Silence of the Chinchillas

Victory Day 2011

2011-03-12T00:01:00.012Z

To all of you who managed to remember that I'm back open for business today...WELCOME! And Happy Victory Day!!

Well here we are, and another year gone by. And not a whole lot has changed in what was once known as the "Kocisphere," it seems. From a perusal of PC's second blog: Harlow and Joe are still in jail. Harlow is unsuccessfully appealing his sentence, while being successfully appealing to a new pen pal in England. And PC's book has been horribly, horribly delayed (but is now back on track and due out soon).

I guess I'll go ahead and comment on some of that, as well as provide some of my famed "musings" on other matters that have come up this past year as well. And then we'll see which way the reunion discussion drifts from there.

Victory Day 2011: The Blurb Symposium

As some of you may recall from the last comment I made last year, today was supposed to our "Book Symposium." We were supposed to have all read PC's book by today, and perhaps the autobiographical account Brent Corrigan has been promising as well. Well, neither of those books materialized, as yet.

I can't say I'm that surprised Brent hasn't gotten around to writing his. Talented though he is in certain respects, it's perhaps expecting a bit much for a 20-something to discipline his time sufficiently to crank out a serious book. From his most recent blog post mentioning it, he's currently commenced concurrent composition on some sort of new literary frivolity:

"What else?! Well, I’m working on two books at the moment. The second, latest project is a lot easier for me. This book isn’t so introspective or heavy. It’s something that cums naturally to this three time award winner of a particular sexual position . . . a less serious project, something I had not realized I was such an authority on until a new friend came to me on advice on how to become a better bitch, er, I mean, bottom."

And PC's book was delayed by reasons completely outside his control (more on that later). But he has a new publisher now, and they've composed a good-sized blurb:

"Cobra Killer presses the “play ” button to uncover the real world of online pornography--an industry that generates billions in revenue and makes ordinary people overnight-stars and millionaires.

For the first time, authors Conway and Stoner tell in full detail the twisted story of a pair of young, aspiring gay adult film producers whose quest for fame at any cost leads to the gruesome murder of the man who stands in their way, gay porn entrepreneur Brian Kocis. News of the killing of the 44-year-old (stabbed 28 times, his throat slashed to near decapitation of his head) in his suburban home sends shock waves through the bucolic Pennsylvania town. Neighbors are horrified to hear about the murder but equally astonished to learn that Kocis ran a small but thriving online porn operation from his home, sometimes employing underage young men as models.

The murder investigation leads police and prosecutors to the far reaches of the country, from Virginia to New York City, to Las Vegas, and to a nude beach in San Diego where investigators facilitate an incredible clandestine suspect surveillance. The manhunt nets a former U.S. Navy veteran and a former Marine, turned male models, turned hustlers, turned porn producers, who ultimately land at the bottom of a delusional conspiracy. Twenty-six-year-old Harlow Cuadra and his 35-year-old partner and lover Joseph Kerekes are implicated and eventually convicted in the brutal January 2007 murder of Kocis. Their motive? An ill-conceived attempt to lure a rising gay porn star named Brent Corrigan away from the grips of Kocis and into their crumbling, self-built porn empire.

Cobra Killer takes readers into the sometimes alluring, sometimes dangerous and often surprising world of gay porn and the deceit, schemes, and ultimate betrayals lying underneath the fantasy."

And so, instead of a book symposium, we'll have to settle for a blurb symposium this year. So, discuss!

The Regent Media Scandal

I actually knew about PC's book deal with Alyson Books being in jeopardy back in August, when I read this Queerty post about Michael Musto's troubles with the same company. "Oh no, PC's book..." I thought.

Sure enough, on October 1 Alyson went e-book only, and I had a hunch PC would be having none of that. I was right.

So why did Alyson Books, a wholly-owned subsidiary of gay media conglomerate Regent Media (also owners of "Out, The Advocate, here! TV, Gay.com, and a slew of porn properties") collapse into a rinky-dink e-book publisher? Well, THATS an interesting story. The blog Queerty broke the details, which I'll bet you won't find written about in Out or The Advocate.

Basically, Regent Media is a scam. Instead of making money from the legitimate profits from their companies, the owners of Regent subsisted off the proceeds of a fraudulent loans in the amount of $90 million dollars. They apparantly lived the high life in West Hollywood until the funds ran dry. Then they tried to sell assets like Alyson Books; when that failed, they simply allowed them to wither.

What's most interesting to me is the means by which they conned Bank of America and Merrill Lynch out of that $90 million dollars:

"In order to score $90 million in loans from Bank of America and Merrill Lynch, Regent allegedly created fake movie licensing and distribution deals and passed them off to the banks as legitimate contractual relationships that would drive future revenue."

Italics mine.

These fake movie deals were between Regent and some shell companies secretly created and controlled by Regent. And what was it about about these films, that Regent needed to create puppet entities to make fake distribution deals with?

"Defendants knew that these marketing and release strategies and distribution budgets would never be adhered to or executed and that they were inappropriate for the scope of the, more often than not, low-quality straight to DVD film titles, but submitted them to Plaintiffs anyway,..."

Hyperlink mine.

So anyways, we now know the answer to a question that's had us puzzled for a while: How and why a pile of poop like John Roeker's EYWTKAGPS*bwata got made in the first place. Answer: It was all part and parcel of $90 million bank swindle. Here TV needed dreck like that in their inventory, so that they could execute fake deals between shell companies to fraudulently turn it into overinflated collateral.

So there you have it! Yet one more mystery of this murder saga, solved in the due course of time.

Harlow Cuadra's Illegal "Cell" Phone

On December 14, 2010 PC made a brief mention of the passing of Joe Kerekes father, complete with a link to a condolences page. Well, imagine my surprise when I saw this entry in the condolences, posted on the same day and only two hours after PC's blog post:

At first I thought this was some imposter's sick attempt at a joke. I could see prison officials letting Joe get a brief moment of supervised computer access to post an appropriate farewell (which he did), but Harlow? No way in hell. Prisoners obviously don't have unfettered access to surf the web and leave comments (I think some prisons may grant access to closed law-related networks like Lexis for legal research, but that's about the extent of it). General internet access for inmates is a BIG NO-NO, for so many obvious reasons I'm sure I don't need to expound on them.

But then I ran across articles like this. Hoo boy.

And you notice how "joe" above is not capitalized? Exactly the sort of shortcut one tends to makes when typing out a message on a smartphone.

I think we all see what's going on here. Obviously, Pennslyvania prisons officials need to confiscate Harlow's contraband phone immediately. He needs to have his cell raided and every square inch of it gone over with a fine tooth comb; he needs to be frogmarched to the nearest inspection room, stripped, and forcibly cavity searched; whatever it takes until this phone is found.

And once it's found, Harlow should be given the Bradley Manning treatment for at least a month in solitary, as punishment for this flagrant violation.

I realize from that article and others that cell phone smuggling is rampant in prisons nationwide, but you have to start combating the problem somewhere. So, lets start by making an example of Harlow. It's ridiculous IMO that he could be reading this very blog right now, with impunity. So, lets take away the impunity by calling attention to it, shall we? Somebody here must know somebody who knows somebody in the PA Department of Corrections, so lets bring this matter to their attention by forwarding them this link.

The Cult of Harlow

And on the subject of Harlow's fans, well, what can I say except: LOL! It's a shame that blog and those videos are no more, as they were indeed entertaining.

But I did manage to run across this. As you may note, it's a closed Facebook group; no one can get in without permission. So who's in there, and what they are saying???

As my previous musing indicates...Harlow could very well be a participant. If's he's using an illegal cell phone, then there's nothing stopping him for creating a Facebook profile. And this would explain why the group is a closed one.

If that's the case, then they could all be plotting a prison break in there, for all we know. All the more reason, I say, for this illegal phone to be confiscated by prison authorities post haste.

The RyanPaul ... On Trial

Well, this is interesting, to say the least.

And by a curious coincidence, the case was just wrapped up a couple of days ago. It appears Ryan Paul Martinez got a plea-bargained sentence of 4 years and 4 months, as tweeted by Grant Roy, with barely restrained glee:

I gather Grant and Ryan Paul were not exactly chummy.

As a matter of fact, you can pretty much follow the entire criminal case by just scrolling down Grant's Twitter feed for the past 150 days or so. It's kind of a mini version of PC's blog, with each post under 140 characters long.

I guess I have three observations to make:

1) Chris Henriquez. Bryan Kocis. Grant Roy. And now Ryan Paul Martinez. Does anyone else see the pattern here?

Like I said above, Brent is certainly a man of many talents, but I think it's fair to say at this point mate selection does not seem to be one of them. All of the above, in my opinion seem to...well how should I put this? Have a few rough edges?

2) It would appear that I was a bit ungenerous to Michael Lucas when I downplayed the danger he was in (see folks, when I think I'm wrong, I'll fess up to it); and

3) I must say, besides this small Porn Truth site, I'm surprised this story did not get picked up by any of the other reputable gay porn web sites and blogs. You could argue, I suppose, that Brent's boyfriend was a non-porn star, and hence off-limits. But OTOH, he wasn't exactly a "civilian" (in the Godfather Part I sense of the word) either, as evidenced by that incident between he and Lucas at the GAYVNs.

Maybe all the other reputable gay porn sites collectively came to the conclusion that Brent had suffered enough the past few years, and needed to be cut some slack on this one? Who knows. Personally I think it was foolish for Brent to try to sweep the matter under the table on his blog, pretending his "Papi" wasn't behind bars. He would have been better off just being honest with his fans from the get go (which is a lesson Mason Wyler seems to have learned, based on what I've read about him and his latest escapades).

And one question: Will Brent really wait 4 years and 4 months for this guy to get out of the slammer? Or will he move/has he moved on?

Oh well, those are my musings for this year, folks. This blog is now open until Easter, so let the Victory Day reunion comments commence!

The Sleeper Awakens...

2011-03-09T21:02:00.005Z

Today is Ash Wednesday...and the Chinchilla has given up silence for Lent! SOTC Reunion on schedule for Victory Day, Saturday March 12.

Victory Day 2010

2010-03-12T16:33:00.007Z

Hello, is anyone here? (TAP TAP TAP) Perhaps some people are, we'll see...

Happy Victory Day 2010! A day not only for a distant reflection on that momentous occasion, exactly one year ago (YES click HERE, reread the whole thing, 12 Updates, and 130 Comments...ah what a day that was!), but also our designated reunion day here, on this no-longer-active blog.

So, what have people been up to, this past...well, not-quite-a-year since last May? Alot of you will actually have to fill me in on some of the overlooked details, as I've been in retirement for so long, but after a cursory perusal of what was the "Kocisphere," it looks to me like these are the highlights:

1) Books on the horizon! PC's book (in collaboration with crime author Andrew E. Stoner) is finished (right?) and in pre-publication (is that the correct term?), and is due out [update: ...between Fall 2010 and Spring 2011].

Meanwhile, Brent Corrigan announced (on his new new new web site) that he'll be writing a "novel" about his adult life (all seven years of it), which "will be available Spring 2010." Which would be before PC's book, however...since his latest blog post indicates that he's currently suffering from a bout of writers block, I think it's fair to say that that Spring projection is now a bit overoptimistic.

Anyways, congratulations to PC on what is now looking to be the more imminent book! I can tell you all that I will be camping out outside my local bookstore the day of it's release, running inside to get my copy ASAP. (Unless there will be a Kindle edition? I'm actually thinking of getting one, and this may be what nudges me to it). I'd like to see Victory Day 2011 be akin to a book club meeting here, with one (or two) books to review!

2) Harlow is still in jail and (according to those close to him) expects due to the miraculous powers of attorney Demetrius Fannick to be set free any day now. A mood apparently shared by a few of his followers as well..see PCs blog for more on this continuing case study in group delusion.

3) Joe is still in jail, apparently entertains none of the above delusions, and if I'm reading the hints left by PC in his book announcement correctly, consented to be interviewed for the book.

You know, I wish I could be excited about this, but my old opinion on this matter still stands. Whatever Joe (or Harlow, for that matter) says now about the murder simply can't be trusted. I mean, they could say, whatever...and there would still be such a cloud of doubt as to render a statement meaningless. Which is truly a pity, as only they know exactly what happened in the Kocis home the night of the murder.

I'll read what Joe has to say, but I wont be able to have any opinion as to whether what he says is true or false.

4) Brent's business partnership with Grant dissolved (say it ain't so!) and so now, Brent is on his 4th (right?) website. But the breakup seems to have been relatively amicable. Grant, to his credit, did not vow eternal vengeance, and did not wage an all out public relations war, complete with lawsuits, to utterly destroy him. Perhaps someone else's past experience taught him that would be a bad idea? Eh, who knows...

5) Browsing DeWayne's new site, it appears by looking at his Twitter feed that much of the old gang (DeWayne, Elm, Will, etc...) are keeping in touch, and are steadfast Twitter friends! I must say, this heartens me to see this! :-)

6) Jason Ridge quit the biz, and deleted his blog and websites. According to this old (now officially removed for lack of sourcing) Wikipedia snippet:

"In 2007, Ridge launched his own production company called Ridgeline Films with veteran porn star [[Rob Romoni]], producing and starring in ''A Rising Star''. He verified on his blog in August 2009 that the company was no more.
-
- After months of hints and direct statements that "Jason Ridge" was going to be on the back burner for awhile or gone from the industry completely, Ridge, whose writings often chronicled his rocky relationship with the industry and its inhabitants, wrote in his blog on October 1, 2009:
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- "Good bye for now! There are more pressing issues in my life that are more important than this silly lifestyle that I have created known as Jason Ridge."
-
- The blog left a door open for Jason to return some day, but he ends the entry with, "It's time for me to grow up and take my life and responsibilities that have been handed to me and take them seriously." As of mid-October 2009 his blog has been deleted."

Looks like all those eeeeevil people and forces in the gay porn industry he was constantly blaming all his problems on finally got the best of him.

7) Meanwhile, other prominent Harlow supporters actually managed to continue on and improve their craft. See this "Episode 1 - Part 1" here. And yes, I would say this is an improvement! As you can see, this is a multi-part, multi-episode extravaganza...so if that 19 minute debut actually whet your appetite for more, you can view the full project to date here.

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And I guess that ends my nostalgic ramblings for now...comments are open let the Reunion begin!

The Ground Begins To Rumble...

2010-03-11T04:16:00.003Z

I've Seen Things...

2009-05-15T06:23:00.016+01:00

...you people wouldn't believe.

Porn stars making fake rape claims.

I walked in the footsteps of heroes, and liveblogged the non-arrival of a person of absolutely no importance whatsoever.

I exposed a deceitful witness, cutting her exposure time from a full day to a mere 30 minutes.

All those moments will be remembered, like words on a page.

Time to say goodbye.

Update: Happy Arrest Day 2009! I'm off to Boston Market to celebrate...

Update 2: One final adminstrative matter - on reflection
I now think "Victory Day" (March 12) has surpassed "Arrest Day" in appropriateness to serve as the day for our planned annual reunions here. So, if you are so inclined check back here on March 12, 2010 for an open Reunion thread.

Final Thoughts III

2009-05-13T19:15:00.017+01:00

The Trial
-------------

I was so eager to write this post in March, right after the verdict was announced. At that time, I was possessed with such...emotion...that words were just bursting to get out. But I decided to hold off until today, because, as you'll see, that emotion expressed itself as a question, indeed, a burning question. And was hoping beyond hope that the people to whom that question would be asked would have perhaps shed some light on the answer in the meantime.

Well, alas no. The question today remains largely unanswered. So, I guess we'll have to ask and try to search for the answer that question, on our own, today.

But first, I felt I needed to recapture that same emotion I had when I first formed The Question. So, I spent this better part of this morning re-reading all my Trial Musings posts. In fact...I recommend everyone do that as well. Yes, Trial Musing 1, all the way through Victory! Yes, I know it's a lot of reading, but it'll be time well spent, trust me. It'll put you in the same frame of mind as myself right now, as we prepare to probe The Question.

Done reading? Good. By now, most of you should have figured out exactly to whom The Question is addressed: Naturally, The Question is addressed to the Harlowites. Yes, that same group of people who for close to two years have been lecturing us on how Harlow is innocent until proven innocent. On how we must all wait for the trial. On how, once we hear Harlow's side of the story, the scales will fall from our eyes, and how our world view will change overnight.

And all that trial re-reading, The Question itself should be obvious as well. It being:

WHAT THE FUCKING HELL WERE YOU PEOPLE THINKING???????

That's The Question, pretty much in a nutshell. And since the verdict, there just has been no satisfactory explanation from those primarily responsible for this farce of a trial for their actions. A travesty which not only WASTED two years of our lives here, but perhaps more importantly, ruined the lives of the Kerekes and Zaldivar families.

---

I want to elaborate on that last point, because it is of critical moral importance. It is my firm belief that Harlow and Joe, had they been reasonable after their arrest on May 15, would have been able to easily secure plea bargains at that early stage far more lenient than the life w/o parole sentences they ended up with by fighting and foot dragging to the verge (in Joe's case) or the actuality (in Harlow's) of a trial.

Consider the case of Bobby Lee Komrowski. Some of you may remember him as the prison cellmate of Joe Kerekes, transported to testify at Harlow's trial, but (for whatever reason) not called. The reason I bring him up actually has nothing to do with his stint an aborted witness, but rather, on the merits of his own case for which he was incarcerated.

Comparisons between Komrowski and Harlow/Joe are interesting. Both were capital murder cases. Both were grisly stabbings. Both in 2007. Both were committed in Luzerne County, and prosecuted by the Luzerne County DA's Office. Komrowski was defended by Mark Bufalino, who was for a time Joe Kerekes alternate public defender.

The differences? Well, the key one being, Komrowski did not unreasonably try to drag his case to trial, but instead allowed Bufalino to negotiate a reasonable plea arrangement early on. He and the DA quickly agreed to a 20-40 year sentence, which was routinely approved in due course by the court.

Oh, and there were other interesting differences as well. Komrowski committed his crime alone, meaning, there was no co-defendant he could offer to "roll" on. In addition, Komrowski's victim, his girlfriend and mother of their child, was needless to say a rather more sympathetic one than Harlow/Joe's. And on top of that, the Komrowski case was VASTLY less complex, with all local witnesses; hence could have been prosecuted by cash-strapped Luzerne County much more cheaply than the Kocis case, had the case gone to trial.

In other words...all the differences between these similar cases indicate that Harlow and Joe could have gotten an even better deal than 20-40, had they been so inclined early on.

And THAT folks, is what makes my blood boil right now. WHY were Harlow and Joe not-so-inclined? Who manipulated them into such self-detrimental folly?

---

Well, I think we can safely say it was not their court appointed attorneys. Surely, they would have advised Harlow and Joe that the state of the evidence against them was so overwhelming that a plea was their best and only hope, and the sooner they could start bargaining, the better.

So, why didn't Harlow and Joe listen to their veteran public defenders, who knew the lay of the land: the judges, the DAs, the clerks; who knew better than most what was possible and what was impossible in their own familiar court system?

It's possible, I suppose, Harlow and Joe may have deluded themselves to some extent. Their well established narcissistic personalities, which led in the past to delusions of grandeur, could also have inflicted them with a mental illusion of invulnerability.

But to me...that explanation alone just does not cut the mustard. No, someone else must have been urging them to reject the common sense proffered by their attorneys. I speak, naturally, of that breed of vermin I have referred to over the past two years as the Harlowites.

---

So, who are the Harlowites?

Well naturally, as the name implies, they are people who have since the murder supported Harlow, and the notion he was innocent. And I've noticed they can be divided into three categories:

1) The Corrigan Derangement Syndrome (CDS) sufferers;
2) The Harlow Clients and Associates (HCA);
3) Elm

Let me deal with that last one first.

Elm is a rare bird. He, and he alone that I know of, doesn't really pigeonhole into either of the first two categories. I could say more...but I don't see the need to, really. I have opinions about Elm, which I have stated here in the past...just enter "Elm" as a search term on this blog if you want read them. The thing about Elm is, I don't think he ever was so close to Harlow and/or Joe as to influence their decision making, one way or the other. So in view of that...I am giving him a pass.

