

Update: Times Leader reports that today's "President Judge election to be open to public..."

It'll still be by secret ballot, but for the first time in history "...the vote will immediately be read in open court, however."


Update 2: It so happens, today's public President Judge election will be held in Courtroom 4, which is dominated by the following mural painting:

"...beneath a canopy of crimson and gold brocade, stands Rectitude, with the builder’s triangle and plumb bob. She symbolizes, by her rigidity of attitude, perfect uprightness and evenhandedness. She is flanked by nude figures of boys bearing tablets with the motto, ‘Fiat Justitia Ruat Coelum’ – ‘Let justice be done though the heavens fall.’"

Perhaps someday this will be the future Judge Flora's courtroom too.

Update 3: Muroski elected President Judge.

Update 4: Judge Olszewski gets "livid," sends his prisoners furloughed by Ciavarella back to the slammer. Hmmm, and Ciavarella's pet halfway house director blasts back, calling Olszewski's revocations "inhumane," saying they are worse than "the Salem witch trials."





Update 5: Via the Times Leader...The Luzerne County courthouse corruption scandal gets it's own web page! Created by the "U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania" it's a one-stop browsing mecca for "all matters related to the ongoing probe of public corruption in Luzerne County."

It's not bad, although a better name for it would be "Luzerne County... On Trial" I think.

Time To Move On

1) It's abundantly clear to me that the vast majority of readers here are mightly sick and tired of hearing the name "Robert Wagner" or its various derivatives mentioned in posts having nothing to do with him. Which is nearly every post.

So, as Will in the previous comments section suggests, from here on out, barring a post concerning him (which I'm NOT inclined to write), the mentioning of "Robert Wagner," "Robert," "RW," "BioBoi" and any other recognizable nickname or moniker referring to him will put your post on the fast track to deletion.

2) It's abundantly clear to me that the vast majority of readers here are mightily sick and tired of hearing, as Luzerne County District Attorney Melnick so succinctly put it, "False Accusations Against Robert Wagner, Grant Roy, and Sean Lockhart." These false accusations have been disproven over and over and over again. Even the Kocis family now tacitly admits this, as evidenced by the previous post.

It's time to move on.

Update: Off topic (which I'd say is a good thing), but someone needs to tell Jason Sechrest that his third most favorite website in the whole wide world, listed on his newly redesigned home page, is sorta dead, and has been that way for months. He'd probably be interested to know that, as it is so high on his list.



Update 2: LOL! of the week -

And The Sword chimes in too...

Update 3: Brent grabs the Grabbys -



Update 4: A rising star - "...Another of my faves who isn’t from a military background is Brent Corrigan, who is one of the nicest guys in the world and a true pro in all his films."

Update 5: So, how would you unwind the weekend before a big trial somewhere? If you're Brent Corrigan, you help out a friend on a book tour!

Statute of Limitations

This past Saturday, January 24th was not only a two-year milestone looking into the past; the date also had hypothetical legal significance for the present. On that day, the statute of limitations for private parties to file wrongful death civil actions arising out of the demise of Bryan Kocis was triggered:

See also 42 PA Con. Stat. Sections 5523, 5524.

As some of you may recall, this officially puts to pasture a certain idee fixe of former blogger Cad (and a few others). So...with this rhetorical distraction now out of the way, onto the Harlow trial (which despite the current judicial rumblings in Luzerne County, is still on schedule for February 17).

Two Years Ago Today...

...Harlow Cuadra showed up for his scheduled meeting at Bryan Kocis' house, smelled smoke, looked in the open door, saw a body, heard footsteps upstairs, and then ran away.

Kidding!

You know, it's interesting; on one hand we know a lot of crucial details about what Harlow and Joe did two years ago today. We know from the affidavit "Danny" aka Harlow kept emailing and talking to Bryan today, firming up plans for the meeting (finally set at between 7 and 8 pm that evening, "depending on traffic"). We know that Joe too was busy on the computer that day, dealing with website, sales and other adminstrative matters. We know from the Black's Beach Tapes that Harlow and Joe reconned the house in advance of the meeting, specifically checking the front door for peepholes. We know they went shopping at the local Walmart shortly before the murder, buying "lighter fluid, a knife, KY jelly, and condoms."