Elm, you are free to leave the woodshed unharmed. Go in peace.

---

The first group of Harlowites are easily my favorite, because they are so predictable and easy to understand. There is very little mystery as to what motivates a Corrigan Derangement Syndrome sufferer!

CDS sufferers are also fun to study, because they can be further subdivided into subcategories. This is important to do, because as it turns out...not all CDS sufferers turned out to be Harlowites.

I shall explain. On the various pre-arrest online forums, CDS sufferers were united in stridently declaring Grant and Brent the murderers. That was their defining trait. When they spoke about Harlow, if at all, it was as the poor innocent waif set up by the aforementioned evildoers.

My theory as to why: The CDS sufferers back then were afraid that by introducing a non-Sean non-Grant party into their various conspiracy theories, it could be pointed out that that party may have acted alone. A fear that turned out to be pretty well justified, because as we all know, that is exactly the reality of what happened.

After Arrest Day, a schism developed. Some CDS sufferers read the arrest affidavit, accepted reality, and immediately acknowledged Harlow and Joe as the killers. Naturally, "...put them up to it..." became their new battle cry.

The blogger "BB" would become perhaps the best known representative of this "Realist" subcategory. Since they are by definition not Harlowites, I should say no more of them here; however, for the sake of historical completeness I cannot resist writing a brief post-script here as to what became of them. As the evidence mounted against "put them up to it," they gradually fell back upon "they failed to warn!" and other such less impressive arguments for culpability which never quite caught on. Their Waterloo, however, was during the trial, when both Sean and Grant were called to testify for the prosecution. For YEARS, they had openly salivated in great anticipation of this sacred and holy moment, when under no-doubt withering cross-examination "they would have a meltdown" and "all their lies would be exposed." But like the actual battle of Waterloo, well...things did not go exactly as planned. Brent by all accounts "performed brilliantly," and Grant's testimony, rather than melting down or exposing lies was noted most for the remarkable candor in which he calmly detailed his less-than-favorable opinion of the victim, Bryan Kocis. La Garde recule! Palpably dispirited afterwards, the Realists have since then more or less faded away.

Other CDS sufferers, OTOH, never could abandon Harlow. For them, their contempt for Brent was so extreme, they simply could not fathom the notion that anyone in their right mind could commit murder in order to work with him, either "put up to" or no. The motive for the crime was thus by objective definition ridiculous; therefore, Harlow HAD to have been framed. Jason Ridge and John Roecker are the leading lights of this "Harlowite" wing of the CDS sufferers, and really, half of what this post is about today.

As I've said before, I don't really watch a lot of gay porn, so, I can't say I know a whole lot about Jason Ridge. While I obviously never saw any of his movies, from what I've been able to determine by reading his blog, he appears to be an aging, balding, out of shape and pathologically insecure porn star. Apparently, he first came into contact with Brent while working together on The Velvet Mafia, and for reasons unknown seems to have developed some sort of bug up his butt towards he and Grant during that time. Shortly after Harlow was arrested, Ridge announced that he had made a large donation to Harlow's defense fund, in doing so taking a stand against "the nasty pedifiles defending Brent Corrigan."

(You know, the funny thing looking back on that old post of mine, is that I and pretty much everyone else back then simply assumed this was just a publicity stunt by Jason Ridge. That it had to be, as nobody could be so stupid as to truly believe Harlow was innocent. Well, fast forward to today, and based on his words and actions since, I'll be the first to admit: I was wrong. It wasn't just a publicity stunt. He really did think Harlow was innocent. He really was that stupid. Yep, he sure showed me.)

And I confess to know even less about Roecker. All I know is that he's a relatively obscure LA based filmmaker, rumored to be a regular escort client of Jason Ridge, who by producing a slavishly sympathetic documentary of Harlow Cuadra (complete with a re-enactment of Sean and Grant sneaking into Bryan's house), became in effect the Leni Riefenstahl of the Harlowites. Roecker also allegedly paid $50,000 to Harlow's defense fund, as a "fee" for the interview.

Given all of the above, I don't think it's a leap to suggest both Ridge, Roecker, and the other various CDS Harlowites played a huge role in Harlow's decision to gamble his life away at trial. A plea was the last thing these people wanted, as it would remove suspicion from where they wanted it to be. Tearing down Brent was always the main objective with this group, not saving Harlow. Harlow was merely a tool to be used towards that objective.

One final highly amusing point, before I move on: Roecker's Harlow interview was, by quirk of fate, conducted before Joe pled out. Meaning, it portrayed Joe in a way completely at odds with the way the defense wanted Joe portrayed at trial - a loving soul mate who coyly courted Harlow at a mall, rather than a monster who Stockholm Syndromed Harlow into thralldom. Naturally, Melnick used the Roecker interview to very effectively impeach Harlow on the stand, so that ultimately, John Roecker's propaganda ended up swaying the only 12 people who mattered in precisely the opposite direction as was intended.

I must say, the gods of poetic justice have truly worked wonders in this saga!

---

On Day 7 of the Harlow Trial back in March, facial orifices expanded all over the Kocisphere as we read:

"Mouths opened and eyes widened among a few jurors on Wednesday when a customer of Harlow Cuadra’s male escort business in Virginia testified he gave Cuadra $70,000 to help pay for his defense on criminal homicide charges.

Howard Mitchell Hallford, 48, told the Luzerne County jury he gave the money to Cuadra, 27, because he loves him."

Re-reading this today, however, it is my nostrils that are flaring. Frankly folks, after months of reflection...I now smell BS.

$70,000 is a lot of money to spend for "love." And it's interesting that this insane degree of love didn't motivate Mr. Hallford to back up an alibi for Harlow, which Harlow asked him to do.

So naturally, I begin to wonder: If Roecker gave Harlow $50 grand in order to selfishly convince Harlow not to plea, might Hallford be giving his $70 grand for the same general purpose? This theory begins to make sense, if you consider the possibility that much of that $70 grand came from other people.

OK, I'll be honest with you folks: I am now entering purely speculative territory. What I am presenting for your consideration today is just a theory. It is a theory that is consistent with the facts we know, but it is currently untested, and hence unproven. Perhaps others after me will care to put it to some tests. Then again, perhaps not. We'll see. I leave it to you all as a parting gift; an unpolished gem, to do with as you wish.

I put forth to you that Mr. Hallford was acting as a "bag man." Oh, I'm sure a small portion may have come from him. But the lion's share I propose came from other escort clients of Harlow. Other clients who are very keen not to be discovered, and used Mr. Hallford to launder their donations.

Other members of this theoretical "Harlow Clients and Associates" group would probably include Barry Taylor (a known client of Harlow), Cheryl "Sassy" Conrad (works for Mr. Taylor), and Renee Martin (at her old job was previously embroiled a financial misappropriation scandal; then managed the Harlow Defense Fund, which by an amazing coincidence is currently embroiled in a financial misappropriation scandal). Heck, I would be surprised if Preacher George is part of this group as well, in some less-than-holy capacity.

I believe these HCAs did not want Harlow and Joe to plea, because they didn't want a "little black book" (actually, I have no idea what color it is, nor whether it's even a book...but you get my drift) possibly ending up as a bargaining chip in these negociations.

These HCAs I wager are also exceedingly happy with the end result of Harlow and Joe being in jail for life...even being on death row would have been peachy with them. As things stand now, all they have to do keep their respective canteen fund at a healthy level, and for a nominal sum of money, buy their silence for life. Had Harlow or Joe ever been released, say, due to a plea bargain, the cost of silence would have risen exponentially. Cigarettes, writing paper, and gum are cheap. Rolexes and cars named Old Blue are not.

Lastly, I now believe that one of these unknown clients is indeed a United States Senator.

Now as you all know, I am not a conspiracy nut. So, I don't make this claim lightly. Initially, I was skeptical when Joe first made this claim:

"mark @ www.boisrus.com said...
Diligently working Harlow is on his star studed blog :-)~...
Harlow and I along with Calvin just returned from a dude ranch in Montana where we thought we were just spending time in R & R a lo and behold. here we are nearly 70 miles from the nearest gas station and probably the same from the nearest "hot spot" we meet a Cowboy who almost instantly recognizes Harlow and asks, OMG are you ready for this..."Are you guys on the RUN."
I have to admit I almost slipped on my spilt tea. But this gentleman burst out with laughter and said, "Boy...see my shotgun over there on the wall?...If you are guilty I aint a US Senator."
Yes so we went horseback riding with Senator " " of " ".
Turns out Harlow and I spent the afternoon riding a different cowboy, and this Senator actually paid for our entire little vacation in an unplanned Escort booking. LOL Also...Harlow is heading out there again tomorrow for some more trail riding :-)
Just a Hello from all of us here in Norfolk today, and we look forward to all of your enlightening and exciting comments on Harlows blog. www.harlowcuadraonline.com

April 17, 2007 4:47 AM"

But when you factor in Justin Hensley testifying under oath to the existence of this Senator as well, combined with Quicky's earwitness courtroom account of the Black's Beach tape volume being turned down to inaudible levels at certain key points in the conversation...I have to admit the unthinkable may be thinkable: that Joe may have, to some extent, been telling the truth.

As to the exact identity of this US Senator, who knows. I'm outa here on the 15th, so, this yet another project I bequeath to some enterprising soul who may chose to undertake it. Who knows, the answer may be closer than we realize. Perhaps on this very blog. Perhaps all someone has to do is connect the dots.

Well, however close to the truth these new theories of mine get, one thing is for certain: These HCA's, by their misguided (perhaps even self-serving) support, probably urged Harlow Joe away from a sensible early plea deal. Thanks to them we had to endure these two years of waiting, all for this incredible joke of a trial.

---

But like all good jokes, I will admit the trial was entertaining. And as unexpectedly entertaing as the trial turned out to be...and as much as I've enjoyed you all's company these past two years as well...

On May 16, 2007, I can remember how happy we were all then that the whole mess was sure to be just days away from being OVER.

And then the affidavit came out, and we saw what it was they were arrested on...and we thought...WHEW! Oh yeah. This is OVER! No way this'll go to trial...only a matter of days now...or minutes...

Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, months into years...

You know, it's my belief that people in general are rational beings, and that they'll always tend to follow their rational self-interests. And when they don't, that means one of two things: Either a fool is in the equation, OR there are some hidden self-interests out pushing things in what appears to be an unexpected direction.

Now, it is possible both Harlow and Joe were monumental fools. But...it's kind of unlikely. One monumental fool, well we see that all the time. But two monumental fools, in the same situation, simultaneously? That stretches probability a bit.

So, for that reason I have to believe that other furtive self-interests opportunistically entered the picture in May of 2007, and rather callously led Harlow and Joe down a two year path to destruction.

To all you Harlowites out there, who made this trial happen...yeah, I hope your all happy. In 20 years, Harlow will be 46. Joe, somewhere in his 50s. Both with many years of life expectancy ahead of them. But for you and your efforts these past two years, Harlow and Joe might have spent these years as free men, reunited with their families. Instead, thanks to you, in 20 years they will still be making license plates. Atta boy!

To the Brent haters out there like Ridge and Roecker, hey a little word of advice to you guys: Next time a fit of jealously compels you to express your mindless hatred, perhaps next time consider doing so in a way that, say, doesn't cause a half a lifetime of unneccessary misery to an innocent woman like Gladis Zaldivar? Maybe consider doing something a little less destructive, like, oh I don't know, writing an angry blog post? Or if you really are frustrated with the failure of your porn company compared to Brent's, maybe try grabbing an unattended microphone, and saying some bad things about him to a large audience? Or if you are really upset for some reason, just settle for having Brent's boyfriend placed in handcuffs for 10 seconds? Because as vicious and as classless and as stupid and as mindlessly vindictive as all those actions are...that's all PEANUTS compared to the collateral damage you've inflicted on people other than your intended target. This was a trial, a capital murder TRIAL. This was not a fucking game...your childish little porn spat with Brent Corrigan came within four votes of getting a man EXECUTED. Think about that. Oh, and uh, Layla Tov.

And to other Harlow enablers and clients out there...if you had truly loved Harlow, you would have given him good advice two years ago, and dissuaded him from the Kamikaze course he ended up on. Which means at best you're idiots, at worst, you're something more sinister. Whichever it is, I don't really care. But I will say this: the only thing more stupid out there than Harlow's trial is Harlow's appeal. It'll fail, but if by a miracle it succeeds, and a new trial is granted...God help Harlow. On a rerun, I would not be surprised to see a 12-0 vote for death.

Not that I'll be watching this appeal at all. Waiting two years for one ridiculous trial is enough for me.

Final Thoughts II

2009-05-12T02:13:00.012+01:00

The Investigation
------------------------

Ah, the murder investigation period. January 25, 2007 to May 15, 2007. 111 days of my life I shall never forget.

Here's a excerpt from one of this blog's early posts, explaining how I got involved in all this:

"...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."

What kind of makes me LOL as I re-read this is that earlier today Sassy made a comment (to the previous post) to the effect that I should be more questioning, and that I should see to it that "the story fits the facts and sense has been made." The ironic thing being, using this methodology was precisely how I successfully deduced, in February of 2007, that Harlow Cuadra was a cold-blooded killer.

And that's what today's Final Thoughts will mostly be about - the blogger investigation of the Kocis murder, and my not-so-humble involvement in it. The blogger investigation (as opposed to the police, or "real" investigation) was conducted by bloggers and commenters after the murder/before the arrest mainly on Jason Curious' News Desk, and then increasingly on Elm's blog.

Here's from another earlier blog post of mine, briefly describing those tempestuous days:

"For MONTHS prior to this, ever since the murder and the revelation of the Drake/Harlow connection, I was one of a VERY small band of stalwarts that had been saying all along that Harlow was the murderer. It's hard to imagine this now, but before Arrest Day this was a VERY VERY minority opinion. The leading theories were that 1) Grant and/or Brent did it; 2) Aaron aka Robert Wagner did it 3) "bb" did it (LOL, ok, only one person thought this); 4) the "15 y/o" did this; 5) a random Brent fan did this; 6) Luzerne County did this, etc etc etc. All of these dominent theories had a common thread: poor innocent little Harlow being framed.

So, back then, whenever I tried to point out that based on what we know, it was near impossible for Harlow to have been framed, therefore, he must be the murderer (ie, Occam's Razor), I would get passionately drowned out by the majority opiners enumerated above."

I should elaborate on this a bit; here is a great example of how one can use basic deductive reasoning to solve simple crimes like this one. Like I said back then, the revelation of the Drake/Harlow connection got the ball rolling. That Bryan was supposed to meet with "Drake," and that Drake was revealed to be one Harlow Cuadra, male escort, of Virginia Beach, meant to me that there could be only three possibilities:

1) The murderer stole Harlow's photo off the internet at random, by trolling escort sites (interestingly, this was Harlow's explanation to the media, when he was first contacted);
2) The murderer stole Harlow's photo off the internet intentionally, in order to frame him; or
3) Harlow was involved in the murder.

A few days after the Harlow/Drake connection was made, some enterprising commenteer made the next big revelation in the "blogger investigation" of the crime - the discovery of Harlow's Photobucket account, which had the famed photo of Brent and Harlow outside Le Cirque, with bow-tie askew.

Of course, we knew nothing of Le Cirque at that time. But by examination of the time/date EXIF data of the photo, I was able to determine it had likely been taken in Las Vegas, the weekend of the big AVN convention that year, which Brent Corrigan was known to have been in attendance at. The date being the significant fact to bear in mind here; this was a relatively recent photo.

Which meant, we could now eliminate possibility 1 from our list above. The odds of a random murderer randomly choosing Harlow's photo from the ENTIRE internet to be Drake, AND Harlow hanging out with Brent Corrigan just days before the murder...astronomical to one against. Either the murderer is intentionally framing Harlow, or...Harlow is the murderer. Those were the only two choices that remained.

Notice that Harlow almost certainly lied to the media when he said the photo MUST have just been plucked off the internet at random. He must, in fact, have known otherwise, having met with Brent in Vegas just days before. He also made another nearly certain lie in that initial interview...that he had no idea who Bryan Kocis was. Needless to say, it would have been extremely unlikely to have just socialized with Brent Corrigan, and not have known who Bryan Kocis was. Not to mention that, in addition to escorting, they ran a competing gay twink porn studio in the very same Mid-Atlantic region as Cobra Video.

These obvious lies by Harlow were certainly suggestive. But the last piece of the puzzle fell into place when news accounts revealed ALL of Bryan's computers had been stolen from the house prior to the murder and arson.

This iced it. We could now eliminate possibility 2 from our list, because stealing the computers that received and held the Drake photo would have been the LAST thing a framer using the Drake photo to frame someone with would EVER want to do (it turns out, in fact, the reason police had the Drake photo at all was because it had been casually forwarded to Robert Wagner...an event our hypothetical framer could never have predicted).

So, I had now eliminated possibilities 1 and 2 from our list. That left 3, and to quote Conan Doyle:

"You eliminate the impossible, and whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

Thus in mid-February of 2007 I had independently determined, with mathematical certainly, that Harlow Raymond Cuadra was a murderer. There were of course still details to discover (namely, who exactly, if any, were Harlow's co-conspirators) but in the main, I had just single-handedly solved the Kocis murder.

---

Trying to make others on Jason Curious see the obvious was not so simple. Few there was interested in logic and deduction; most everyone else there had a pig-headed fixation with question of motive. And that meant Sean and Grant, who had the most compelling emotional motive (with the lawsuit irrevocably settled, a financial motive was far more hypothetical) MUST have been the murderers. And Harlow, who seemingly lacked a motive at the time (this would eventually be prooved otherwise, with PC getting the gold star for his investigation into Harlow's finances) must be innocent.

My frustrations increased when "Mark@boisrus.com" started posting. At first, I did not know what to make of him. I even tried to subtly warn him via tactfully worded comments that one of his escorts was very probably a murderer. Not surprisingly (in hindsight), he ignored my well-meaning advisories.

But my biggest frustration was with the police. As February gave way to March, and March gave way to April...I could not believe they had not arrested Harlow. It was so obvious! And of course, everyone online was making hay of this fact, at my expense. 'But jim...' they would say, '...if Harlow were guilty as you say, certainly the police would have arrested him by now!' Grrrrr... >:-(

Honestly, this is one of the few things about the police investigation (as opposed to the blog investigation, which I am focusing on here) that amaze me: the length of time they allowed Harlow and Joe to roam free. The PA State Police, like I, must have deduced early that Harlow and Joe were killers. They ordered SWAT raid on their house in February, and while I have heard rumors that it was intended they be arrested that night in the house too...they were not there, and they weren't. Harlow and Joe were lulled into a sense of security by the police after that, and given months of freedom.

So why did they wait until mid-May to make an arrest? Of course, we know the reasons in hindsight, the main one being to gather the excellent San Diego sting recordings (which proved not only who was involved, but also who was NOT involved), but what if Harlow and/or Joe committed another murder during that time frame? They were proven violent killers, so the possibility had to be allowed for. So, it seems to me the investigators were taking a terrible risk by delaying arrest for so long.

Yes I know; as things turned out, nothing bad happened. AND much good was accomplished. But it was still a huge risk nonetheless, IMO; that's my only point.

---

As to Sean and Grant's potential involvement, I generally kept an open mind during this period. However, the fact that Brent had implicated Harlow early on with his off the cuff "on the run" comment to Jody Wheeler was suggestive of them being NOT involved criminally. It's highly irregular for one unarrested co-conspirator to publicly blow the whistle on another unarrested co-conspirator, for obvious reasons.

So, when Harlow and Joe romped on the beach in late April with Sean and Grant, I must say I was quite surprised. Once again from that earlier post, here's how I described my emotions back then:

"So, Blacks Beach Day, yeah, that was a dark day for us Harlow-did-it stalwarts. I personally was stunned; I could not believe Brent and Grant were so stupid as to give a murdering thug a photo op like this. Did they not realize the obvious, as I did? OR PERHAPS...they knew he was a murderer, because they were all in it together? But, if that were the case...this was not only a stupid move on their part, it was a STUPENDOUSLY stupid move. It made them all look guilty! The whole thing...it was incomprehensible to me back then.