We know Harlow must have arrived at the house at 60 Midland Drive shortly before Bryan's long conference call ended (according to phone records) at 7:50 pm. In fact, here's a new "musing:"...I actually believe now that Harlow arrived MUCH sooner - 7:30, perhaps as early as 7:00 pm, even. Why? Because as Harlow indicated at Black's Beach, he listened to an extensive portion of this conference call, in which Bryan, Bryan's attorney Sean Macias, and LSG partner Lee Bergeron were all actively conspiring to "send [Grant] packing" "to Texas." As incredible as it sounds, this "backdoor deal" conversation has to be true; you can see my full reasoning on the subject here, but in a nutshell Harlow knew too many details about a condo offered to Brent, plus of the legal issues and attornies involved, for Harlow's detailed account of this conference call to have been fabricated.

If we assume now that Harlow arrived between 7 and 7:30 pm, and was forced to listen to Bryan yammering away on his Blackberry for at least 20 minutes plotting Grant's exile and Brent's condo captivity, that would have given Harlow that much more time perhaps to case the joint...peering into the office where Kocis kept the video cameras and proprietary records, pehaps...locating visually the position of all the smoke detectors...etc. Then, at 7:50 pm, Bryan finally tires of this long conference call (it actually began at 5:35 pm!) and says something like '...hey guys, D(inaudible) is here; it's been fun, but gotta run, bye!'

Anyways, from 7:50pm and until 8:34 pm (when the Fire Department was dispatched)...it's interesting how on the other hand how LITTLE we actually know. The only source for what happened is what Harlow and Joe said at the Crab Catcher and at Black's Beach. And as Michael Gross observes in the Out article:

As damning as these lines appear, it’s impossible to know precisely how to read them. Strikingly, Harlow’s quoted remarks in the affidavit sound more like the statements of a man who witnessed a murder than those of a man who committed one. (Joe, it seems, was mostly interjecting details as Harlow described meeting Bryan.) Harlow’s story, as related by this document, is confusing (and perhaps intentionally presented that way by police; at the time of arrest, it is common to withhold evidence that will be introduced at trial), but other details raise the possibility that a third man might have been present when Bryan was killed. Harlow “stated that he and another ‘did some recon work’” before his meeting with Bryan. And after he arrived at Bryan’s house and they drank some wine together, Harlow said that his “ ‘dude’ ‘came around’, and ‘it was crazy.’”

In other words, we just don't know who actually stabbed Bryan. It mighta been Harlow, it mighta been Joe, it mighta been both (there were a total of two knives purchased, after all). I very much doubt there was ever a "third man" involved so, it has to be one of the three "mightas" listed above. But Harlow was present for the killing; that we know for certain. Indeed, he was instrumental in bringing it about, at the very least.

And I have to think Joe was there too in some capacity. Despite what he said when he took his plea (that he was back at the Fox Ridge Inn) cell tower info places Joe at the Kocis home, not the Inn. He may have been there only to help load the loot into the Xterra, but he was there, I am certain of it.

The upshot of all this continued deception is, we probably will NEVER know precisely what happened at 60 Midland Drive between 7:50 and about 8:30 pm. It seems Harlow and Joe pretty much hate each other these days, with both out of spite seeking to minimize their role, and enhance their partner's role, in the murder. And since neither of them have a trustworthy bone in their body, nothing they can ever say about the murder can ever really be believed. Hence this part of the murder will likely forever remain a mystery.

So, between 7:50 and about 8:30 pm, Bryan is stabbed to death by either/both of Harlow/Joe, the house is ransacked for video cameras, propietary documents, computers and a Rolex watch, then set ablaze.