But the most depressing aspect of it all was (from my point of view) was that it indicated that the police APPARANTLY no longer had interest in Harlow and Joe as a suspect. How else could one explain Brent and Grant and Harlow and Joe's fearless decision to associate with one another so openly like this? I was crestfallen."

But as I go on to say, just a couple weeks later, on May 15...I began to feel better. :-)

---

And on May 16, 2007...this saga SHOULD have ended. But it did not. as we all know, this no-brainer of a case proceeded to drag on for close to two years.

In my next post, we'll take a look at those two years, the reasons for those two years, and the people most responsible for those two long years. With the discussion of the latter I am tentatively intending to place under a header entitled: The Woodshed.

Update: Here's the magazine cover Michael Lucas tried (and failed) to have to have cancelled:

Final Thoughts I

2009-05-08T21:29:00.023+01:00

This whole Kocis saga, from beginning to end, has been a fascinating case study in human nature. Some of the best qualities of mankind have been put on display, along with some of the very, very worst. With the incidents of the worst being in the clear majority, which is probably why most of us have found it so entertaining.

I've been told via 'do-not-publish' comments that I should write a book about this saga; that I would be the perfect man to tackle such a literary endeavor.

Well, I'll start off by giving my response to that suggestion: Have you been reading this blog since the beginning? Good, then you've been reading my book.

Are you reading this blog now? Well of course you are. And this means you are almost done reading my book. Read on.

It's time to write the conclusion to this online book. I'll now attempt to wrap up the loose threads that went before it into a more unified whole, while also highlighting those events that I think are most critical to a proper understanding of the whole story...many of which I do not think have ever gotten the full attention they deserve.

I like to think of this saga as having three stages: The Underage Scandal (the period before the murder), The Investigation (after the murder, before the arrest), and The Trial (after the arrest). Lets begin with The Underage Scandal.

The Underage Scandal
--------------------

I've always said the biggest flaw in the two major Kocis murder articles (Out and Rolling Stone) has been the scanty explanations of the whole Cobra Video underage scandal. Rolling Stone was particularly egregious in this, devoting exactly one sentence (!) to the subject. Trying to explain how and why Bryan was murdered without adequate reference to what went before, is like trying to explain how an atom bomb works, without first describing what Plutonium is.

I don't want to have to rehash the whole thing here. Fortunately I don't have to, because as it turns out...I already have! Part 2 of my three-post series on Chris Henriquez inadvertently happens to be a good little summary of that whole time period, drawn from all the extant primary sources (Siren's Tale, the Cobra lawsuit, and various interviews). I heartily recommend everyone take a break, and re-read that post right now. Go! Now! READ!

OK, everyone done re-reading? Good. Looking back in hindsight, three things from this old post jump out at me, and really deserve re-emphasis:

1) As I indicated in that post, I am STILL to this day amazed how little blame people generally assign to Chris Henriquez for giving birth to this saga. It was Chris who wanted sooo badly to star in pseudo-ephebophile porn for Cobra Video, not Brent. Brent was literally asleep when Chris was selling himself as a porn star to Bryan Kocis, offering his then 16 y/o boyfriend as a bonus gift with purchase.

It was Chris Henriquez who forged and sent in Brent's I.D.s, not Brent:

And it was Chris Henriquez' machinations which led to the underage secret eventually being revealed. Yet despite all this...you still see people today laying ALL the blame for the scandal on Brent. Such pontifications while in a state of obvious factual ignorance is simply astonishing to me. But I guess facts don't really matter when media attention is your true goal.

2) Bryan Kocis first discovered Brent's true age from another desperately aspiring Cobra applicant, porn star Jonathan Deverell, shortly after Every Poolboy's Dream was completed. OK, this is one of those largely unsung pivotal moments that I mentioned above that I was going to spotlight.

How big was this moment? It was HUGE, and I'll show you why using alternate history.

Consider an alternate universe where Bryan's reaction to the information was totally different from his historical reaction. In this alternate timeline, Bryan (not Sean) becomes the courageous whistle blower, and he immediately pulls EPD from circulation. He drafts a press release stating the reason for the recall, apologizing to the industry for his momentary lack of diligence. He bans both Sean Lockhart and Chris Henriquez from further Cobra video work, a ban that is enthusiastically adopted by the rest of the gay porn industry. Cobra Video is then honored by various child welfare agencies for taking a stand against underage porn, and at the 2009 GAYVN Awards "Bryan Phillips" is formally inducted into the "Hall of Fame," being hailed as a pioneer in a new media known as Internet porn, and "truly a visionary."

But that's not what Bryan decided to do historically, was it? Oh no. No, no and NO he made a VERY different decision historically, at that momentous moment when Johnathan Deverell dropped the info bomb on him.

At that moment, in real history, Bryan Charles Kocis decided, AND DECIDED ALONE, to become a child pornographer.

And in doing so, he set in motion the real historical timeline that most of us are very familiar with today. He lost four videos, not just one. Brent Corrigan became the courageous whistle blower, the hero of the situation, thus earning for all time a place of honor in the industry. And surely most importantly from Bryan's perspective...Bryan ended up dead. His decision at that pivotal moment initiated the chain of events that would eventually lead to his own demise.

So, I ask myself, WHY? Why did Bryan take the wrong road here? I mean, even with the benefit of hindsight, it's pretty obvious his two options were between a smart, moral choice and a stupid, immoral choice...and he consciously chose to be stupid and immoral. Why?

Well, the answer is a simple one, really: At that moment, Bryan was obsessed with Sean Lockhart. Need I bother to elaborate? Love can make us all do very very foolish things, as I'm sure we all know through our own personal experiences. And in this case, the stupid and immoral choice was the only way for Bryan to keep his now 17 y/o obsession in his life. So, he chose it. The rest, as they say, is history.

3) Bryan's decision to sue Brent and Grant, and initiate the subsequent war of destruction on them both...obviously, another pivotal moment.

And as we now know, the lawsuit was a fraud all along. The one partner of Brent's first independent company who Bryan did not personally sue by name (that right there should have been a clue, folks), Lee Bergeron, was actually a double agent; a Benedict Arnold whose job it was to pass on sensitive information to Bryan, and to cajole them into accepting an equally fraudulent settlement agreement. The immediate object being for Lee to sellout to Bryan, and/or Bryan to allow Lee in as a Cobra shareholder; with the ultimate object being for Brent to be brought back into Bryan arms, both contractually and sexually. They had even planned to buy Brent his own condo in San Diego; a love nest for Bryan to visit whenever he was in town.

Once again, you can see Bryan's obsession for Sean Lockhart dictating his actions. When Melody Kocis referred to Brent Corrigan as Bryan's biggest mistake...this pathological obsession was undoubtedly what she was referring to.

Anyways, Bryan's inability to let Sean go had negative consequences, the worst of which was the inevitable tarnishing of his public image. Not only due to the spending of reputedly over $300,000 in legal fees on this seemingly pointless and vindictive Federal lawsuit (all over a used Jetta?), but his other vile public acts committed in the course of the struggle as well - hired goons disrupting public appearances, hateful video box covers, smear campaigns via email blast, etc... It was no exaggeration when then AVN editor Doug Lawrence referred to Kocis as having a "terrible reputation" in the industry.

And as this hate campaign went on, Brent began to attract legions of sympathetic fans, as ardent in their support for Brent as they were in their disdain for Cobra Video. And two of these new supporter/disdainers happened to live in Virginia Beach.

Now, these two Virginia Beach residents had other pre-existing reasons to disdain Cobra Video (they were aspiring twink pornographers themselves, and considered Cobra Video in nearby Pennsylvania their "main rival"), but the horrific anti-Brent hate campaign kicked this up a notch, from disdain to revulsion. Kocis's inhuman actions dehumanized himself in the eyes of these two, not to mention others. In effect, Bryan signed his own death warrant.

--

I want to leave off here with just one more thought. Imagine, if you will, the night of the murder. It's 7:45pm. Bryan Kocis is pacing his living room floor, talking enthusiastically towards his Blackberry (sitting on his coffee table on speakerphone mode). How happy he is! The settlement is about to be signed. Heh heh heh! Finally! He and Lee have Sean and Grant RIGHT where they want them. Soon, Grant will be sent packing back to Texas; Sean will be cooped up in his Condo; Lee will be nearby, keeping him on a short leash...yes, everything is coming together! It's his moment of triumph, and he is openly exultant.

Openly that is, to the lanky, dark-haired twink fidgeting nervously on the couch sitting right next to the Blackberry. The twink, a prospective "new model," got here at 7pm, and he's been yakking on the phone here via conference call to Lee and Macias all this time? 'Heh, kinda rude of me' he thinks. Hmmm, he should probably end this call, as enjoyable as it is, and get down to some other "business." And in any case, should he really be talking so freely in front of this kid, calling Brent his "bitch" and such? Ah well, it probably doesn't matter. Once all the paperwork is signed, the trap will be shut...and there's not a damn thing Sean or Grant will be able to do get out of it. 'I got 'em by the balls,' he thinks, 'and they don't even realize it...yet!' Bryan smiles a sardonic smile...

At 7:50pm Bryan suddenly says to the speakerphone: "Oh hey, someone at the door...it's probably that new model!" (Bryan winks at the twink sitting on the couch) "Oh, yeah it's him, D(mumble), gotta run guys...we'll finish this chat later...yeah, just fax that paperwork on over tomorrow...yeah...bye! bye!"

Bryan walks over to the coffee table, leans over it, and disconnects his Blackberry.

...

There is some spirited academic speculation in the medical community as to how long, if at all, the human brain survives decapitation. The majority opinion is that death is instantaneous. However, others maintain there is possibly enough oxygen in the brain at any given time for life, indeed, even consciousness, for up to two seconds. The latter bolster their theory by citing anecdotal evidence from the French Revolution, where guillotined heads would open their eyes, and stare directly back at their executioners from the basket.

Assuming the latter theorists to be correct, what might have Bryan been thinking during those final two seconds? Did he have time to realize the obvious poetic justice inherent in the situation? Did the concepts of hubris, as it's known in the west, or karma, as it's known in the east, enter his thoughts? Did he have any remorse?

I'll leave those questions for the philosophically inclined amongst you to discuss.

Update: Harlow's lawyers ask to withdraw.

Leaving San Diego

2009-05-04T20:26:00.010+01:00

It was a memorable, thought-provoking, nostalgic and above all fun visit. Thanks San Diego! :-)

We had just one more stop before we got ready to head out - a little shopping trip to this store in Hillcrest:

While there, we found these red v-neck shirts that were an incredible bargain. Only $19! Just a few days earlier I had noticed one selling for over $500...making this a 96% off sale. Wow, what a deal!

So I bought two...one to keep as a treasured souvenir, and the other to auction off someday: "One American Apparel red v-neck shirt, size medium, quite possibly placed on a hanger two years ago by Brent Corrigan! Reserve bid $500."

OTOH, how often does inventory move off the shelves at AA? Perhaps I am thinking a bit wishfully here. Oh well, I'll let the marketplace sort this thorny question out...

In any case, barring any significant Harlow/Joe developments in the next two weeks (i.e., a prison break), it looks like this blog will see exactly two more posts: A "Final Thoughts" post sometime next week, then a farewell post on Arrest Day, May 15. The latter being a few appropriate closing remarks, with the comments being more or less an open thread. New comments will be turned off on June 1.

Update: Chatting with Brent, Part One. Nothing too interesting IMO until that last question, which immediately caught my attention; naturally, Part One ends on that cliffhanger...

Update 2: Chatting with Brent, Part Two. No new Kocis saga revelations, disappointingly. The whole thing was a fluff interview, which given the forum was perhaps not surprising:

Update 3: Wow, here's an update with a LOT more meat on the bone:

"I don't claim to know much about Cuadra, his involvement in Cobra Video or his past with Brent Corrigan, but I have worked with him in an escort capacity in the past: Years ago we had been hired together on several occasions and, on a very superficial level, we'd chat back and forth."

This fascinating post is over a month old; frankly I'm a little red-faced I missed it until now. It's midway down the page, read the whole thing...

Update 4: OK I lied. There will now be more than two remaining posts. The Final Thoughts are turning out to be much more thoughtful than I first thought, so, look for that to be released in three rather than one post. Look for the first one later today...

Harlow Appeal Update

2009-05-02T19:10:00.005+01:00

From yesterday's Times Leader "Court Briefs" column:

May 1
Court briefs

WILKES-BARRE – Convicted murderer Harlow Cuadra filed court papers Thursday through his attorney Paul Walker stating why he filed an appeal with the state Superior Court.

Cuadra, 27, of Virginia, was found guilty by a county jury in March of the murder of Bryan Kocis, 44, of Dallas Township, in January 2007.

Cuadra was sentenced to life in prison for his involvement in the death of his rival in the gay pornography industry.

His co-defendant and partner, Joseph Kerekes, 35, also of Virginia, pleaded guilty in December to murder charges and is also serving a life sentence.

In his court papers, Cuadra said he is appealing his conviction and sentence because the trial court, or judge, erred in denying a motion to suppress recorded statements and conversations at Crabcatcher’s Restaurant in La Hoya, Calif., in April 2007 and recorded statements and conversations at Black Beach, San Diego, Calif., in April 2007; evidence seized from Cuadra’s home during a search warrant execution, and evidence seized regarding Cuadra’s e-mail accounts. He claims the court should not have allowed “gruesome photographs” into evidence, which “served no purpose.”

According to court records, during dinner at the restaurant, Kerekes told an associate, Grant Roy, he couldn’t talk because he was worried Roy was wearing a wire.

The next day on April 28, Roy carried a remote car opener containing a recording device when the four men visited a nude beach near San Diego.

Evidence seized from the home included a log book, videotapes, digital cameras, camcorders, battery packs, luggage, receipts, firearms, ammunition, clothing and computers.

E-mails presented at Cuadra’s trial were traced back to Kerekes and Cuadra and it is unknown which “gruesome” photos Cuadra is specifically appealing. At trial, prosecutors showed the jury a number of photos taken at Kocis’ autopsy.

Update: "Instead of trying to overturn your conviction, sweet pea, maybe you should focus on being the best gutter bitch you can be!"

A Tale of Three (or Four) Restaurants

2009-05-01T21:03:00.025+01:00

Wow, what a night! My head still hurts. Which is why this post is a bit delayed...we ended up having a bit too much fun out in Hillcrest last night...heh! :-)

But I'm getting ahead of myself...lets begin at the beginning. We started the day yesterday looking for a good place in Hillcrest to grab a bite to eat, and saw this hamburger joint which looked intriguing:

As you can see from the photo, there were actually a few diners sitting there, both indoors and outdoors. Not a bad crowd, it would appear, considering the size of the place. So, while still undecided as to whether we wanted to eat any of the their "famous" burgers (the sign says that, so they must be, right?), we went in for a closer look.

There is nothing particularly remarkable about the interior of Lucky Buck's, it's basically kitchy little surfer bric-a-brac along the shelves, an elaborate cartoon mural of a fantasy gay beach on one wall, and another stainless steel wall full of customer scrawlings in black ink. "'So-and-so' had their birthday here on 'such-and-such a date'" and the like. The funny thing is, if you examine these scrawlings closely, you begin to notice obvious similarities in handwriting between supposedly different past customers.

Another odd thing we notice is, all the customers have these little stickers on. We look more closely, and then it dawns on me that today (ie, yesterday) was national Dining Out For Life Day. Being on vacation, I had actually completely forgotten about this; in fact, in past years I have made a point to go out to eat and support this event. And, credit where credit is due, Lucky Buck's had indeed signed on as a sponsor.

So, I ask one of the Lucky Buck's Dining Outers there whether the place was usually this crowded..."actually no, it's usually pretty dead here...we came here because we were in a hurry and the wait to get into Betty's is just crazy long due to Dining Out Day."

"I see..." I said. "Well, how's the famous burger here?"

She hesitated a bit. "It's OK I guess," she shrugged.

Well, based on that ringing endorsement, we thought we might like to try someplace else instead. Maybe Lee Bergeron's other local business venture? Yes, Hula's San Diego, "Hillcrest’s newest fun place to have lunch or dinner, or just hang out with friends!" The flagship, showcase establishment of the Lee Bergeron restaurant empire! It was just down the street, so yeah, lets go there instead, we thought. If we were going to dine at a Bergeron restaurant, particularly on Dining Out Day, we might as well sample the very best Merlin Lee Bergeron has to offer!

So anyways, we stroll westwards (on a frankly beautiful sunny afternoon) down University Avenue in Hillcrest, past Baja Betty's, which is indeed a mob scene today (ie, yesterday) to the appropriate address for Hula's...and low and behold:

"WTF!" we said. Is it closed on Dining Out Day? And where's the sign? There's no sign...nothing.

So, we cross the street for a closer look, and inside...well, judge for yourself. It looks like the place is in the process of being stripped bare:

Remodelling maybe? They've open been open less than a year, so that seems unlikely. Well, by this time we are starting to get peckish, and need to eat somewhere, so we decide to go this obviously popular place across the street, Urban Mo's. A queer name for a place, but there you have it.

And queer it was indeed! This was the happening gay place to be yesterday afternoon, I'm happy to say. We had to wait a bit for a table due to the crowds, but it was worth it. The food, I'd say, was pretty good, and the prices reasonable considering the vast portion sizes that they served.

The best part was the ambiance, though. Lots of San Diego boys, very friendly, all chatting and drinking. We spotted porn star Phillip Aubrey in the crowd. And I suspect there were more San Diego based porn stars there too that we did not immediately recognize. No Brent, however. Or Brent. :-)

The drink portions were as generous as the meal portions. We saw one that we had to get, called a "Fishbowl." It's basically an Adios Motherfucker served literally in a small fishbowl...complete with a big orange straw and two plastic fishes bobbing around in the azure aquarium. It's $17, but it should be the only drink you have for the entire night. Woe to thee who drinks two (or more).

So anyways, we are halfway through our first Fishbowls, when we decide to do a little sleuthing into this Hula's mystery. So, emboldened by alcohol, we ask one of the friendly Urban Mo's staffpeople what the deal was across the street.

"HULA'S! Oh girl, don't even get me started...!"

But, like it or not, we had. I will not attempt to reproduce stenographically the subsequent flow of impassioned words verbatim, but I shall relate the gist of the "conversation" into bullet points:

1) Hula's closed abruptly, without warning, last month;

2) Hula's staff (many of whom were close friends with this Urban Mo's staff person) was told the reason for the closure was a planned sale of the business to the owners of Fiesta Cantina, a popular gay bar and restaurant in West Hollywood, and that they might get new jobs with the new owner;

3) The sale went into escrow but did NOT take place, due to the fact Lee Bergeron neglected to tell the Fiesta Cantina group that the Hula's liquor license was non-transferable. (Hmmm, yeah, kinda important for a bar/restaurant to have a liquor license there, I'd say!) Claims of fraud were made, and the Fiesta Cantina people are trying to rescind the deal and retrieve their money from escrow.

4) Meanwhile, many vendors all over San Diego who dealt with Lee Bergeron and Hula's have unpaid bills; bill collectors seeking Lee's at the restaurant were a common occurrence in the final days, according to staff;

5) On top of that...and here our narrator gets VERY emotional...the Hula's staff were stiffed. Specifically, their penultimate paycheck bounced, and their final paycheck never delivered.

6) The Hula's staff continues to get the runaround from Lee, who tells them a new story practically every day, while flitting back and forth between residences in San Diego and Palm Springs.

Unfortunately, these neat and precise bullet points don't truly convey the spirit of this deposition; add actual adjectives like "scumbag," "dirtball," and "lowlife" and, you'll begin to comprehend the tenor in which these revelations were made.

Well. That sobered us up a bit! Oh and needless to say, we left a big tip. :-)

The rest of the evening is more or less a drunken blur which involved me sleeping in a location other than the one I had originally planned to. As I am certain you all are not interested in this, I shall skip on to this morning, after I had returned to the location containing my laptop...

Well, when I got back, I looked to see if I could verify what I had been told concerning the Hula's situation. And sure enough, a casual check at the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control website turns up this:

As you can see, our Urban Mo's source was essentially correct. Hula's liquor license has a "NO SALE 2 YEARS" condition dating from it's issue date of "10-JUN-2008." Lee was basically trying to sell a business that could not legally serve alcohol until June of 2010. No wonder Fiesta Cantina was furious. Here's the pending license on file for the Hillcrest Fiesta Cantina:

...and as you can see, there is a Hold on the deal, "AUTHORITY TO CLOSE ESCROW," said authority unlikely to be given anytime soon due to the two year no sale condition in the current active license.

There was one more thing I thought I'd check on while logged onto the CA ABC site. If Lee was trying to sell Hula's, might he also be trying to sell Lucky Buck's as well?

And the answer seems to be no. There is no pending transfer of Lucky Buck's liquor license in the works; indeed, it looks like such a transfer is also currently impossible. Not due to any two year restriction (the license issue date is November of 2006, so, no problem there), but due to a "BOARD OF EQUALIZATION HOLD" on the license. Apparently, Lee Bergeron is in arrears on remitting his California state sales taxes for Lucky Bucks, going back as far as February of 2008:

Well well well, I must say this certainly has been an interesting San Diego vacation, with yesterday and this morning more interesting than expected. Boy I tell ya, investigative vacations like this sure are fun! :-)

Look for more updates possibly later this weekend, at more or less irregular intervals. Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky again tonight! :-)

Sea World

2009-04-29T07:01:00.003+01:00

Well, we went to Sea World today. But, bad news; as we were taking a photo of me standing over a pool holding a starfish, the camera phone slipped and fell into the pool.

LOL, I know. What bad luck. Oh well, I needed a new phone anyways.

So anyways guys, no photos today, very short post. Sea World was fun, we saw more beautiful "marine mammals" (human and otherwise), and got a nice view of the southern part of the city from this twisty tower thingy. I am now typing this post to you from the excellent WiFi connection here at the La Jolla Marriott, while munching on a reasonably good (if perhaps a tad overpriced) BLT.

We are changing our base tomorrow, however, and heading to the Hillcrest area...to see what kind of mischief can get into. And to shop for a camera. :-)

It Was A Day At The Beach

2009-04-28T02:14:00.017+01:00

Here's the street entrance to the Torrey Pines Gliderport. Note all the "new" construction going on across the street at UCSD. Two year gone by, and they are still building "new" things there. Must be an architectual school:

Here's the glider port itself:

OK, here's what we've been led to believe is the beginning of the trail down. Nice view:

And here's the view at the edge of a ledge looking down...that a loooong way down:

We stop to admire a pretty glider in the distance before we attempt the decent:

The pretty glider sails by. Are we procratinating on going down this thing? YES:

OK we begin to climb down. The trail has lots of loose dirt, making every step a potential slip. We know this, because we start slipping immediately. We quickly figure out the solution, however, which is to take smaller steps. Smaller steps, less forward momentum, less slipping. Simple really.

We look down an edge. Yeeee! Slip down that side (or, if someone found a suspicious key fob on me, and I was pushed off), I'd bounce a few times on some protruding rocks on the way down, and probably be dead before my body reached the beach below:

A look back up after going a ways down. Another tricky thing about this so-called "trail" is that it actually branches out at several points, forcing you to choose which way to go. They all get down there eventually it looks like, but as it turns out, some branches are much safer than the others. And it's not immediately obvious which one they are:

We do manage to quickly figure out, however, if someone took the trouble of carving steps into a branch, thats probably for a reason and hence the one to take:

The Crab Catcher lies over yonder, on the edge of that promontory:

Some knowledgable regular in a green shirt passed us, and we used him as an unwitting Sherpa guide to lead us down the correct path to the bottom:

We did it! We made it down alive! What's this sign say? Oh, NOW you tell us!:

Blacks Beach. Warm. Sunny. Beautiful. Pratically inaccessable and nearly totally deserted:

You know, for some reason Elm and other always claimed "Oh, Harlow and Joe knew they were being recorded."

First of all, it's a ridiculous claim on it's face. Had they really known, they would NOT have incriminated themselves so badly on those tapes. Duh.

Now, Harlow and Joe may have had suspicions. Not KNOWLEDGE, suspicions. Huge difference. In fact, we don't need to get this from Elm...we KNOW they had suspicions! They said as much the day before at the Crab Catcher, when they refused to discuss the murder until they were standing on this very beach the next day.

And I don't know whose idea it was to take Harlow and Joe to this particular beach, to calm those suspicions, but I have to say it was a BRILLIANT idea. I mean, you stand here on this beach, facing north...in front of you and in back are football fields of sand, occupied by maybe a few isolated beachgoers, seabirds, and the occasional hang glider overhead. To your left is 1000s of miles of ocean and Somali pirates, and to your right a sheer cliff wall soaring into the air. A steady breeze off the ocean makes surveillance by parabolic microphone an impossibility at any range. So, your conversations can go on, without even the remotest chance of evedropping.

Hence the need for a recorder in the key fob. Even still, I'm amazed the audio apparantly came out as good as it did, with the constant breeze interfering with the sound pickup.

But it's not just the raw physical accoustics of the place...it has a sense of isolation that creates the perfect mood to set aside suspicions...and encourage candid and revealing conversation. You have to be standing on this beach to fully appreciate this fact. This was an ingenious place to bring Harlow and Joe, and get Harlow to confess.

Well, what else can I say? We brought a small football with us, and tossed it around like girly men. And my friend carried me slung across his shoulder naked in to the surf. 'Tis a pity we didn't have a third person there to take pictures of us! :-)

One last thing...we scanned the beach, trying to see if we could spot Chris Henriquez (aka DJ Christian Alexander) publically deflowering any new 16 year olds, but no such luck:

Then, a sinking feeling passed over us: We realized we have to not climb up! Ugh. Well, I will say this, climbing up is much safer than down; less slippage because your leg is pulling you up rather than pushing you down. And it was good exercise, I suppose.

But now, we are pretty spent for the day. Things we planned for today, I think we'll put off until tomorrow...

A Tale of One Restaurant

2009-04-27T04:45:00.017+01:00

Well gang, I'm here blogging to you direct from sunny SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, on my previously announced relaxing, thought-focusing, pre-retirement vacation! Yes, as hoped, I've managed to scrounge up the time to send a nice "hello" to you all, and even include a few photos taken from today's R&R activities.

So anyways, here we are, my travelling companion and I, our first full day in San Diego. Monday, April 27. Hmmm...what to do, what to do, what to do? Well, this being a beach town, why not head to La Jolla, and sample some local seafood, we thought. Hey, great idea, we thought. So, we schlepped over to downtown La Jolla this afternoon, and decided this place on Prospect St. looked interesting:

The Crab Catcher is an interesting restaurant, architectually. Like most of the buildings on the west side of Prospect St., it's on a steeply declining bluff, which is nice in that it gives them the potential for picturesque sea views. So, the buildings tend to be built down rather than up. The street level of the CC building seems to be offices and/or adminstrative space; the restaurant itself is two flights of stairs below. Here's a view of the patio area, from just past the street entrance:

Remember that infamous coastal marine layer Brent and Grant had apologized for to Harlow and Joe exactly two years ago? Well, fortunately for us, it had managed to burn off for us a shortly before we arrived, making it a beautiful sunny afternoon...yet not too hot, temperature in the high 60s I would estimate. Given the amazingly pleasant clime, the urge dine outdoors on the patio was irresistable, so we did. Here's a shot taken looking back up; notice that a whole battalion of police could be hidden in those offices above, ready to storm down, guns a blazin' if need be:

We had a nice view from where we sat:

Here's the menu. My travelling companion and I both kinda felt kinda furtive being here today for some reason, so we both got the "James Bond Martinis." I ordered the crab cakes; my friend the fish and chips:

...and I must say, everything was delicious! The service was excellent too. No complaints, except to say it might have been a bit pricey ($20 for crab cakes, for example). But hey, that beats $3000 for lamb I guess. As we finished up, we raised our Martini glasses...a toast! To...justice. "To justice!" we cried. And smiled. :-)

After that satisfying meal, it was time to walk off some crab. So, we left by the rear door leading from the patio:

...which led further downward to a narrow street right by the ocean, perfect for crab-walking-off. I forget the name of this lane but it was very scenic; perfect for getting things off one's chest I suppose (assuming you had something to get off your chest, of course):

Lots of interesting coves along the walkway:

Now this is interesting; we soon came upon the infamous seal pool that I recall DeWayne had mentioned here, in some odd connection, a while back. Here was the first "marine mammal" warning sign, Dink Flamingo could use one of these signs as a backdrop in one of his "Active Duty" videos perhaps:

Here are the seals. Wow, we thought, this was kinda cool! You know, you see animals in zoos and in captivity all the time, but this was more interesting I think; these were indeed wild animals, that could come and go as they please:

Here's another sign, turn's out it's "pupping season." And unfortunately no, we did not actually see a baby seal come a puppin' out during our visit:

OK, funny story: Now, the public can actually go down on this beach, where the only thing seperating you from the seals a few feet away is a rope; the signs specifically allow you do do this on condition that you do not pass the rope or in any case touch the seals. But oddly, we noticed, no one was taking advantage of this option. Everyone seemed content to just look down on the seals from above. Strange, we thought.

So, we thought, eh, what the heck, lets get a really really closer look. BIG MISTAKE! I tell you, once you go down the stairs and near the ground level of that beach, the smell of seal poop is OVERWHELMING! We beat a hasty retreat back up the steps. I'm not sure, but I believe one or two of the seal spectators above were sniggering at us...

Here's a shot of a lone seal on a rock, on the other side of the jetty:

Here's a closer shot of the seals, from the jetty. The baby seal in the lower center was so cute, waddling towards us, almost begging to be photographed...we named him Brent:

And that was pretty much our day. Now lets see, tomorrow is April 28...I bet you'll never guess where we are headed tomorrow! Nope, you'll never guess! Not in a million billion trillion zillion years! ;-)

More Award Nominations For Brent

2009-04-21T06:51:00.014+01:00

Since the trial, newsworthy events related to Harlow and Joe have been few and far between. To my knowledge, there has been no new post-game interviews with any of the trial participants; about the only thing of interest lately has been the filing of a rather minimalistic one-page, one-sentence appeal on Harlow's behalf. Yawn.

About the only thing remotely interesting left to follow is the very public lives of Brent and Grant, as they continue their relentless post-trial drive to normalcy. More normal than the past three years, at any rate. And they got another clear sign of their widespread acceptance into the gay porn industry with seven Grabby award nominations:

BEST TWINK VIDEO: Brent Corrigan's Summit (Prodigy Pictures/Pink Bird Media/Pulse)
BEST TWINK VIDEO: Just The Sex 2 (Prodigy Pictures/Pink Bird Media/Pulse)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Brent Corrigan in The Porn Ultimatum (Dirty Bird Pictures/Pulse)
BEST PERFORMERS: Brent Corrigan
HOTTEST BOTTOM: Brent Corrigan
BEST PORN STAR BLOG: Brent Corrigan
BEST PORN STAR WEBSITE: Brentcorriganinc.com

It's actually a bit tougher to get a Grabby nomination than a GAYVN, as the Grabbys sensibly limit each catagory to six nominees. And of course, Brent will be co-hosting on stage as well (see flyer above).

And Brent and Prodigy continue to produce DVDs. Just the Sex 2 (The Directors Cut) came out last week, and debuted ("DE") solidly within the Top 20 (as opposed to, say, debuting barely within the Top 20); pretty impressive for a film most fans mostly have a copy of already, I guess:

The Big Easy is supposed to be released later this month; it'll be interesting to see how well that does as well.

And finally, Brent's website is due for a complete redesign, which will include, at long last, an online pay Members section (in which this time, hopefully, they'll actually get paid). Thus a dream of starting that online porn site that began about 3 years ago will see fulfilment, now that pesky little speedbumps like PayPal blocking lawsuits and murder trials are finally out of the way.

My life is on a course for a return to normalcy too. I'm still on schedule for a final bow on Arrest Day (May 15). I guess the only thing left to do is to give this blog a neat, tidy ending; and write that Jerry Springeresque "Final Thought" post I've been planning.

And yo, I actually have quite a few final thoughts to share. I'm still organizing them in my head right now. So, what I think I'm going to do is take a little vacation next week; to relax, reflect, and gather those two-years worth of thought together. Perhaps I send in a post or two while on my trip, if I can get internet access...we'll see. Then when I get back, we'll wrap things up. Until then...

Update: A bona fide instance of Karma at work, or yet another manufactured publicity stunt? You decide.

Update 2: Chat with Brent. Well sort of; if you read the fine print it's through someone else, actually: "...the more unique and potentially revealing your question is, the better chance you have of being heard."

Update 3: Another Brent auction. BTW, I personally own the same exact type of 2(x)ist underwear, and I can vouch for it's quality; this brand and style is one of the most durable and comfortable underwear I've ever owned. I'm wearing such a pair now in fact, as I type this; although they are burgundy and not green. And no, they are not for sale.

Judge Olszewski Restores the Faith

2009-04-14T02:31:00.011+01:00

In an op-ed piece on Monday, Ed Lewis notes on how two Harlow Cuadra jurors were so moved by the fairness and professionalism of the trial they sat on, that they wrote to the now-presiding judge expressing gratitude and restored faith in their local judicial system:

“As a taxpayer of Luzerne County, I was ashamed and disappointed with the scandal that fell upon the county courthouse,” wrote Juror No. 1 Ellen Matulis. “On Feb. 17, 2009, I reported for jury duty with fear and dread in my heart. … Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. started the trial …with great authority and intelligence of the law. He was fair and impartial yet showed respect and compassion for all parties involved in the case including the jurors.”

Alternate Juror No. 1 Shannon M. Gurski wrote “… I was very unsure of what to expect when I was selected to be a juror in this case, particularly given all that has happened over the course of the last several months. I am very pleased to say that Judge Olszewski Jr. has restored my faith in the Luzerne County judicial system. His integrity and obvious devotion to the law were inspiring to witness over the three weeks that I was in his courtroom.”

A great piece, read the whole thing. And on a side note, I think it also demonstrates how hopeless the chances are for Harlow's appeal. If the jurors themselves are so impressed with the trial's fairness as to be sending in testamonials, then it seems highly unlikely to me that appeals judges are going to disagree with that.

Update: Off topic, but here's something for us students of Kabbala and Karma to ponder...perhaps this:

"Anyone who supports Brent Corrigan is no longer a friend of mine ..."

...has something to do with this:

"...For some strange reason all my great and wonderful friends seemed to be no where in sight nor did they have any time for me..."

Update 2: LOL!

Update 3: LOL!

Dink Flamingo's Hall of Fame Induction Speech

2009-04-12T19:21:00.008+01:00

[Approximately 119:00 into The Sword's 2009 GAYVN Awards video]:

Gino Colbert: When a friend introduced him to an amateur video made by Dirk Yates, he never imagined that one day this would change his entire life. Within a year he created a niche in a brand new media know as "internet porn." Today his ActiveDuty.com website is one of the most successful and recognized porn sites in the entire world. He's worked with over 600 models, made 175 videos, and he is truly a visionary. Won't you please welcome to the Hall of Fame DINK FLAMINGO! [applause]

Dink Flamingo: This is a long way from the backwoods of North Carolina!...First of all, I'd like to thank the United States military,...for making all of this possible. And I would like to thank Dirk Yates for jerking off to my first video....And, I don't feel like accepting this without saying that, one of my models Cole, we should share this with him because he's been with us for so long, and he has gotten very little recognition... [applause...Cole comes on stage, embraces Dink] Y'always gotta have somebody to make you look good on stage! [laughter] And to all the men who have stripped off their clothes, and given something to me that they can never, ever, and to all of us, ever take back. We owe ALL OF YOU a very big round of applause. [applause] And I also think that the future is in the hands of these young folks: Brent Corrigan, Barrett Long, and so many others, who are forging their way forwards...leaving all of us dinosaurs behind. It is a double pleasure...a double honor, excuse me...to be honored by your chosen profession. Thank you all! [applause]

Brent's Third Victory Speech

2009-04-11T06:20:00.006+01:00

[From 80:00 minutes into The Sword's 2009 GAYVN Award video, Brent's acceptance for Best Bottom]:

Brent: Allright, um, obviously, I wouldn't have been able to do this if they hadn't given me some really...uh, good tops to work with, so, um, aside from that you know, obviously...I love doing it! So, why not, right? Thank you so much! [applause]

Update: The tidal wave of public opinion in favor of Brent Corrigan continues, as Gay Sex Blog opines:

"...Child pornography laws are intended to keep people aged 17 and under from being exploited in porn films; in other words, they were designed to protect Brent in that situation. People may disagree with what he did (I do), but at the same time the onus was on Cobra Video owner Bryan Kocis to ensure Brent had valid ID.

Considering that Bryan Kocis had pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy he met over the Internet in 2001, with the defense that the boy claimed to be of legal age, I think it is bit much for anyone to try to paint the 17-year-old Brent as a predator intent on damaging the gay porn community via his involvement with Cobra Video.

People should give Brent a second chance now that he is an adult. In this case it's true that he did something dumb, even criminal perhaps, but he was also taken advantage of by a person with a history of sexual involvement with underage boys."

Brent And Grant's Second Victory Speech

2009-04-10T17:05:00.008+01:00

[From about 55:30 minutes into The Sword's 2009 GAYVN Awards video; this was their second win of the night, Just the Sex 1 & 2 for Best Twink Film, and Brent's third visit to the stage, counting his earlier stint as a presenter]:

Sister Roma: [pointing to stage near the microphone] Would you like to just take a seat up here? Brent Corrigan, ladies and gentlemen! [applause]

Brent: I don't think it would be appropriate if I sat on anything at this point, but ah...this was um...well, ah, just SEX! And I guess Just the Sex sells, so thank you [giggle]! [applause]

Grant: I just want to thank..to give special thanks to Dink Flamingo, because when no one out there wanted to give us a chance, he did...thank you Dink [gives thumb up sign into audience]. [applause]

Update: Some recently posted production notes from JTS2.

Brent And Grant's First Victory Speech

2009-04-09T15:49:00.005+01:00

[This speech is from about 44:00 minutes into The Sword's full-length video of the 2009 GAYVN Awards, when they took the prize Brent wanted the most - Summit for Best Pro-Am Film]:

Brent: Sometimes I feel I just don't belong in here...this was a struggle, it was my very first one, and I want to thank Dink Flamingo, I want to thank this mother fucker right here, Grant, but I also want to thank Steve Jerome, because he pushed it through...um, its just the first, of MANY, you haven't seen nothing yet...thank you so much, i am deeply, deeply honored! [applause]

Grant: Thanks Dink!...thanks everybody. [applause]

A Few GAYVN Aftershocks...

2009-04-06T08:03:00.011+01:00

OK, I really meant to be done with this story after Update 16 of the penultimate post, but while doing a quick Google search to see if this story was really dead (I predicted it would have a 4-day life span on the blogs, and that turned out to be pretty close) I came across three other stories from actual GAYVN eyewitnesses that put additional little twists and factual revelations on things. Enough to justify one more post I think.

One is the San Francisco Chronicle's coverage of the event. Yes, the affaire made a major US newspaper. Violet Blue is the Chronicle's sex correspondent. And female, which makes her account so interesting, IMO...as a relative outsider to the gay male porn world, she obviously has no horse in the race, and so can hardly be accused of bias:

"...But no: this year's GayVN's brought it better than a San Francisco crime novel, with a back-story of an underage performer, real-life murder, the stage stormed and a tirade unleashed (to boos and hisses), and an early morning SFPD visit (with handcuffs, the not-sexy kind) to the Westin on Third.