Oh, and one final rather anticlimactic and comical event: As they are driving like a bat out of hell (well, Back Mountain, actually), probably passing fire engines going the other way with lights flashing and sirens blaring, Harlow or Joe (ie, whoever's not driving) gets on the laptop and at 8:35 pm emails a relatively new client, Matthew Brannon. According to the affidavit, they hit Brannon up for $4000 donation so Harlow could attend "webmaster school" at Old Dominion University (Brannon was skeptical, but eventually allowed a $1000 charge on his credit card anyways).

I think this exchange, coming at this exact time, was perhaps some kind of half-baked (and unsuccessful) attempt to establish an "email alibi." That it actually generated $1000 in revenue probably came a pleasant shock to Harlow and Joe.

After this, I presume they just hit the freeway (there is no record of them having checked out of the Fox Ridge Inn), making the eight hour drive back to Virginia Beach, which they would have reached early the next morning.

Update: You know, there is just SO much evidence against Harlow and Joe in this case that it's exceedingly easy to overlook some of it. A good example is the fact that it was not until I was working on today's post that I realized I had missed Harlow's escort appointments with Matthew Brannon on the 19th and 20th. I've made a whole new post for the 19th ("The New Client") and have edited the entry for the 20th ("The Background Check") accordingly.

Update 2: Totally off topic - the most entertaining porn clip introduction of the week!

Update 3: Moderately off topic - a shakeup in the Luzerne County judicial system, and the current presiding judge is out. The scandal involves two judges who sentenced juveniles to private boot camps that it turns out, they partially owned (and hence profitted from). As I read it, the judges will now sit down at a pow wow in the next three days to elect a new presiding judge amongst themselves...which theoretically could end up being the relatively well-regarded Judge Peter Paul Olszewski.

Update 3(a): Conohan and Ciaverella plead guilty to tax and fraud charges, will serve 87 months. No word yet on whether they've admitted to killing Bryan and framing Harlow and Joe (although if they did all this killing/framing to avoid corruption charges, it doesn't appear to have helped them much in the long run, I must say...).

Update 3(b): Al Flora is Ciaverella's attorney. Ha, just watch, next we'll find out Fannick is representing Conohan....

Update 3(c): Well, no; turns out it's someone else, another lawyer we've actually never heard of before: "Conahan’s attorney, Philip Gelso, declined comment." Frankly I'm shocked! Given how the same names keep getting repeated over the past two years, I was fairly certain we'd all had the entire bar membership of Luzerne County memorized by now. Where'd this Gelso guy been hiding?

The Road Trip

Two years ago today was a busy day for Harlow Cuadra and Joe Kerekes. Besides the nearly eight hour drive to Pennsylvania, they had to do some shopping and other miscellaneous chores in preparation of their plan to murder Bryan Kocis the following evening.

The first task of the day was getting a rental car (I guess they figured the Beemer or "Ole Blue" would have been too conspicuous). They drove an Xterra off the Enterprise lot at approximately 9:40 am:

Next, it was off for some gun and knife shopping at a nearby pawn shop about four minutes later:

So, figure about about 10 am it was that Harlow and Joe began the long drive to northeast Pennsylvania.

If you enter Harlow and Joe's address, and then Bryan's address, into Google Maps you get a route from Virginia Beach, across Chesapeake Bay, through Delaware, Philadelphia, Allentown and thence to Dallas, PA. That's the route Cpl. Hannon took as he was transporting Joe from Virginia to Luzerne County, PA following his extradition. However, during said trip Joe, feeling in a chatty mood that day for some reason, asked Hannon why they "weren't taking the Route 264 West route, as he had taken that route prior to when he had made trips to Pennsylvania." Yeah, I know: LOL!

If we assume Harlow and Joe took the 264 West to go murder Bryan, then the trip they took would have likely led through Richmond, D.C., and Harrisburg. Okay. You know, I'm not sure why they took this longer route, but in any case, it actually works out better. Google Maps tracks this distance at 445 miles, making a round trip 990 miles. Milage on the rental car turned out to be 1052 miles. This is closer than the round trip milage on the Delaware route (770 miles).