Right before Sophiesunset and I went downstairs to get a closer view of Janice's riveting Dickery, at about 8:00 PM, the GayVN's featured the City of San Francisco honoring The Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection. As the people from ASACP accepted their honor for working to keep porn in the realm of adults, director and performer Michael Lucas stormed the stage and yelled into the microphone, berating the audience for being hypocrites for honoring a former underage performer despite its stance against child pornography. The audience booed, hissed and yelled at Lucas. According the The Sword (link NSFW), afterward, Lucas Twittered, "After protecting kids online award-I stormed the stage to ask how they claim they dont promote child porn when Brent Corrigan's been awarded."

To untangle the tweet: before Sophiesunset and I arrived, performer Corrigan -- who is now 22 years old -- had received the award for "Best Bottom", an honor jokingly coveted by Margaret Cho. But what Lucas was referring to was Corrigan's past: how, in 2005 Corrigan stated that his prior work in porn was done when he was underage, and that he'd allegedly falsified documents and voluntarily obtained a false government ID in order to perform.

Brent Corrigan's scandal essentially made him the Traci Lords of the gay porn industry, sans the John Waters films and -- obviously, by the award -- he hasn't adopted Lords' anti-porn stance. ASACP was involved in getting Corrigan's videos (made by Cobra Video) out of circulation. In a twist, Corrigan became close with Cobra Video's owner Bryan Kocis, a relationship that Corrigan now alleges that he maintained out of fear for his own business interests. By 2006, Kocis and Corrigan had a falling out and subsequent legal battle over the use and ownership of Corrigan's stage name. Reportedly, as they were about to agree to a settlement in January 2007, Kocis was found dead in his apartment after having his throat slashed, was stabbed 28 times, and the apartment set fire. Corrigan cooperated with the investigation, testified for the prosecution, and on May 15, 2007; two Virginia Beach escorts and rival producers of gay pornography, Harlow Cuadra and Joseph Kerekes, were charged with Kocis' murder and then sentenced.

You'd think that would be enough drama. I was just looking forward to Margaret Cho's song about Ricky Sinz's ginormous, award-winning penis (he won "Best Top.")

Earlier in the day, Lucas had made it his mission to top Corrigan and get Corrigan off the list of presenters -- despite the strange fact that Lucas had negotiated with Corrigan in 2006 to perform in one of his films. At around 4:00 PM Lucas Twittered, "I just had Brent Corrigan kicked out of the GayVN Awards tonight... that criminal brat has put too many in this industry at risk already." But Lucas was unsuccessful, and it was the beginning of a long, angry night.

The onstage explosion sadly put our girl Janice as second horse for Trainwreck Of The Night. Which was too bad; my money was on The Dick after her exclamation to the audience that her dad taught her everything she knew about sex (and that amazing Malibu Barbie skin tone). At the after party, stories conflict about the events as they unfolded, but there was some sort of confrontation between Lucas and Corrigan's boyfriend, prompting Lucas after the party to call the SFPD to Corrigan's hotel room not once, but twice. Corrigan's boyfriend ended up in the hallway in cuffs (again, not the fuzzy leopard ones), but no arrest has been reported as of this writing."

The second account came from columnist Billy Masters, who almost witnessed the afterparty confrontation; he saw it coming, but tantalizingly decided to pre-emptively avoid it:

"None of that mattered -- you put Michael Lucas anywhere near a mike and there’s a good chance he’ll steal the show and piss someone off. One of the big nominees was Brent Corrigan, an industrious porn pup who got his beginnings as a minor in bareback videos. Add in his notoriety regarding the murder of a former employer and he’s a controversial character in a business filled with ’em. Brent won a few awards. As luck would have it, this year the GayVNs also honored the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection. After this presentation, Lucas was enraged; how could the GayVNs honor a group trying to prevent minors from being lured into porn and then give an award to someone who did underage porn? It’s a fair criticism, but what made it controversial was Michael leaping to the stage from his front row seat rather than making his ire known at a more appropriate time. The audience reception was mixed -- applause and boos throughout the theatre.

It didn’t end there. At the after-party, I was leaving after snuggling with Michael and the devastatingly handsome Dean Flynn. As I was walking out, I bumped into Brent and his boyfriend. I knew that everyone’s paths were about to cross, but I wanted to avoid the drama (for a change). Michael claims that Brent’s boyfriend threatened him with bodily harm. The next morning, Lucas called the police which led to an interrogation."

The last is by an unnamed GAYVN attendee writing for Queerclick. It's a long article, so I wont quote the whole thing here; but there are a few VERY interesting details we have not heard about yet which I'd call your attention to:

1) "Michael Lucas entered the hotel on Saturday morning before the award show to an amazing number of loud hisses and whispers from others in the industry..."

2) "AT THE SHOW: Once again, people hissed as he walked by ..."

3) "...it was clear Lucas Studios was getting overlooked and Raging Stallion was winning by a landslide...Michael was obviously annoyed...While accepting an award in very broken English, he made a subtle jab at Raging Stallion..."

4) "Lucas suddenly bolted on stage, took the mic and congratulated the ASACP folks (in perfect English) and the shamed Brent Corrigan and the studios involved with him as being an example of how the industry can exploit underage kids. He was immediately boo'ed and told to get off stage..."

5) "Lucas later apologized for the statement on-stage and wanted it to be clear he wasn't attacking Brent, but rather the industry as a whole. The apology (in very broken English) fell flat. People were yelling, music was playing. You barely could understand his message. It seemed his final attempt to sealing that he'd make headlines..."

Read the whole thing. You know, I begin to wonder...was the main target of Lucas' obviously well-prepared "perfect English" stunt Raging Stallion Studios (a VERY bitter rival of Lucas Entertainment, I should note) and NOT Brent Corrigan? That's certainly what this Queerclick witness account seems to imply. By grabbing the mike and creating a faux controversy, he certainly has managed to shove RSS' many GAYVN honors and accomplishments that night into relative media obscurity.

Update: Off topic, but interesting:

"Colin Hardacre, of Los Angeles-based Kaufman Law Group, said he has some advice for adult business professionals who chat it up on message boards like GFY.com, XXXPornTalk.com and others.

“This just reinforces what we tell all our adult clients — stay off the boards!” Hardacre told XBIZ.

A New Brent Auction

2009-04-02T01:04:00.017+01:00

You know I've never been able to resist following these auctions. This one's got a hat, some shorts and a backpack. The last action IIRC went for around $1000; lets see what "The Lucas Effect" (TM) will have on the bidding here (which ends Friday)...

Bid History
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Willinatex (Sun Mar 29 12:22:44 2009) - $200.00
Docbammes (Sun Mar 29 12:44:00 2009) - $205.00
Geoffharvard (Sun Mar 29 19:45:13 2009) - $210.00
Albert (Sun Mar 29 19:49:19 2009) - $215.00
Betsyross (Sun Mar 29 20:16:54 2009) - $220.00
Docbammes (Sun Mar 29 21:30:06 2009) - $225.00
Mark2008 (Mon Mar 30 00:01:48 2009) - $230.00
Dewayneinsd (Mon Mar 30 03:33:23 2009) - $235.00
Marcolearn (Mon Mar 30 09:10:59 2009) - $240.00
Marcolearn (Mon Mar 30 09:23:02 2009) - $255.00
Donoro (Mon Mar 30 09:57:13 2009) - $260.00
Marcolearn (Mon Mar 30 13:34:24 2009) - $280.00
Gustavobrazil (Mon Mar 30 14:30:16 2009) - $285.00
Winkle (Mon Mar 30 16:22:18 2009) - $295.00
Eman58 (Mon Mar 30 17:22:53 2009) - $320.00
Docbammes (Mon Mar 30 17:43:06 2009) - $325.00
Albert (Mon Mar 30 19:42:43 2009) - $330.00
Eman58 (Mon Mar 30 19:51:59 2009) - $350.00
Docbammes (Mon Mar 30 19:58:33 2009) - $400.00
Jocksup (Mon Mar 30 21:34:05 2009) - $445.00
Mark2008 (Mon Mar 30 23:18:47 2009) - $450.00
Marcolearn (Tue Mar 31 04:23:04 2009) - $470.00
Gustavobrazil (Tue Mar 31 10:31:31 2009) - $475.00
Marcolearn (Tue Mar 31 12:33:28 2009) - $480.00
Docbammes (Tue Mar 31 17:04:11 2009) - $520.00
Torbe (Tue Mar 31 18:33:44 2009) - $570.00
Betsyross (Tue Mar 31 23:17:54 2009) - $575.00
Busguy (Wed Apr 1 00:00:01 2009) - $600.00
Betsyross (Wed Apr 1 02:06:46 2009) - $605.00
Marcolearn (Wed Apr 1 06:37:40 2009) - $640.00
Lamar (Wed Apr 1 14:40:11 2009) - $690.00
Marcolearn (Wed Apr 1 14:44:07 2009) - $695.00
Docbammes (Wed Apr 1 21:04:13 2009) - $745.00
Busguy (Thu Apr 2 02:05:56 2009) - $775.00
Marcolearn (Thu Apr 2 04:20:20 2009) - $790.00
Jocksup (Thu Apr 2 12:13:07 2009) - $825.00
Marcolearn (Thu Apr 2 15:18:03 2009) - $830.00
Marcolearn (Thu Apr 2 18:37:06 2009) - $835.00
Gustavobrazil (Thu Apr 2 19:09:36 2009) - $840.00
Busguy (Thu Apr 2 22:08:54 2009) - $875.00
Marcolearn (Thu Apr 2 23:41:27 2009) - $880.00
Marcolearn (Fri Apr 3 00:00:47 2009) - $885.00
Busguy (Fri Apr 3 00:31:25 2009) - $900.00
Marcolearn (Fri Apr 3 09:26:41 2009) - $905.00
Albert (Fri Apr 3 11:07:33 2009) - $910.00
Jocksup (Fri Apr 3 21:04:53 2009) - $925.00
Donoro (Fri Apr 3 23:56:29 2009) - $950.00
Albert (Fri Apr 3 23:58:09 2009) - $975.00
Marcolearn (Fri Apr 3 23:58:26 2009) - $980.00
Donoro (Fri Apr 3 23:58:46 2009) - $985.00
Marcolearn (Fri Apr 3 23:59:08 2009) - $990.00
Marcolearn (Fri Apr 3 23:59:17 2009) - $995.00
Marcolearn (Fri Apr 3 23:59:25 2009) - $1000.00
Marcolearn (Fri Apr 3 23:59:33 2009) - $1005.00
Marcolearn (Fri Apr 3 23:59:40 2009) - $1010.00
Albert (Fri Apr 3 23:59:45 2009) - $1045.00
Marcolearn (Sat Apr 4 00:00:03 2009) - $1050.00
BIDDING IS NOW CLOSED

Fresh From The Archives of History: Michael Lucas vs. David Forest and the Grabbys

2009-03-30T10:38:00.035+01:00

Here's an old JUB blog post from 2007, about an even older awards show incident from 2003.

So, why am I reposting this old news about old news here? Weeeeeell, because you never know! Like this post from the past about the past says, it always good to keep the past in mind "...JUST IN CASE it becomes relevant again in the near future.":

Now I realize that this is actually really old news, but with Michael Lucas, you never know when old feuds will again rear their ugly heads (i.e., Raging Stallion Studios), and since I have only been writing the Newswire for a few months, I figured it would be OK to re-tell this story JUST IN CASE it becomes relevant again in the near future.

Picture it. Chicago. 2003. Gay porn agent David Forest is given the Grabby Award (which are kinda like the Golden Globes to the GAYVN’s Oscars of gay porn) for Best Non-Sex Role for the film Brad’s Buddies. Good old Michael Lucas, who was presenting an award right afterward, took the opportunity to express his disdain for Forest. He said from the stage,

“It’s very sad for me that we are putting ourselves, once again, so low in society by giving an award and supporting such a scum-bag as David Forest who, for years, has taken advantage and destroyed people with drugs…This industry will never gain any respect unless we will stop promoting this evil pimp, and those of you who are booing me should be ashamed of yourselves, because there’s not one word that I’ve said that isn’t true, and you know it.”
He exited the stage and was the talk of the (then-burgeoning) blogs for the next 4 days. David Forest had a rebuttal, Michael had a clarification, every columnist weighed in with their 2 cents. The general consensus within the industry was that whether or not you agreed with Michael Lucas (and there were plenty on both sides) all agreed that it was an inappropriate venue to air those opinions. In fact, Michael Lucas has pretty much been persona non grata at the Grabbys ever since. In fact, this year, after Michael Lucas’ La Dolce Vita swept the GAYVN awards, it was completely shut out at the Grabbys, not receiving a single nod. Michael claims that they are still holding a grudge from 2003, they claimed that they did not receive his screener in time to be eligible for consideration (and two of his other films did get nominations).

That’s pretty much it for that saga (it boiled over in no time at all), but another thing (which ties this story into the Johnny Hanson post) is that, after Michael Lucas left the stage, Matt Sizemore announced that he had just shot a bareback video. I think the poor BAFFLED (see I am using that word already) crowd didn’t quite know who to react more to. I hope you enjoyed this little trip into the recent history of gay porn. Hopefully we won’t need to revisit it again.

Yeah, hopefully not! :-)

Update: I must be in a nostalgic mood today, because for some reason this scene from Stanley Kubrick's 1975 classic Barry Lyndon popped into mind as well.

For those not familiar with this 18th century period piece, here's a brief recap of the scene: An arrogant puffy-lipped European aristocratic snob (Lord Bullingdon) has a long-simmering jealousy feud with the social-climbing hero of the film (Barry Lyndon). In order to tear down his "low bred" rival, Bullingdon bum rushes a stage, interrupting a recital to publicly denounce Barry as an "insolent Irish upstart" to a shocked audience:

BTW, Bullingdon then went on to use that carefully-baited and well-deserved thrashing at the end, exploiting the incident to generate a public relations pity storm in his favor.

Yep. It's funny how often life imitates art!

Update 2: An interesting chart:

Update 3: Lucas acknowledges he tried to hire Brent back in 2006, and that emails to that effect are in existence:

"To those who are saying I am going after Corrigan because he declined to be in my movie, how can that make any sense? In 11 years of business, there were many models which my company turned away and there were many models who turned down working for my company. Today we looked through all of our casting records, and found an email dating back to September 15, 2006, between our previous casting director and Brent Corrigan. At this point we, regrettably, did not know about his past and we are forever thankful that things did not work out and we declined working with him. My conscience would have never been cleared and a heavy deal of personal guilt would have shadowed me and my career."

That a "casting director" at a porn studio, former or otherwise, would have been unaware of Brent's celebrated past in September of 2006 (just when Velvet Mafia was released!) frankly strains credulity. Is Michael Lucas lying? Or are all employees of Lucas Entertainment this incompetent?

Update 4: A so-sick-he-could-vomit Jason Secrest takes Lucas out to the woodshed for misquoting him, poaching comments for his press releases, and publishing private phone numbers without permission.

Update 5: The editor at Queerty, who described the controversy as:

"The war between porn stars Michael Lucas and Brent Corrigan — or rather, Michael Lucas and the rest of the porn industry who loves Corrigan..."

...is getting sick of the Lucas Entertainment spin machine as well.

Update 6:The GorgeousBoys Online Entertainment Network disassociates with Lucas:

"Therefore, in light of my belief that “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander” my Network is now removing all of the affiliations and promotions to Lucas Entertainment’s websites and products."

Free speech, gotta love it!

Update 7: Breaking News! A Chinchilla Exclusive!

We've just received via our secret tip line a yet-unpublished but soon-to-be released on LucasBlog photo of Michael Lucas, taken right after the afterparty altercation. Obviously, it's authenticity is beyond question:

Update 8: Well, now that Michael Lucas outed Brent's new boyfriend's full real name in his latest press release, the obligatory tracking down and posting of a MySpace profile is sure to follow...and it might as well occur here, I suppose.

His full name is Eric Paul Martinez, age 31. Hmmm, and he's a father (of a six year old son). No indications of any anger issues here; although, looking at his physique, I can well imagine how just about anything he could say, from "Hello, how are you" to "Stop stepping on my feet, Mr. Lucas," could easily be misconstrued as threatening...

Update 9: Michael Lucas threatens the entire industry by knowingly and willfully violating 2257 requirements (hat tip: Elm).

Update 10: Michael Lucas - A liar AND a hypocrite. Lucas was well aware of the underage controversy as early as 2005, contradicting his own press statement claiming to be unaware when negociating to hire Brent in September of 2006 (see Update 3 above) (hat tip: Brynawel).

Update 11: Brent fills in the details on those September 2006 negociations:

""The assistant told me that Lucas didn’t write his own messages because he didn’t have a firm enough grasp of the English language, and that he had other people relay information for him. I thought this was pretty strange, you know, for one of his assistants to be telling me this, but negotiations continued.”

Update 12: J.C. Adams has an excellent, well-researched article up on the whole affaire here. Note the official statement by Joan Irvine of the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP.org): "Brent is now over 18 and has the right to engage in whatever legal business he chooses."

Update 13: Lucas called Village Voice columnist Michael Musto during the GAYVN's to brag:

"Remember Brent Corrigan, who forged his birth certificate and lied about being of legal age? He did porn videos when he was 17 and basically sent the owner of the company to jail. Well, I've been trying to stop him from being in porn ever since. Tonight, he was supposed to present the first award at the GayVN's. But I talked to the producers of the event and made sure he didn't. He was just canned."

But of course, the notion he was doing this for publicity is completely absurd (hat tip: Yves).

Update 14: Mark Adams interviews Brent. Most interesting quote:

"One of the things that studios, and that includes Michael Lucas, tend to ignore is the fact that the producer knew exactly how old I was, and he exploited the situation. He was smart enough to make it appear like I alone forged my documents. I was told by my boyfriend at the time and by the producer that it wasn’t a big deal, and it happened all the time. The big mistake I made was not listening to that voice inside me that said, “You should hold off.”"

Update 15: Unzipped (which will soon feature Brent on the cover of Freshmen) tells Michael Lucas to go fuck himself, after he calls to complain about the upcoming cover. A permanent link to Unzipped the Blog has been added to the right.

Update 16: And now this post has come full circle...an open letter to the GAYVNs from David Forest, in which he calls for Michael Lucas to "not be allowed to attend" future award shows:

"(Posted 4/1/2009 10:00:00 PM)
Letter to AVN's "Gay Editor" (Harker Jones) and "Owner" (Paul Fishbein)

Harker & Paul –

Congrats on the big success at last night’s GAYVN AWARDS. Sorry I wasn’t there this year … however … I would have been very upset, now that I’ve heard the reports about Michael Lucas … and how, again (he did it at the Grabby’s a few years ago) … this guy interrupted YOUR show with his highly illegal “bum rush” of your stage … the same exact stage that YOU used, a few minutes later, for his induction into your GAYVN Hall of Fame. Funny how you refuse to allow talent handlers into that elite “Hall” … but … you DO allow BUMS.

You know why it’s called a “bum rush,” right … because only a BUM would rush a stage. If a “bum” were to have done that, last night (actually, a BUM DID DO THAT) … he’d currently be sitting in the SF jail. Why you folks, involved in adult industry functions, allowed Lucas to continue coming to your events, after his Chicago “bum rush” at the Grabby’s … is puzzling. You should have known that a BUM, who already showed his true colors, was surely going to do it, again … especially when he felt “bummed” about his LACK of awards (coincidentally, the ONLY award that Lucas Ent won, last night, was for NON-SEXUAL PERFORMANCE … which Lady Bunny actually won).

Michael Lucas has NO regard for anyone, any show, any event. Since he was basically a loser, last night (believe me, he’s a HUGE LOSER now) .. not winning any awards except for his “Hall of Fame” induction and the “non-sexual perf” one, above …. he decided he’d make sure he was “remembered” … and just FORCE his way on stage to do something “loud.” That’s just what happened back in Chicago … when he did his “DAVID FOREST tirade” … unexpectedly … and without permission.

Between the Grabbys and, now, the GayVN’s … Lucas has shown his total disregard for rules, proper etiquette, scheduling, etc. … and should not be allowed to attend the events. As gracious as the guy CAN BE … he’s also a total “animal” … and cannot be trusted to behave.