On the eight hour drive up, "Danny" and Bryan continue to correspond by phone and email (through Harlow's Sprint PCS AirCard), ironing out the details of the "Cobra model audition" scheduled for the following evening. Although the affidavit does not spell out the full rich tapestry of the entire conversation between Harlow and Bryan on this day, we do know that it involved Harlow needing to bring an overnight bag with him, the purpose of which spelled out explicitely on the Blacks Beach Tapes:

JOSEPH KEREKES: Oh, yea they were gonna have sex all night first.




HARLOW CUADRA: Oh yea, he wanted that.




JOSEPH KEREKES: Yea, yea, that's what was guaranteed already, I mean planned already to spend the night, ah, to ya know this and that...



GRANT ROY: So, then he hired you to do for escorting?




JOSEPH KEREKES: Well, without money involved, it was ah...




GRANT ROY: Oh yea, that's, that's how Bryan works.

Somewhat more ominously, the conversations also involved Harlow getting Bryan's assurance that they would be alone that night:

Finally they arrive in Luzerne County, probably around 6 pm. No doubt fatigued after the long drive, they check into the Fox Ridge Inn, which Joe pays for with cash, probably hoping thereby for their stay to go undocumented. Innkeeper Thakor Patel later described at the preliminary hearing how well that idea worked:

Thakor Patel testified that he is the owner/manager of the Fox Ridge Inn in Plains Township. He stated that on January 23, 2007, Joe Kerekes checked-in for two nights and the room was registered for two people. Kerekes was required to show photo identification at the time of check-in and registered that the vehicle he arrived in was gray in color. Kerekes, on the check-in slip, noted that he was from Virginia and originally started to provide an address of "1028 Str" before crossing it out and giving a different address. ... Mr. Patel documented Mr. Kerekes' VA Drivers License NO. XXXXXXXXX. Later, Cpl. Hannon noted this was in fact Kerekes' Virginia Drivers License.

Yeah, I know: LOL!

At this point, Harlow and Joe probably had food delivered to the room, and settled in for the night. As eventful as this day was, tomorrow promised to be even more eventful.

Update: Recently returned from a completely different road trip, Brent speculates on the paranormal presence of a certain damned soul inhabiting (and inhibiting) his motor vehicle:

Oh, yeah . . . that and my car completely overheated on the way home. I think I drove it too fast, for too long. Grant took it back in yesterday and they had to replace a hose and a thermostat. I don’t think I actually melted anything, but it was still expensive as hell. Sometimes I think Bryan’s soul is caught circulating through the steaming, hot mechanics of my car; sort of like his own personal purgatory? I’m such a Doorq sometimes!

Your Friend and Lover,
Brent

Is Brent still driving the Jetta? If it were the Jetta, I'd be more inclined to believe this...

OTOH, if I were Bryan's ghost I'm pretty sure I'd rather hang out in "Ole Blue" these days. Or the Masarati.

Update 2: Grant the exorcist -

dmbottompa@yahoo.com

After gathering info on Bryan Kocis via an online background check two days (and two years) ago, Harlow Cuadra and Joseph Kerekes now had to figure out a good way to kill him. In other words, without getting caught.

They pondered the problem, and hit upon a simple plan: since Bryan was a porn producer, they could try a "casting couch" strategy, i.e., dangling Harlow as a carrot to gain entry into his home under false pretenses. Thanks to Bryan's well publicized legal feud with Brent, his susceptibility to twinkish carrots of this nature was legendary throughout the industry. In addition, the background check indicated he might live alone. So if everything went well - if Bryan took the dangled carrot and indeed was by himself when they came a callin' - it just might work.

The first step was to create the carrot. At 11:00 am, two years ago today, "Danny Moilin" aka "dmbottompa@yahoo.com" was born:

Carrot created, it was now time to dangle it. So, 18 minutes later:

...then 3 minutes later Harlow sent himself an email, just to make sure the carrot was fully operational:

...and then 10 minutes later dangled the carrot again, this time via email:

Notice by saying he was visiting family in King of Prussia, PA for only the next week, Harlow was creating an sense of time urgency for the hoped for audition.