I can’t believe that you let him get Corrigan bounced as a presenter … then … he goes and “steals” the microphone … since Brent’s name wasn’t properly pulled from the cue cards … and Brent got to present, anyway. Lucas didn’t fully get “his way” … so … he wanted to make sure everyone knew his feelings (about Corrigan’s movies that he did while underage). Actually, the XXX biz should never have let Corrigan continue in the biz … after his fraudulent misrepresentation of his age. BUT … he wasn’t banned … so you just gotta move on. For Lucas to decide, years later .. that it was up to him to CALL ATTENTION to Brent’s wrong doing …. and to do it the way Lucas did (like an animal) … is so wrong. Lucas just couldn’t let last night go on without making sure that HE was “remembered.” With no awards to be remembered for … he decided to create his own attention … even if it meant disrupting your show.

Lucas cannot be trusted at a public event … evidenced by his improper behavior, now, at both a GRABBYS and a GAYVN awards. The fact that Brent’s b.f. decided to show Lucas how wrong he was …. is just the KARMA coming out.

Michael Lucas AND Brent Corrigan have both been given “chances” that should never have been given. They’ve both caused major disruptions to the adult business, big events … acted in ways that are inexcusable (maybe illegal) … but … weren’t reprimanded, scolded or had sanctions placed upon them.

It’s time for the gay adult world … especially the folks who produce the big industry events, etc. … to wake up and smell the obvious. Michael Lucas will always make sure that he is a HIT at these events … even if he has to make a fool of himself. He’s a firm believer that, “all publicity is good publicity.” Can you imagine if an actor/producer/director were to ever do what Lucas has done … at the Oscar’s or the Golden Globes? You let him trash your event, last night. I’m sure you won’t let it happen again. Lucas has “scored” at both big awards shows, now. AND, to think … the guy was still inducted into your HALL OF FAME … event AFTER what he did earlier in the evening. It all makes no sense.

DAVID FOREST"

The Price Tag

2009-03-21T07:36:00.011Z

A couple more Harlow Cuadra after-trial stories in the Times Leader today, dealing with the financial costs of the prosecution, and the public outlay for the defense.

The prosecution bill came to $112,317, which according to District Attorney Jacqueline Musto Carroll was "very expensive." One interesting thing that caught my eye:

"According to the 2009 budget for the district attorney’s office, $100,000 is set aside for capital cases and $350,000 is set aside for examinations/witnesses. By comparison, there was no money for capital cases and $179,800 for examinations/witnesses for the district attorney’s office in 2008."

Thus it seems that by going for the death penalty, Melnick was able to tap into a $100,000 pool of extra funding for the prosecution of this wide-ranging and complex case.

The alternate public defender bill for both Joe and Harlow (while Harlow was still alternately publically defended) came to $25,310 "so far," which means bills are still coming in. Of that, it looks like $10,280 was spent on Joe, leaving Harlow's tab at $15,030 I guess.

Of that, $4,497.50 was paid to the Jesse Detective Agency of Dallas. This was over the 300% over the $1000 budgeted for investigators, but after reviewing the bill Judge Olszewski "found it reasonable considering it was a capital murder case."

Other expenses included $7,546.20 to Court Consultation Services to testify during the penalty phase that Harlow's childhood years were less than ideal, and an imprecisely known amount "not to exceed $3,000" for the services of Dr. Richard Bohn Krueger, who performed a psychiatric evaluation of Harlow but curiously didn’t testify during the trial.

You know, you add these various Harlow totals up and they come to close to 15 grand, which tells me the actual alternate public defenders for Harlow haven't submitted their bills yet.

Anyways, you take these recently revealed totals together, and they come to:

$112,317
+ $25,310 ("so far")
---------
$137,627, which represents the total cost to the taxpayers of Harlow and Joe and their enablers' idiotic decision to drag this thing out for over two years. With the lion's share of this blame going to Harlow and his enablers, of course, as they actually took this ridiculous story of his all the way to trial.

Now, you combine this with the police investigation bill, and the total cost of their hairbrained scheme to deal with mortage, cars and credit card debt comes to:

$137,627
+ $100,000 ("with bills still coming in")
----------
$237,627. So far.

Altogether, quite a tidy sum for a case Harlow thought was going to be put "on the back burner."

Update: Death penalty debated. "Paul J. Walker, who along with Joseph D’Andrea represented Cuadra during his trial, said he believes it’s time for Pennsylvania to change its death penalty law..."

Update 2: Off topic LOL...NO, this movie is NOT what you think it's about!

Update 3: Off topic...Luzerne County corruption story on ABC's 20/20 tonight (March 27).

The Investigation

2009-03-19T06:37:00.003Z

New Times Leader article here: "Cuadra case was a work in progress, right up to verdict"

Perhaps not surprisingly, this is one post-game report which holds few revelations for us all, having combed over the affidavit, trascripts and court filings on PC's blog for over two years. And even those revelations are minor:

- "Three more search warrants followed on Jan. 29 for phone records belonging to Sean Lockhart, Merlin Lee Bergeron and e-mails traced to a computer at Indiana University in Indiana." Presumably, all were people Bryan talked to on the day he died. Sean we knew about. Lee we long suspected, and this prooves it. The Indiana University connection to the case I actually ran across a while back, in an obscure news article, and has always been a mystery. And still is.

- "“It was a work in progress as soon as the victim was found right up until the verdict was read,” Krawetz said. “Believe it or not, there were still interviews being performed during the trial." The prosecution was railroaded!

- "County District Attorney Jacqueline Musto Carroll said the investigation cost from her office exceeds $100,000 with bills still coming in." And that's just the investigation I guess, not the legal work (both prosecution and public defenders).

The Client List

2009-03-19T00:03:00.005Z

OK, as I can foresee the comment below (actually a half-comment) easily has the potential mass to generate it's own gravitational field, I think it's prudent to go ahead and put it in it's own post, rather than leave it in the incongruous post below.

And to be frank with you all, I don't know WHAT to make of it at this point...you guys can form your own opinions:

L' Chayim

2009-03-18T21:39:00.009Z

The train approaches Britneyville Station...

Update: A new anonymous comment posted to the Advocating Murder thread:

...also from "San Diego." When you factor in the same lazy spelling, O.J. Simpson reference, and the timing of it all, it becomes increasingly likely that the author of the Advocate death threat was indeed Will Jones (aka Jason Ridge).

Update 2: And here's that "...last blog entry detailing the events that have lead up to the wrongly accused Harlow Cuadra and the actual killer(s) on the run..." that he promised us.

Indeed, I just finished doing as Mr. Jones suggested ("...and the bloggers who are exploiting Brent and taking all sides should really look at themselves and ask if they are happy and love themselves."), and I must say, thanks to him it's difficult for me to imagine being more happy or in love with myself at this moment.

Mmmmm...aaah! :-)

Update 3: As they say, birds of a feather...

Update 4: A re-edited post, deleted comments...in other words: "A CELEBRATION OF LIFE AND HUMANITY."

The Jurors Speak

2009-03-18T08:22:00.013Z

Both the Times Leader and Citizen's Voice have major Harlow Cuadra trial juror interview stories today. Fascinating stuff! Various myths propagated by online Harlow apologists in recent days are put to pasture, and the recent self-congratulatory statements by the Cuadra defense team are shown to have been a bit premature.

Anyways, here are the highlights, plus commentary:

1) Amazingly, four jurors actually held out for a bit on finding Harlow guilty in the guilt phase:

“There were four jurors who thought it could have been Joe,” Scutt said. “You had no direct evidence, no DNA linking (Cuadra) to the murder. There was so much circumstantial evidence. There were several that couldn’t put the knife in his hand.”

A smoking break, of all things, quickly broke the logjam, however:

“The jurors went out for a smoke, and when they returned, one of them told us she thought about the case when she was outside for a cigarette and came to agree (Cuadra) was guilty,” Stavitzski said. “The other jurors who had doubt then came around.”

Smoking was defintely hazardous to Harlow's health in jury deliberations.

2) It looks like my earlier doubts as to the wisdom of Harlow taking the stand were right on the money, because according to these jurors, THATS what convicted him:

Stavitzski and Scutt said they also had doubt Cuadra actually killed Kocis until Cuadra testified in his own defense. “To me, he solidified the whole case,” Scutt said.

“Harlow wasn’t answering the direct questions,” Stavitzski said. “In my mind, the evidence was circumstantial; he turned it into hard evidence. He was talking in circles.”

and

“He basically looked like a kid sitting there at the table,” Stavitzski said. “But as soon as he took the stand, he took off the glasses and he sounded like Hulk Hogan giving a wrestling interview. He had more holes in his testimony than Swiss cheese.”

and

Matulis and fellow juror Daniel Austin said the person who sealed Cuadra’s fate was Cuadra himself when he took the witness stand.

“He shot himself in the foot with the different lies,” said Austin, 58, a retired postal worker from Harveys Lake. “In my eyes, Harlow definitely was the one who did the actual killing.”

“He placed himself in the house, he described it. All reasonable doubt, as far as him being an accomplice, went out the window when he opened his mouth,” Matulis added.

and

Stavitzski said testimony from forensic pathologist Dr. Mary Pascucci, who performed Kocis’ autopsy, was powerful in explaining Kocis suffered a single swipe from a knife that nearly decapitated him.

“She explained it was one swipe that ended Bryan’s life,” Stavitzski said. “Harlow’s description of Joe storming in and fighting with Bryan, and slashing his neck twice and Bryan is still talking was just unbelievable.”

The two jurors said that if Kerekes and Kocis fought the way that Cuadra claimed the fight occurred, there would have been defensive wounds on Kocis’ arms.

“If someone is coming at you with a knife, what’s the first thing you do, you put up your arms,” Stavitzski said.

“Bryan didn’t have any injuries or stab wounds on his arms,” Scutt said.

3) The recently fabricated "Stockholm Syndrome" theory Team Harlow tried to pitch, both online and in the court room, fizzled with most of the jury:

“Their relationship was brought up a lot in deliberations,” Stavitzski said. “Joe was more muscle but Harlow was the brains.”

“As far as Joe being dominant and Harlow acting as the housewife, I found that hard to believe,” Scutt said.

Note juror Stavitzski coming to exactly the same conclusion I did yesterday on PC's comment thread:

Joe was more the emotional, flighty type. Do first, think later.

Harlow was the cold, calculating type. He was the brains (such as they were). He would think for the both of them, and reign Joe in whenever Joe was about to do something particularly stupid.

4) The Harlowites have recently been spreading a pair of essentially contradictory talking points regarding the Joe Disaster. This first one is: the Joe Disaster was bad. Had Joe not evilly betrayed them, Harlow would be a free man today.

But not so, say the jurors:

Kerekes briefly appeared during the trial under a subpoena issued by Cuadra’s lawyers. When he took the witness stand, Kerekes opted not to testify on Cuadra’s behalf.

“Harlow gave (Kerekes) a look to kill,” Stavitzski said. Had Kerekes testified, Stavitzski and Scutt said it wouldn’t have mattered.

“I would have taken into consideration his credibility,” Stavitzski said.

The other talking point is: The Joe Disaster was good! It showed the jury Joe's dishonest and controlling nature, still trying to "dominate" Harlow from his jail cell.

And the jury shoots that one down as well:

“What did he have to lose, he had nothing to gain. For what he did, I have to respect him for telling the truth.”

Kerekes said from the witness stand on March 10: “I’ve been thinking a lot about my parents. I think it will destroy them to say something that I didn’t do. What I told you (D’Andrea) is untrue.”

D’Andrea informed the jury that he met Kerekes several times before Kerekes’ appearance during the trial.

“I think Joe told the truth on the witness stand,” Scutt said.

It looks like Team Harlow needs to come up with new talking points. Do they have any left? I could be wrong, but at this point, I don't think they do.

5) Sean and Grant and the CCTs and BBTs played a noteworthy role:

Stavitzski said the relationship between Cuadra and Kerekes was solidified when assistant district attorneys Michael Melnick, Shannon Crake and Allyson Kacmarski played to the jury recorded conversations of the two men with Lockhart and Grant Roy.

Roy, a producer of gay pornographic films based in San Diego, Calif., wore a body wire on two consecutive days when he met with Cuadra and Kerekes in late April 2007.

“Those tapes that were played, I got to know their mannerisms, I got to know what this whole case is about,” Stavitzski said. “Harlow did a lot of talking on those tapes; it showed me he was at the house.”

6) Interesting tidbits about how the jury interacted:

The jury deliberated for nearly three hours and 30 minutes before they reached a verdict convicting Cuadra. Scutt said the jury convicted Cuadra in three hours, and allowed 30 minutes for jurors to express their thoughts and opinions before they notified the court that a verdict had been reached.

and

“I’d be a liar if I said voices weren’t raised. Obviously, if you got people who want a death penalty, it gets tense,” she said. “We carried a person’s life in our hands.”

and

Images presented as evidence by the prosecution about the brutal murder will be seared in jurors’ minds forever, Matulis said.

“The shock of actually seeing some of this, it was mind boggling — seeing a burnt corpse, a heart cut with stab wounds …” Matulis said. “My life was changed and I wasn’t the criminal.”

7) The jurors also talked about their 8-4 deadlock in the penalty phase, which PC has previously covered here.

Advocating Murder

2009-03-17T19:24:00.007Z

This comment was just submitted and approved on the comments section, on the latest Harlow story at www.advocate.com:

Incidentally, The Advocate is owned by Regents Entertainment Media Inc., the parent company of the Here! TV Network.

Update: The Advocate opts to give no further sanction to one of it's contributors who called for murder, other than to edit out one line of his comment:

Harlow Gets Life

2009-03-16T15:41:00.016Z

Update: Actually, according to PC's 7:35pm update, Harlow got two lives, served consecutively, plus a few other goodies:

"Life w/o Parole for first-degree murder
Life w/o Parole for criminal conspiracy engaging
20 Years for the rest
1 Year probation."

It's entirely appropriate that Harlow should get two life sentences to Joe's one, as Harlow was, after all, the dominant partner and criminal mastermind in this relationship (see Update 6 to this post here). The only other sentences I could've hoped for was anger management classes; and $1000 restitution to Matthew Brannon (since Harlow obviously isn't going to "webmaster school" at ODU now).

Update 2: GayWired: "Porn Wannabe Harlow Cuadra Gets Life in Prison". I like the accompanying photo!

Update 3: LOL! of the week: Harlow's lawyers declare victory! No, I am NOT making this up. Although, they admit "[Harlow] wasn’t the best witness."

Update 4: An emotional Melnick "lauds all who aided conviction." ""We were prepared for Harlow taking the stand; I felt he did very poorly," Melnick said. "I saw some things, like when he said (Kocis) was talking after his neck was slashed that nearly decapitated him.""

Update 5: Meanwhile, another touching story from a porn star, wrongly accused. Wow, according to Howard, he's only gotten one fan letter so far (was it from Nep?).

Victory!

2009-03-12T17:23:00.025Z

Update: And now that my emotion is adequately conveyed, here are the details. It's a complete sweep, guilty on all 12 counts, the homicide charge graded as 1st degree murder. Deliberation time: 3.5 hours. The death penalty phase commences tomorrow.

Prediction: Death. This was one pissed off jury, to go down this complex checklist of charges so quickly. The most obvious blame for this rests with Harlow, and foolish decision to ignore his lawyers' advice, and take the stand. The jury was clearly NOT amused.

Oh and then there's the other people, those who encouraged Harlow's folly. But I'll save THAT blame discussion for a future post...

Update 2: A programming reminder, you can view WNEP live here; it is 4pm EDT now, so, in exactly one hour they'll have their first post-verdict news broadcast.

Update 3: Times Leader video...

Update 4: You see Will? If you want to be first to comment on a new thread, you have to be quick, you have to be alert, and you have to be on the ball:

Update 5: You know, after all the excitement of the past couple weeks, this sounds like a great way to relax, break free, and put the whole drama out of one's mind for a day:

"Next week is supposed to climb in the high 80’s in temperature here in San Diego. I am looking forward to hitting the nude beach with the boys at some point. It will be my first time with the sand between my cheeks since . . . July 5th, I think?"

I'm planning on dining with friends at one of my favorite seafood restaurants this weekend myself.

Update 6: PC has done his usual stellar job of providing a round-up of all the relevant news this morning; most interesting to me was the interviews of alternate jurors now dismissed and ungagged from the case:

"Cuadra’s testimony had too many holes in it, said two of the three alternate jurors, who heard all the testimony but were released before the jury began deliberations.

The two men both said they had trouble believing parts of Cuadra’s story. Cuadra testified Kerekes had set up a meeting with Kocis ... but in the middle of the meeting, Kerekes stormed in the house and slashed Kocis’ throat.

“It seems like he didn’t finish his thoughts,” alternate juror four Francis Kopko said. “Some of it seemed credible and then you wondered about some aspects.”"

Update 7: Here's the skinny on how today's DP trial will go; sounds to me like it'll be all wrapped up in one day...today:

"The jury is expected to hear testimony from Kocis’ family, Cuadra’s family and likely psychiatrists before it deliberates Cuadra’s punishment of life in prison without parole or death.

Olszewski said he will have the jury deliberate until a verdict is reached today. If the jury is unable to reach a unanimous decision for the death penalty, Olszewski is mandated by law to sentence Cuadra to life in prison without parole."

Update 8: Penalty phase continued to Monday, thereby averting this problem for Harlow.

Update 9: Good article on what Harlow may face on death row in PA here.

Update 10: I just added a poll, to your upper right. Note the one-word difference from PC's poll question. It'll be interesting to compare results...

Update 11: Times Leader Sunday editorial on Harlow's sentencing defense: "The jury looked either unmoved or inscrutable."

Update 12: Harlow stabs director/supporter John Roecker in the back with a hot butter knife, saying “At the time, I didn’t know (Roecker) was recording my voice, our conversations in order to make a documentary until way later on,” when Melnick used the Roecker interview to impeach Harlow (as I predicted would happen).

It's Up To The Jury Now

2009-03-11T22:52:00.011Z

Closing arguments are over. It's in the jury's hands, starting tomorrow. A few trial watcher observations are trickling into PC's blog.

While I cannot imagine how the past few days could have possibly gone better for the prosecution in this case, I think it may be advisible for us all to take a sobering moment here and remember that *anything* can happen in a jury room. It only takes one loony case to be illogical and unreasonable and hang a jury in a criminal trial. Yes, it's a horrific thought, but it must be kept in mind...and prayed against. So, lets not jinx this by celebrating prematurely. At least not too much! :-)

Another alternate consideration, far less catastrophic (indeed, IMO, not at all unwelcome in fact)...a deal could still be struck, any time before the jury comes in with a verdict. Granted this is unlikely to be offered now by the prosecution, now that the time and expense of a trial has been outlayed. But you never know. I think it's fair to say Harlow would jump gleefully at the chance of getting a life sentence at this point. Is there something extra Harlow could offer to coax the prosecution extend such a deal once again? Offer to testify against Renee Martin or other Harlowites involved in Obstruction of Justice perhaps?

Like I said, you never know; as long as the jury is still out, possibilities remain. Which is something to keep in mind now, as we wait.

Update: Deliberations begin. Instructions took an hour and a half to get through. Olszewski: “these are the longest instructions I've ever heard given to a jury.”

Update 2: This jury question doesn't sound good for Harlow.

Trial Musings 16: The Plan C Express

2009-03-10T20:06:00.024Z

From PC's blog, quoting the Times Leader:

"3:51 PM: The Times Leader reports that homicide suspect Harlow Cuadra put the murder of Bryan Kocis on his former lover - Joseph Kerekes.

Going against his lawyer's advice not to testify,...

[An aside; I like how D'Andrea is trying to salvage his career and distance himself from this fiasco, LOL!]

"...Cuadra told the Luzerne County jury that he was inside Kocis' home in Dallas Township on Jan. 24, 2007, when they heard a loud, rapid knock on the door.

"Bryan gets up and goes up to the door; the minute he turns that knob, Joseph comes in," a sobbing Cuadra told the jury. "They fight a little at the door, I'm yelling, 'Joseph, what are you doing.'