Harlow impatiently dangled the carrot once more at 1:23 pm:

The image Harlow used for all these model applications was the infamous "Drake" photo. This was an older photo of Harlow, from when he was noticeably younger; my guess is, he wanted the photo to be good enough for Kocis to recognize him at the door, but (hopefully) not good enough for later investigators to recognize him.

Bryan liked what he saw. Sometime after the 3rd dangling, he emailed "Danny" back:

The carrot had been bit! A tentative "audition" was set for the 24th; all that remained was for the logistical details to be hashed out over the next day or two...

Harlow and Joe now needed a throw away cell phone, for "Danny" to make obstensibly untraceable calls to Bryan. They aquired and activated one that day, it's maiden call pinging off a cell phone tower next to their Stratum Court home at 7:26 pm:

This pre-paid cell phone would be their means of communication, both voice and email, with Bryan and others, over the next three days. For tomorrow, they would be on the road to Pennslyvania...

The Background Check

On this day, two years ago, Harlow Cuadra and Joe Kerekes decided to kill Bryan Kocis.

Of course, they thought about doing it, and talked about doing it, in the days leading up to today. But I'll bet today was the day they made the final decision. Because today they took the first overt act towards the commission of this crime, and ordered a USA People Search report on Bryan Kocis:

Did Harlow and Joe realize that by ordering this report, they risked creating an electronic evidence trail for the police to follow later? Perhaps they did...but ordered it anyways. They needed info on their murder target, and had no where else to go to get it. Except of course from Brent and Grant; but since Grant had catagorically shot the "Canada" remark down at the Le Cirque dinner, there was obviously no way they could turn to them for tactical info on Bryan. Besides, they were not on speaking terms after the "Hang-Up Call" anyways.

Did Harlow and Joe think the murder would hopefully mend this rift? If so, they were assuming Brent and Grant would be grateful...a very bad assumption, it turns out. Or maybe they knew murder suspicion would naturally fall on Brent and Grant (Grant specifically told them this, in fact, at the Le Cirque dinner), and hoped to blackmail them into a web partnership? The MySpace emails sent on 3/3/07 would seem to support this latter theory:

In any case, under either theory they must have thought the murder would also remove any further stumbling blocks caused by the settlement negociations (by simply killing one of the negociators). A win-win situation.

It was probably on or around this day that some of Harlow and Joe's escorts began to notice a big change in how their bosses acted. According to one of them, Andrew Shunk (aka Confidential Informant #1), Harlow and Joe began acting "very suspicious and unusual" shortly after their return from Vegas. Specifically, they curtailed their flashy, flamboyant, free-spending lifestyle, and became reclusive, shunning contact with nearly everyone. Even more odd was Harlow changing his phone number and taking his MySpace page private - "highly suspicious" behavior for an escort such as Harlow, as these are tools he relies on to make a living. His pre-booked 2nd day session with Matthew Brannon ("BRANNON said he took him back to his hotel and picked him back up on 01/20/2007 where he spent approx. 5 hours with him from 0800hrs to 1300hrs") was probably his last escort work for a while.

So, two years ago today was a big day. Harlow and Joe had furtively begun planning and carrying out a homicide...

The New Client

On this day, two years ago, Harlow entertained a new client, Matthew Brannon. According to Brannon, "...CUADRA picked him up at his hotel (Hilton) on 01/19/2007 and took him to a home located at 1028 Stratem Court, Virginia Beach, VA, where he spent approx. 6 hours with him from 1400hrs to 2000hrs." He went on to say:

"He stated that he met with CUADRA at the residence of 1028 Stratem Ct, Virginia Beach, Va on January 19th, 2007 and January 20th, 2007. ... His appointments in January 2007 were pre-booked for a price of $2400 which he paid in November or December of 2006.

BRANNON related that he has some of the emails saved when he communicated with Harlow CUADRA. The email addresses that he can recall are harlowrcuadra@excite.com, stareyes23510@yahoo.com, and party757@yahoo.com. He emailed and faxed some email communications with CUADRA...

BRANNON stated that he also talked via internet and telephone with a person who identified himself as Mark. BRANNON had never seen Mark at the residence only Harlow and "Trent". He suspected that Mark may not exist but did not press the issue with Harlow. He suspected this because Harlow said that Mark owned everything, the business, house, and the cars. Then on 01/19/2007 Harlow picked him up at the Hilton and they were pulled over by the Virginia Beach PD for window tint and were given a citation. BRANNON observed several other citations in the vehicle and CUADRA said that Mark has a lawyer that will take care of them. BRANNON observed that the vehicle was registered in CUADRA's name. He said that Mark put the car in his name due to legal issues. BRANNON thinks the time of the traffic stop was at approx. 14:30 hrs on 01/19/2007.

While at the residence BRANNON recalled some of the conversations with CUADRA.

CUADRA talked about returning from a Las Vegas trip where he attended a convention. He had lost his plane tickets and boarding passes from Southwest Airlines and Mark had to buy new ones.

CUADRA talked about making a movie with a gay porn star named Brent Corrigan. It sounded like it would be happening soon but CUADRA did not say specifically.

CUADRA talked about Corrigan making a movie with Falcon Studio's called The Velvet Mafia, but they could not use his name and Corrigan was mad about that.

CUADRA said he was a Navy Corpsman, had been hurt and was getting out in a few months.

CUADRA also talked about Mark having him put a gym together to work out."

One thing that strikes me here is Harlow talking about filming with Brent. Keep in mind this is three days after the "Hang-Up Call" so, this tells me they had perhaps decided to go forward with the murder to win Brent back on this day, rather than the 20th (as I had posted on tomorrow's "The Background Check"). A minor point, but interesting.

The Falcon Application

Picking up again our journey back in time, two years ago today...

It's now been two days since the critical "hang-up call," and Harlow and Joe are likely still moping about the house, still under a mountain of debt, and still wondering what to do next. We can possibly imagine arguments breaking out between them, over the past couple days? Recriminations by Harlow against Joe, for being such a spendthrift (with Harlow's credit, no less)? For losing his temper, threatening Brent and Grant, and thus blowing the "deal" (or what they thought for a time was a deal, anyways). We can also imagine Joe lashing back...maybe this is when bulletholes get shot into the bedroom wall?

Interesting speculation no doubt, but lets stick to what we know.

And what we do know is that Harlow did something very interesting today...he applied to be a model at Falcon.

This is interesting, in that it tells us a couple things. One, it confirms that their Boybatter porn operation was indeed failing. If Harlow was reduced to working for Falcon at the base industry scene rate, then obviously Boybatter DVDs were not, after overheard is factored into it, selling well enough to earn them a better return. Being their own porn studio was harder than they thought, it would seem.

Second, it confirms the severity of the hang-up call. They saw their bridges with Grant pretty much burnt, and so, accepting BCO's original offer to work for them was obviously no longer a practical option at this time. Even though it wouldn't take care of their immediate financial woes, Harlow needed to find additional income streams, so might as well get the ball rolling on that now. Harlow puts down as a reference the only person connected with Falcon he knows...Brent Corrigan:

It is perhaps soon after this rather crushing self-admission of failure and diminished options that Harlow and Joe began to seriously consider a more radical and immediate solution to the "direct competition" that stood in their way: Bryan Kocis of Cobra Video.

The Hang-Up Call

We now continue our time travel back two years ago, into the minds of Harlow and Joe.

It has now been 5 days since the Vegas dinner, and 2 days since Joe's grandiose email, triumphantly heralding the new partnership between Brent Corrigan and Boybatter! All that is now needed is a confirmatory message announcement from Brent, and hoards of Brent fans hungry for memberships (recall, Brent Corrigan Online was still blocked from doing CC Bill business by the lawsuit at this time) will swarm in, all plunking down anywhere from $39.95 to $100 for Boybatter subscriptions. Ah, immediate electronic funds...