"Joseph looks at me, and knocks Bryan in the face. Bryan was wearing one of those workout suits, all black, no socks, and Joseph grabs Bryan and throws him in the couch and starts punching he hell out of him.," Cuadra said.

Cuadra said he jumped on Kerekes' back in an attempt to stop the assault.

"Joseph reaches in his pocket and pulls out a knife and slashed Bryan's throat. I yelled, "Joe, what are you doing, he said to get the (expletive) out."

Cuadra said he was scared for his life and the life of Kerekes. They fled to South Beach, Fla., where they stayed in a motel for more than a month. They returned to their Virginia Beach, Va., home the day before Easter in 2007.

Cuadra said he understood that he was a "person of interest" in the case and wanted to talk to Pennyslvania investigators.

"Joseph wouldn't let me," Cuadra said. "I can't even go to the store to buy toilet paper without him.""

Update: According to the Citizen's Voice, Joe's evil dominence telepathically dictated Harlow's actions, even when safely in police custody:

"Cuadra said he wanted to tell police his story, but Kerekes was very controlling.

“People can say ‘Harlow, do this’ or ‘Harlow do that,’ but they don’t know," Cuadra said. "They’re not Harlow. They’re not with Joseph. Individual valor doesn’t matter when you’re with Joseph in a little room.”"

Yeah, but Harlow...your little room was in Lackawanna County. His little room was far far away, in Luzerne County.

Update 2: A helpful programming note...you can view WNEP live here...new story due at 6pm EDT!

Update 3: The Sword: Harlow Looking Screwed. Yeppers!

Update 4: Just One Hot Minute: Cobra Killers Testify Today. Hey, that's a catchy moniker!

Update 5: Per PC's Day 11 Overview, there was one hour of cross-examination by Melnick yesterday. Most surprising question and perhaps equally surprising answer:

"“Mr. Cuadra, let’s cut to the chase. Are you saying that Grant Roy and Sean Lockhart have anything to do with this murder?” Melnick asked.

“No,” Cuadra responded."

Also, Melnick was able to produce credit cards owned by Joe, which showed he didn't exclusively rely on Harlow's credit, as Harlow alledged.

As to why Harlow never went to the police, he was "scared" of Joe, and actually described their relationship as "Stockholm Syndrome." Which considering how famously unsuccessful this defense was for Patty Hearst, may have been inadvisable.

Anyways, they are going to be picking up with cross-examination this morning, and as notable nuggets appear, I'll Update them here. A couple inferences as to what will happen: 1) Unless he was sedated, I doubt Harlow slept last night, so expect to see a groggy defendant; and 2) Melnick has had 12+ hours to go over Harlow's fanciful tales of yesterday, and will be 100% fresh and chipper.

In other words, let the slaughter begin...

Update 6: Per Sassy's advice in the comments here, I went combing through the CCTs and BBTs, to see what clues I could find as to who dominated who in the Harlow/Joe relationship. These were the most telling items I found:

"HARLOW CUADRA: I'll tell you what, when we're nude on that beach you can ask me whatever the hell you want.

GRANT ROY: Okay.

JOSEPH KEREKES: Really?

HARLOW CUADRA: Yea."

Here we have Harlow making a critical (ha ha, how's that for understatement!) decision in this saga, all on his own. Joe meekly aquieses, with the one-word question to Harlow: "Really?" And then right after that we have:

"GRANT ROY: So y'all going to Sea World tomorrow?

JOSEPH KEREKES: Honestly Grant, if you can't give us a positive word tonight, we're gonna head back tomorrow morning or tomorrow afternoon.

HARLOW CUADRA: Well we'll give you 'til tomorrow."

Now, here's the exact opposite; Joe makes a decision, and then Harlow completely overrides it.

I think we now know who was the "controlling" partner in this relationship.

I am certain with time I could find more such examples in the transcripts, showing Harlow to be the dominant partner, but these I could locate quickly enough because I recall musing about the first one specifically before, months ago.

Update 7: The defense rests. No testimony from the chaplain, the other prisoner, or a certain other personage. :-) Closing arguments next, after some legal wrangling. No details yet what specific holes Melnick punched in Harlow's story this morning, but should get a clearer picture once additional news stories and court watcher reports come rolling in.

Update 8: Melnick seemed to rely pretty heavily on what Harlow said on the CCTs and BBTs to impeach him on the stand. This was Harlow's response:

""I regret making those statements, but it’s not true," Cuadra said, beginning to cry. "I was under a lot of stress. He played with me. It’s not true. It’s not true."

See Update 6 above; I don't see a whole lot of stress there as he calls the shots and overrides Joe's decisions.

Update 9: Closing arguments underway...

Update 10: More cross-examination highlights, via PC's Day 12 Overview...

- This was Harlow's big pre-rehearsed line; it seems to have made an impact as all news sources are quoting it:

"Harlow Cuadra shook his head and his voice reached a near frantic tone as he responded to lead prosecutor Michael Melnick’s question.

“He pleaded guilty to murder,” Cuadra said. “I did not. For two years, I have held on to my innocence.”"

...and the Times Leader adds: "Cuadra repeated the statement two more times on Wednesday, telling the jury Kerekes, 35, killed Kocis."

- "Joseph Kerekes stabbed Bryan Kocis in a jealous rage, Cuadra said, sticking to his story during two hours of questioning Wednesday." This after jealous Joe sat behind computer screens and engineered the hookup.

- "He was confrontational and cried several times during cross-examination by Melnick."

- "Cuadra testified when he arrived at Kocis’ home, Kocis kept calling him “Danny.”" Is Harlow actually saying he was unaware until he got there he was supposed to be "Danny?" What about his phone calls to Bryan as "Danny?"

- "“Joseph had a lot of chances to get away with this, but he pleaded guilty to murder,” Cuadra testified." Sounds like Harlow is bitter that Joe took the plea.

- Here's a fun fact: "Cuadra wore the same blue jacket with gold colored buttons during his testimony on Tuesday that he wore at the dinner with Lockhart and Roy, he said." But sadly, not the bow tie, it would appear.

Update 11: Also from PC's Day 12 Overview, more highlights from the closing arguments...

- These two statements sum up the different closing arguments:

"“The horror that was inflicted on Bryan Kocis by his killer was terrible,” attorney Joseph D’Andrea said during his closing argument. “But a mystery remains, who is Bryan Kocis’ killer? … Did that young man who I represent do it? Or, did he die by the hand of a violent man named Joseph Kerekes?”"

and

"“There is one thing I will agree with Harlow Raymond Cuadra about,” Melnick said. “Joseph Kerekes is a murderer. I agree with that. But … this wasn’t a solo performance by Joseph Kerekes.”

Melnick continued, pointing at Cuadra, “He aided and abetted that man.”"

The defense wants the jury to think the murder was one or the other. The prosecution wants the jury to realize it can be both.

- The problem with Boybatter:

"Cuadra alone slashed Kocis’ throat, Melnick told jurors, because he wanted to increase attention to his pornography Web site.

“(It) is a very mediocre Web site,” Melnick said. “But you heard him. What did the defendant call himself? ‘I’m a gay porn star.’ He was a wannabe. He wanted to be a big deal.”"

- "Melnick’s closing argument reviewed prosecution evidence, but spent more time quoting Cuadra’s own testimony, saying it was filled with incongruities." I'll say.

- "“Was the defendant telling the truth?” Melnick asked. “He has the most at stake. He has a significant interest to lie and fabricate, and you have to take that into account. Does it ring true or is it complete, unadulterated fiction?”"

- "“He wrote, and these are his words, he needs lawyers that can tell a good story,” Melnick said. “Innocent people don’t need alibis. They’re innocent.”"

- The Girlie-Man-Can't-Throw-A-Football Defense:

"Cuadra’s attorneys said Kerekes is the more domineering and physically imposing of the two men. D’Andrea referenced a video showing Cuadra throwing a football.

“I hate to be so condescending, but it was almost feminine,” D’Andrea said. “Harlow is not a jock. Harlow is not the muscleman who has the physical ability to kill.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t care how Harlow throws a football,” Melnick retorted during his closing argument. “He’s a gym rat … The kid is ripped.”"

- "“At best, folks, my client was a witness to a crime,” D’Andrea said...He waited two years to talk to you folks.”" You know, an off-topic yet irresistable musing springs to mind while reading this. Consider:

1) One party learns of a crime. They contact the police within hours. Result? For two years they are accused of having "blood on their hands."

2) Another party supposedly only witnesses a crime, NEVER tells police, and waits two years to reveal it. Result? "And now you know the truth," people say.

- The Condom Defense:

"Prosecutors presented evidence of lighter fluid, condoms and other items purchased at Wal-Mart. Cuadra wanted condoms because he thought he really was going to model for Kocis and have sex with him, and he didn’t know about Kerekes’ plans.

“You’re not worried about safe sex if you’re going to kill someone,” D’Andrea said."

Depends on whether you victim plans on sex before or after you get a chance to kill him, I suppose. And I guess the lighter fluid was intended as lube.

- And lastly, a forensic problem with Harlow's testimony:

"While sitting on a couch talking, Cuadra testified, Kerekes stormed inside and fought with Kocis before slashing his throat twice. Pascucci and Ross testified Kocis’ injury to his neck was by a knife in a single swipe."

OMFG!

2009-03-10T14:27:00.018Z

Hat tip to Bryn...WOW! :-O

Breaking News: Kerekes won't testify in Cuadra homicide trial

By Coulter Jones
Staff Writer
Published: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 10:05 AM EDT
Harlow Cuadra's former lover and co-defendant Joseph Kerekes took the stand this morning in Cuadra's capital homicide trial, but the 35-year-old Kerekes didn't testify.

After answering several brief questions from Cuadra Attorney Joseph D'Andrea, Kerekes said he wouldn't testify on Cuadra's behalf.

"I've been thinking a lot about my parents and it would destroy them if I said something that I didn't do," Kerekes said.

Kerekes, 35, pleaded guilty to second degree homicide in December and is serving a life-sentence. In his plea he said Cuadra had killed Bryan Kocis and then set fire to his Dallas Township home.

Cuadra's mother seated in the courtroom, shouted at Kerekes as he left the courtroom.

Cuadra started testifying after Kerekes stepped down.

Cuadra could face the death penalty if found guilty of first-degree homicide for Bryan Kocis' death in January 2007. Prosecutors allege Cuadra killed Kocis, 44, in order to lure an actor to the gay pornography he co-owned with Kerekes.

Kerekes was the second defense witness called this morning. Testimony started more than an hour late because of several legal issues that had to be addressed prior to Kerekes' testimony.

Update: "...Kerekes said. "What I told you (D'Andrea) is untrue." HOLY CRAP! Harlow is toast...simple as that, folks...I don't see WHAT he could possibly say on the stand now to undo this damage...the jury is not stupid, I'm sure they figured out what just happened...developing...

Update 2: Yeah, I'd be weeping too at this point...

"Cuadra is currently testifying on his behalf, recalling his childhood in Florida and enlisting in the U.S. Navy when he was 17 years old. He is weeping on the stand."

Update 3: We kinda saw this one comin'...

"Joseph Kerekes controlled Harlow Cuadra’s e-mail accounts and kept his credit and identification cards when the two men went out, Cuadra testified Tuesday morning."

Update 4: The Cuadra Family Secret is trotted out...

"Cuadra's attorney Paul Walker is questioning Cuadra. Much of the testimony has focused on how Cuadra met Kerekes and how he was molested as a child by his step-father. Cuadra said he stopped talking to his family after he left the Navy.

He couldn't reveal to his family his homosexuality, or what his stepfather did, he said.

A weeping Cuadra apologized to his mother, who was also crying

"I'm sorry, Momma," Cuadra sobbed."

Update 5: From PC's blog: "12:31 PM: WNEP TV-16 reports that It turned out to be a bizarre morning in the murder trial of Harlow Cuadra..." Gee, ya think?

Update 6: LOL! This is what Harlow's defense has been reduced to: "During dinner, in which, Cuadra said Roy and Kerekes talked about filming movies together, Cuadra said he and Lockhart were "playing footsies" under the table."

Update 7: The Plan C Express leaves the station! Looks a lot like the Plan B Express, but w/o Joe on board.

Update 8: BTW there WAS a third witness so far today (if you count Joe, LOL!) and it was originally a typo; he was indeed a "defense" witness. Although what good he did for Harlow is far from clear at this point: "The defense's other witness, James Quare, 24, testified he met Kocis online and stopped by the Dallas Township home for a sexual rendezvous."

Update 9: WNEP video of 2:14pm on the Joe disaster. Excerpt: "...and the man who the defense expected to be a big help here, but WASN'T. This is Joseph Kerekes...:

Update 10: LOL! from PC's blog: "11:48 AM: Sources tell me that Joe had $300 deposited in to his canteen (so that he could buy a TV), in order for him to agree to testify... looks like the defense lost that money."

She's Baaaaack!

2009-03-10T13:58:00.003Z

And testifying for Harlow, WHAT a surprise... "Renee Martin, a prosecution witness who returned to her home state of Texas after she testified last week, is in the courthouse and likely will be called to testify by Cuadra's attorneys, Joseph D'Andrea and Paul Walker."

Here's a handy quick link for the prosecution to use; saves them the time and trouble of clicking the "Older Posts" link below.

Trial Musings 15: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

2009-03-10T02:45:00.023Z

The prosecution rests.

As on Friday, there were a few minor revelations today. One, Harlow's laptop had photos of Bryan Kocis on it. Evidence I'd say you could draw inferences roughly the same as that of the USA People Search report Harlow ordered.

Two, Harlow had a brief email exchange with executives at Falcon, in which Harlow used the claim that he was "working with a high profit porn star beginning in three weeks" as leverage to get his Falcon application noticed. A high profit porn star who Falcon immediately figured out was Brent Corrigan (the reference on his application).

And three, Harlow blurted out a few interesting things after he was arrested and read the affidavit against him, including "Joe didn't do it."

Michael Kocis, Bryan's father, also testified today. Although his testimony was not new (to us), one bit of it was important: That his son was a very private person who "you just couldn't drop in" on. This will be critical to the jury, as it shows Harlow (not Joe) had the ability to enter the Kocis home, as only someone looking like Harlow (aka "Danny") was expected that evening. Bryan would never have opened the door had Joe (or anyone else not looking like Harlow/Danny) called on him that fateful night.

So now...it's *finally* Harlow's turn to play show and tell. And besides the possibility of Harlow himself taking the stand, it looks like he has three witnesses lined up, that we know of so far:

1) Chaplain Tom Winiarczyk of Providing Hope Ministries, which provides hope and ministrations to the inmates and staff at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility;

2) Joe Kerekes, Harlow's life-incarcerated co-murderer, tenderly described in a documentary interview by him a few months ago as his "partner in life" and "first and only," but now portrayed as an evil gunslinging dominator who was so controlling that he actually wrote and sent every email purportedly from Harlow, both before and after the murder; and

3) Bobby Lee Komrowski, a probable former cellmate of Joe Kerekes, and currently serving 20-40 years after pleading guilty to the stabbing death of his girlfriend back in October of 2007 (although he now appears to be suffering from some buyers remorse over that deal).

So, which one of these duelling defense witnesses will the jury find more credible? The saintly Chaplain Tom, perhaps telling them Harlow has now found salvation? The malevolent Joe, who pled guilty and then claimed that Harlow did all the actual killin' work? Or the rather unattractive cellmate Bobby Lee, to whom Joe possibly told a different story?

Stay tuned Chinchilla readers, as this trial's climactic final scene unfolds...

Update: Here's a fun fact I just noticed in that news story about Komrowski: His lawyer is former Joe Kerekes attorney Mark Bufalino, whose belatedly revealed conflict of interest back in July derailed this trial for months; see here here here here and here.

Update 2: Ah, those globe-trotting cameras!

"Two Sony digital cameras with obliterated serial numbers found under a towel in the Virginia Beach, Va., home of Cuadra and Kerekes were the same exact models missing from Kocis’ residence, Hannon said.

Hannon said the cameras seized from the Virginia Beach home were analyzed by the FBI in Virginia, and shipped to Sony corporate offices in Japan. Sony engineers were unable to find a second serial number on both cameras, Hannon said."

Update 3: "The surprise development appeared to have caught prosecutors off guard..." Hmm, they must not be keeping up on the blogs:

"Earlier today and without the jury in the courtroom, Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. questioned Cuadra, who waived his right to remain silent.

The surprise development appeared to have caught prosecutors off guard.

Melnick and Crake were observed running out of the courtroom on the third floor, and were leaning over the shoulders of state police Trooper Brian Murphy, a computer forensics investigator, working on a laptop computer."

Were they reading HAJOT or SOTC? Or both? :-)

Trial Musings 14: Will Harlow Take The Stand?

2009-03-07T18:59:00.018Z

Yesterday was mostly police and fire day in the Harlow Cuadra trial. This was stuff we knew already from the affidavit, so, not too much of it was muse-worthy, I say. The only thing that I found mildly amusing was the "gasps" in the courtroom when the 'Danny Moilin' photos sent to Bryan were shown. I guess despite this being the so-called "Gay Porn Murder Trial" in the news media, these jurors haven't been exposed to much full-frontal "art" in court thus far. Or anywhere else for that matter.

Although, there was the Brent-Harlow nude beach frolic video shown last Friday I suppose...but that must not have been in the same league so as to inure them enough from gasping.

Bryan's mother did testify at the end of the day (or possibly not?), and I take it the prosecution will wrap up it's case on Monday with the rest of the Kocis relatives. Then, the defense begins it's case.

Which brings me to the subject of today's Trial Musing...will Harlow actually take the stand, as rumored?

We've already got a thread discussing the pros and cons of calling Joe as a defense witness. Harlow, however, is a whole different matter. The pros I'd say are speculative at best. The cons are obviously enormous.

The major 'con' being Harlow's vulnerability to questions from D.A. Melnick like this:

MELNICK: Mr. Cuadra, you claim Joe Kerekes "dominated" you into your role in this murder. However, on this video interview with filmmaker John Roecker, you have nothing but good, kind and loving things to say about, and I quote, your "partner in life" and "your first and only." Your honor, I would like to introduce the following video clip into evidence, and play it for the jury now. Baliff, will you please roll the tape?...

[Video clip plays]

So Mr. Cuadra, I ask you: If Joe was such oppressive influence on your life, forcing you to do things against your will, why didn't you say so during this interview, when you were perfectly free to do so? Were you lying then, or are you lying now?

As you can see, questions like this are going to be a problem for Harlow, should he opt to take the stand.

Update: Kocis case makes the Times Leader Sunday editorial page.

Trial Musings 13: Bits and Bobs, and Back on Schedule

2009-03-06T05:21:00.018Z

Harlow trial Day 8 has come and gone. Today's big news is that the defense case is, once again, expected to begin on Monday. There'd been earlier speculation that since the prosecution case had been dragging a bit, the defense commencement would be pushed back to Wednesday; however, since Melnick cut witness Renee Martin's planned "long" testimony (1-2 days?) down to a mere 30 minutes yesterday, we are pretty much back on schedule.

A miscellany of minor witnesses were quickly and briefly examined today, 14 in all. These caught my eye:

- Client Matthew Brannon testified. I've blogged about him before, here and here. No surprises.

- Norfolk Gym owner Lance Treadway testified. In the affidavit, he established the fact Harlow and Joe atypically did not go to that gym on the days before, during and after the murder. Today he was up there to make a very different and probably more important point: That Harlow was pretty strong. He "regularly bench pressed 225 pounds," was seen "squatting several 45-pound plates on a 45-pound bar" and "was equal in strength to Kerekes." The even showed a video clip of Harlow working out, to emphasize the point (see Update 2, below). Obviously goes right to the heart of the defense argument here, the "dominence" question. So, this could turn out to be somewhat important to the jury.

- A pawn shop owner testified that a shabbily dressed Harlow and Joe pawned jewelry on the day of the SWAT raid; Joe said he needed the money for a "rebuilding" project (LOL!).