And those immediate funds were indeed needed, as they had just missed both of their January car payments. This must have been a huge, finacially demoralizing event for them, causing the first known blemishes on their credit report:

February 2007:
From Harlow's Forbidden Credit Report:
DAIMLERCHRYS: 30 days late for February
BMW FIN SVC: 30 days late for February

They had obviously been living on cash advances up until now, but those cards had finally maxxed (and overmaxxed) out. In fact, Joe confesses the depths of their early 2007 financial mess to Grant at the Crab Catcher three months later:

JOSEPH KEREKES: I paint it in the blogs, like we're doing well Grant, but we ran for our lives, we ah, we're living in the Ghetto in South Beach okay, and ah, it's been horrible, we act like we have all this, we don't ya know we cash advanced everything, ya ,know? We're In so much, debt, we're probably gonna have to do bankruptcy, it's just horrible, it's been horrible, my mom and my dad what they've gone through, looking over our shoulder every second, ya know? It's been hell.

So, you can see what's at stake here, on this day. If even a tiny fraction of the massive fan base indicated by Brent's Alexa numbers began subscribing at Boybatter's inflated subscription rates, their immediate financial woes would have been over. They could at least return to paying their bills on time.

So...where was that announcement from Brent Corrigan Online? Joe must have expected it yesterday, and checked...but nope, nothing. So, Joe checks BCO again this morning, and...nope, nothing, no mention of their big "deal." 'WTF!' Joe thinks...

And here's what happens next; from the Out article:

On the morning of Tuesday, January 16, Joe and Harlow called Sean, angry that Sean had not posted an announcement of their plans on his blog. Grant was furious at their impatience. “I’m in the middle of the settlement, and I had gone to great lengths to explain our situation, and they’re all pissed off because we don’t have a blog post on? Who the fuck do they think they are? I called them and said, ‘We’ve got a lot to do. You’re calling Sean and harassing him.’ Joe starts getting angry with me, saying wild things, threatening me that if we don’t ‘put up a post,’ the deal is off. I said, ‘If you don’t understand us, leave us the fuck alone.’ And I told Sean, ‘Screw those guys. Don’t talk to them anymore.’ That was it.”

And just like Joe confirmed Grant's account of the Vegas dinner on the Crab Catcher Tapes, Joe also confirms Grant's description of this "Hang-Up Call:"

GRANT ROY: ... I just wanted to let you know how I feel, I'm not fuckin happy, ya know, the day you called me and told me you wanted the banner up, ya know and the blog or whatever, I was pissed...


JOSEPH KEREKES: When was this?





GRANT ROY: ...ah ...





JOSEPH KEREKES: Way back when?





GRANT ROY: Yea.





JOSEPH KEREKES: I remember that, yea.





GRANT ROY: And I said ah, and you, ya know you were putting pressure on him, ya know if we didn't do that, there was gonna be no shoot, and ya know I'm under, I'm trying to get all the wording finalized in the fucking settlement, so it was exactly how we agreed on in Vegas and ya know, you're making threats to him, that we're not gonna do a deal...

JOSEPH KEREKES: I didn't mean to threaten him.





GRANT ROY: Ah, if, if...





JOSEPH KEREKES: (Inaudible).





GRANT ROY: ... if we don't put up a blog, so I call ya and say what the fuck's goin on, and then you blow up at me, and it lasted all of about a minute and then we hung up.


JOSEPH KEREKES: Mmm, hmm.





GRANT ROY: Ya know, I called him and said don't talk to those son of a bitches again... fuck'em if they don't understand what we're going through fuck'em.


JOSEPH KEREKES: I'm sorry I didn't understand.

Nope, he sure didn't. But I suspect, after that phone disconnected, he finally did: because of the ongoing settlement talks, they never had a "deal" in Vegas. And as long as the settlement problem remained, they would never get one, either.

You know, sitting there after that fatefully harsh, reality-inducing phone call...what must have been going through both their minds? Sitting in a mountain of debt, with missed car payments, and other bills for next month beginnning to arrive...what to do?

After a nasty argument like that, is there ANY thing they could do to somehow impress Brent and Grant, and get back into their good graces? And if they do, can this annoying settlement roadblock be quickly overcome?

And we can imagine them there, sitting in the "hot tub o' fun" for the rest of this afternoon...soaking, brooding, pondering those two questions simultaneously...