- And the video cameras got covered. Ah, remember those cameras? Back in the day, here in Kocisphereland, the cameras were considered major league evidence. Great debates were fought! Some argued that the odds of the cameras seized from Harlow and Joe's house being identical to Bryan's missing cameras were a million to one. Others argued: "AHA! See? There IS a chance! We got reeeeasonable doubt!"

Well, yo, how the mighty have fallen. As this case is no longer really about whether Harlow is guilty or innocent, but rather, how guilty he is...the cameras have been sent down to the minors, dealt with today alongside the other Thursday bits and bobs. And FWIW, it turns out that "video tape recordings from Bryan Kocis' home were likely made with cameras investigators said were found in Cuadra's home." And there you have it.

Tomorrow the prosecution is expected to wrap up their case, ending on a emotional note by calling members of the Kocis family.

Update: More from the Citizen's Voice on that formerly burning red hot camera question:

"Two cameras matching the description of cameras taken from Kocis’ home that were found in Cuadra and Kerekes’ Virginia Beach home could have belonged to Kocis, testified George Skaluba of the FBI. Skaluba tested digital tapes known to have belonged to Kocis and compared them with sample tapes in a lab. The results showed the cameras were similar, but couldn’t conclusively indicate the cameras taken from the Virginia Beach home were Kocis’, Skaluba said. The serial numbers on the cameras were removed."

Update 2: Here's that video clip of Harlow working out, showing him quite capable of single-handedly killing Bryan Kocis, countering defense arguments that he was too small and frail to do so.

BTW, this incriminating prosecution video was made public on YouTube over a year ago by pro-Harlow blogger Matt Fondel, the sole "man behind the curtain" of the Bitchless Blog. So, credit where credit is due...thanks Matt! :-)

Update 3: WNEP: "The judge told jurors that the prosecution plans to rest its case on Monday."

Closure

2009-03-05T19:34:00.002Z

From PC's comments, posted here:

"Grant was not ordered to do anything by the prosecution, judge or anyone after his testimony.

My flight home was not scheduled until Wednesday afternoon.

I wanted to hear some of the testimony before I had to leave. I'm done trying to defend myself in all this. My testimony was clear. The truth was told and the objective was accomplished.

We knew what we needed to establish and every counter by the defense was fully anticipated and answered with the proper reply.

Upon completion of both mine and Sean's testimony along with the over 7 hours of taped conversations, both sides were in agreement (without repeating their exact words) that our part in this case was the MOST VITAL KEY for this entire case!

Our cooperation in this case, along with the sting operation provided the glue that hold it all together, period! That has been conveyed to both me and Brent, over and over and over again by every member of the investigation and prosecution team since April 28, 2007.

Bryan's father, Michael Kocis and Sam Hall (the attorney who conducted the mediation in Vegas and was also a close friend of Bryan's) both personally and sincerely thanked me for our cooperation and great sacrifice we've endured over the past two years! With hand shakes I thanked them and expressed our sincerest condolences and we wouldn't have considered anything less! Truth and justice, no matter how slow the wheels may turn...

>Grant"

Update: Hmm.

Trial Musings 12: Young Bucks In Court II

2009-03-05T08:26:00.007Z

There was another escort on the stand yesterday...looks like this one did some damage to Harlow, however:

"Adam Greibier said he worked for Cuadra and Kerekes as an escort and appeared in one of their adult films titled, “Young Bucks In Heat II.” Greibier described their relationship as a “joint power,” and they wanted Lockhart for their adult film business.

“It would definitely bring their company to a new level,” Greibier said, if Cuadra and Kerekes produced movies with Lockhart. “It was general knowledge that Cobra Video was the leading seller of gay adult films.”"

On that "general knowledge" point, see here.

It looks like the clients are more inclined to tow the defense line, portraying Joe as having this Manson-like hold over Harlow; while the escorts are not so cooperative, leaning more towards a "joint power" relationship. IMO, the prosecution needs to call more escorts. To the stand, that is.

BTW, does anyone know what Mr. Greibier's porn name was? And was YBIH2 ever released (I can't seem to find it)?

Trial Musings 11: The Defense Has A Witness

2009-03-05T01:43:00.006Z

And his name is Joe.

Actually, I can't say I'm too surprised. After all the witnesses called by the prosecution, the defense has to put on some sort of case. Pretty darn near everyone involved in this case has already been called. So why not call Joe?

Oh you say, because he's a crazy loose cannon, who talks before he thinks? Well, maybe that's exactly why the defense wants him. To show how crazy he is, and how Harlow must have trembled in fear and trepidation in his presence.

But will Joe play that game? He was called to the stand during the Fannick fiasco, and, by all accounts seemed to do OK, after being properly prepped no doubt.

And what is Joe's agenda at this point? Does he have feelings for Harlow still, and will he try to say he did all the crime, and Harlow none (thus recanting his plea statement)? Or does he resent Harlow, and try to make sure he gets as good a sentence as he has (or worse)? Will Joe try to take a "Parthian shot" or two at people likely on his enemies list, like Sean and Grant? Keep in mind, he's got his life sentence; he can pretty much say whatever he wants, with little negative consequences to himself.

One thing certain about Joe...any side that wants to impeach his credibility and truthfulness should have no difficulty finding plenty of examples to do so with.

Trial Musings 10: More Clients Come Forth

2009-03-04T20:24:00.008Z

Evidence today that Harlow had a devoted and diverse client base that defied class boundaries:

"A man from Georgia testified he gave $70,000 to homicide suspect Harlow Cuadra.

Howard Mitch Halford, of Atlanta, told the jury that he is in "love" with Cuadra, 27, and gave him the keys to his residence as an option when Cuadra was a suspect in the death of Bryan Kocis in January 2007."

and

"A letter Cuadra wrote to another escort client, Nep Maliki, was shown to the jury.

In the letter dated June 13, 2007, Cuadra instructed Maliki on what to say to investigators.

Maliki, of Virginia Beach, testified that he kept the letter in his pocket for six months. Malicki further said he gave Cuadra $50 to his legal defense, donating the money on a Web site called freeharlow.com."

Halford's testimony looks to be the most useful for the defense:

"Halford described the relationship with Cuadra and Kerekes as "a little puppy."

"Kerekes had such control over Harlow, how would I describe it, it was like a little puppy," Halford said."

Although this is to an extent being subtly countered by the prosecution, showing these guys to be lovesick loonies.

You know, a thought just struck me...is the prosecution using these clients to showcase Harlow's manipulative powers?

Update: Photos above (and one below) are from the WNEP news story. Most of the segment features Halford, then covers to a slightly lesser extent Nep, and then a brief mention of a third witness. :-)

Actually, there is one very interesting moment on camera...about mid-way through, look for the moment when the reporter asks Harlow about Halford saying he loves him. Harlow's response is...well, judge for yourself.

Update 2: Facial features agape! More from the Times Leader on yesterday's star witness Mitch Hal(l)ford:

"Mouths opened and eyes widened among a few jurors on Wednesday when a customer of Harlow Cuadra’s male escort business in Virginia testified he gave Cuadra $70,000 to help pay for his defense on criminal homicide charges.

Howard Mitchell Hallford, 48, told the Luzerne County jury he gave the money to Cuadra, 27, because he loves him. Hallford, of Atlanta, Ga., further testified he gave Cuadra keys to his then-Virginia Beach, Va., residence in early 2007 as an “option” when Cuadra was a suspect in the murder of Bryan Kocis in Dallas Township in January 2007.

...

Hallford’s testimony appeared to affect the jury, several of whom readjusted themselves in their seats, leaned forward and wrote what he was saying in their notebooks.

Hallford said Cuadra told him to tell investigators that they were together the night Kocis was killed.

“Basically, he didn’t have an alibi for that night,” Hallford said.

Hallford told the jury he saw Cuadra once in late January 2007 and gave him $70,000 because he loves him. “That was the reason for the money,” Hallford said, apparently surprising the jury."

By the way, is it "Halford" or "Hallford?" I've been seeing both...anyone know officially?

Trial Musings 9: 15 Minutes Of Fame, Times Two

2009-03-04T17:44:00.013Z

From the Times Leader:

"Martin, whom Melnick advised Olszewski would be on the witness stand for a length of time, testified for about 30 minutes."

You know...I really don't have much more to say on this. :-)

Update: Citizen's Voice adds this:

"Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. told jurors before the break that Martin’s testimony would be long."

and this:

"Jurors listened to two of the taped conversations, which lasted less than 10 minutes each."

By my calculations, 30 minutes - (10 minutes x 2) = 10 minutes of actual time Melnick risked having Renee Martin under questioning.

Quicky, just out of curiousity: Have you heard any court house scuttlebut as to why Melnick all but yanked her from this trial at the last minute?

I'm sure all of you out there will forgive me for my perhaps unseemly interest in this mystery. :-)

Trial Musings 8: Captain Jack Throws Harlow A Life Preserver

2009-03-04T15:54:00.003Z

It looks like former Harlow client John Ryan was first up on the witness stand today.

Pro for the prosecution: Ryan tells the court of a jail visit to Harlow, where Harlow feeds him the "I smelled smoke and ran" story.

Con for the prosecution: "Ryan told the jury that Kerekes was the more dominate person in the relationship, and learned Kerekes had assaulted Cuadra."

Neutral, but just plain funny/sad: Ryan donated $7000 to the Harlow Defense Fund. A fool and their money...

Net win for defense here I'd say. The ball is getting closer into field goal range for their "Stockholm Syndrome" explanation for Harlow's role in this murder. I suspect this'll happen more and more throughout the week, as these former clients are called to the stand. I wonder if the prosecution is wise to be doing so? It would be better to force the defense to call these guys I would think, and then cross-examine them. Oh well, we'll see what happens...

Renee's Rap Sheet

2009-03-04T00:38:00.011Z

These are all from only one courthouse (Virginia Beach District Court). She has other cases in the Virginia Beach Circuit Court as well, but their servers have been on the fritz lately, and I have not been able to pull them.

And I have not even searched other courts (Federal, nearby counties, etc). Which leads me to believe this all merely scratches the surface.

First, the criminal cases. Note that the top ones are felonies. And, being that the crime (bad checks) is one that goes to honesty, can be brought up to impeach a witness by a cross-examiner.

Also note the 60 day (suspended) jail sentence for Disturbing the Peace.

The Profanity/Threaten Public Airways charges...yeah, I'm sure there's an interesting story behind those...

Now onto the civil side. She has a rather extensive history of being sued by people (although occasionally she's a plaintiff). Almost all unlawful detainers and "Warrants in Debt." I did not print each sheet; as you can see the list is too numerous for that.

And again, keep in mind this is all from ONE Virginia Beach court. There are probably more cases out there, both civil and criminal, from other appropriate courts as well.

"The Plan" Evidence Leaked To Media

2009-03-03T06:53:00.004Z

I managed to catch this before I turned in tonight.

It's a bombshell piece of hearsay evidence, no doubt about it. However, upon reflection, my joy at learning of it is tempered by some rather serious concerns:

1) How did the Times Leader obtain this six-page letter from Harlow to Renee Martin? It does not seem to have been part of the filings, otherwise, it would have appeared on PC's blog. So...who leaked it?

2) Can the defense successfully object to any or all of this letter; say, on hearsay and/or other grounds? And if so...

3) Will the defense now move for a mistrial? Remember, the jury is NOT sequestered.

In other words...did someone's irresponsible and selfish desire for fame and personal self-aggrandizement just seriously jeopardize this entire court case?

I guess we shall soon find out.

Update: LOL!

Trial Musings 7: Grant "Cuadra Convicter" Roy Takes The Stand

2009-03-02T16:48:00.023Z

As reported on PC's blog, prosecutors have been questioning Grant this morning, and are now beginning to play the CCTs and BBTs.

Thus far, no huge surprises...but one tidbit of trivia was revealed: That the Crab Catcher recordings were made possible by a "recording device Roy wore on his belt buckle."

Also interesting:

"After Kocis was killed, Roy told the jury that Cuadra called Lockhart and referred him to wnep.com on Jan. 25, 2007.

"Lockhart was concerned that we were next," Roy testified. During that phone call on Jan. 25, Lockhart had testified Cuadra said to him, "I guess my guy went overboard.""

I guess they are going to play hours of tapes for a while, then get into defense cross-examination. I am curious to see if they'll try to bring up the disputed "Caleb Carter" incident with Grant, as I speculated they might.

Developing...

Update: While we await developments, here's an artistic interlude...the large mural painting above the bench in Harlow trial Courtroom Two...

A decorative panel painted by W. T. Smedley, placed over the Judge’s bench in Court Room No. 2.

Update 2: Hmmm, this is interesting; Grant told Harlow and Joe at the Vegas dinner suspicions would have been reciprocal, regardless of who died:

"“I told them ‘If something happened to Bryan, they’re going to show up at my door the next day. If something happened to either one of us they’re going to show up at his door the next day,’” Roy said."

In other words, had Harlow and Joe killed Sean and/or Grant instead, for over two years we would have been hearing" "Bryan Kocis has blood on his hands!!!!!!"

Update 3: Ah, and here is more on what Grant told them regarding the settlement agreement:

"“Harlow and both Joe seemed a little eager to get this production under way,” Roy said. “I didn’t see the need to rush. At various times, I expressed to them I didn’t think it’d be a problem if we could get out from this mediation (with Kocis).”

Roy said a settlement between Lockhart and Kocis was nearly finished. The settlement would allow Lockhart to act again under his screen name Brent Corrigan. Because the settlement was still being negotiated, Roy said, he couldn’t reveal that information to Cuadra or Kerekes. But as the seven-course dinner progressed, he said, both men were drinking excessively and became more insistent.

“(Kerekes) said, ‘Harlow has this guy who will do anything for him,'” Roy testified. Roy said he took this statement to mean murder.

Roy’s testimony was stopped for a brief recess...."

It sounds like my earlier guess was pretty darn close:

"I believe what happened at the dinner was, Sean and Grant politely listened to Harlow and Joe's drunken sales pitch (complete with breaking glassware), nodded their heads a lot...and then more or less gave Harlow and Joe the brush off. And they used the current settlement talks with Bryan as a convenient brushing excuse (ie, "...well, sounds good, but we have to wrap up this lawsuit thing, so, maybe sometime, ok? We'll call you later. And thanks for dinner!")."

Update 4: Off topic: Witness Renee Martin threatens blogger Elmysterio: "El sure dont want me to tell all the shit I know on him cause that would make heads fly." (1:48pm).

Update 5: Looks like we're done for the day; CCTs played, BBTs tomorrow. Quicky has a brief courtwatcher comment over on PC's thread (6:52pm). Meanwhile, back in San Diego, life goes on...

Update 6: Grant on cross-examination now; via PC's blog:

"3:09 PM: The Times Leader reports adult film producer Grant Roy said he believes his profession of producing gay pornographic movies is "an art."

Roy made the commnets while being questioned by Harlow Cuadra's attorney, Joseph D'Andrea.

D'Andrea is attacking Roy about his profession, suggesting Roy makes money by selling sex involving young men."

Attacking Roy about his profession? Really? An intriguing defense strategy. I wonder if the jury is looking at Harlow during this?

Someone remind me, what kind of work was Harlow involved in again? I THINK it had something to do with making money, selling...um, something...involving, um, some people...darn it, I wish somebody would jog my memory here!

Update 7: And the Times Leader finishes up with a few additional details from the cross-examination of Grant Roy. No real bombshells here; main points seem to be

1) Grant fully admitted on the stand he had motive up the wazoo to kill Bryan Kocis. He talked freely about the bogus trademark lawsuit, the CCBill freeze, the 'Cobra Killer' blog...he even candidly admitted to investigators he wanted Kocis dead, during one of the six interviews with police.

2) Grant begun to answer "reluctantly" when the topic switiched from motive to the tapes. After a bit of badgering, D'Andrea got Grant to say the obvious: That Harlow never specifically said "I killed Bryan!" Melnick came back and got Grant to state the equally obvious: That Harlow described the moment Bryan died.

3) The defense apparantly tried to get Grant to admit Joe was the one who was doing most of the "pressuring" to film; Grant testified it was both.

I'd like to get Quicky's take on this (he was there, right?), but my overall impression is that the cross-examination was a bit of a lost opportunity. Since Grant was willing to be so chatty and open about the bad blood that existed between him and Bryan, they should have just run with that; and not wasted time with obvious stuff (Harlow on the tapes), subjective stuff (Joe's influence) and silly stuff (attacking Grant for being a filmmaker of the same ouevre as Harlow).

Update 8: From the Citizen's Voice; Grant also clarified what went down during the legendary "hit man" conversation:

"During cross-examination, Roy also admitted to saying several times he wanted to kill Kocis, because of the very heated negotiations about Lockhart’s working status. Roy also said a model who worked for him referred to hiring a hitman to kill Kocis, but he laughed it off.

“You said if you were going to kill him you would do it yourself?” D’Andrea asked.

“Yes,” Roy responded.

“That’s how bad the blood was between you?” D’Andrea asked.

“There was some pretty heavy things (said) at the time,” Roy said."

Brent's Post-Trial Recap

2009-02-28T23:30:00.003Z

Normally I'll just link to and/or post brief excerpts of other peoples' blog posts on my blog...but this post is so directly relevant to what 'Silence of the Chinchillas' is all about that I feel compelled to poach the whole thing.

So, hopefully Brent doesn't mind...if he does, well, he can always pull a Roecker and file a copyright complaint with Blogger (joking!). Here it is:

February 28, 2009
DEFLATED
I feel completely and utterly deflated right now.

I arrived at the airport early for my flight home from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Almost 2 hours early. And in little airports like these, it takes 10 minutes to check in and get through security.

While it may appear to be a hasty departure, the truth is . . . I’m not sure all of me is ready to put the polishing touches on this chapter of my life. I feel so . . . Unfulfilled. Like a spirit lingering and longing to carry out unfinished business.

I’ve been in Pennsylvania giving my testimony and telling my story. Yesterday culminated two years of cooperation as a primary witness in the murder trial of Bryan Kocis, owner and operator of Cobra Video. SO much has happened and so many things race through my mind that I know I just simply don’t have the organizational or communication skills to even begin to accurately convey what I have been through in all of this.

Often times, I sit back and I wonder what the percentage is of my readers and fans that even have any clue that I’ve toiled with this predicament. Did you know? I know there was plenty online to busy yourself with regarding the trial and all the initial suspicions. I have (almost) always directly avoided making statements about the investigation on my blog.

A recap is necessary. I’ve known that for a very long time now. I put the notion of it on layaway until after the trial becuse I didn’t want my current statements to affect the investigation or trial proceedings. Believe me, this whole thing has been complicated enough without me adding more to the record!

Much like Bryan’s personal home and residence, my world went up in smoke and flames when he was killed. People love to think I had everything to gain and I had the most obvious motive to do this or be involved in this. The truth is, that’s delusional and completely detached from reality. When Bryan was killed, everything in my world crumbled to my feet. All my plans, hopes and aspirations were put on hold until I could get a grip of the situation.

I was stripped of all credibility in the eyes of most people.

I got through it. Mostly with the brace and support of Grant. He was the thread and I was the needle. I have always persevered and in many cases, I’ve done it all on my own. Grant has been the only constant in all of this. While he was instrumental in getting me where I am today - through two companies, a civil suit that lasted a year, launching a mainstream career, and now a murder investigation - it was my resolve and refusal to let the world at large stamp me out.

Why do I feel so deflated? Because for the last 5 years, I’ve been puffing and puffing myself up to get bigger, stronger and better. For the last 5 years, I’ve been bracing myself hard against the world. And it all seems to have culminated now with the passing of my day on the witness stand.

Oh sure, there were a few nice breaks over the last 2 years, but the truth is . . . until I was able to finally get up on that stand and make my statements, this would always be looming.

And now that it’s over, I can finally afford to relieve some of the steam and pressure that has built up inside of me. I can finally, truly and honestly look to the future and know it’s wide open from here.

Lots of damage has been done, however. All those who persecuted me and insisted I had everything to do with Bryan’s death; they will never come forward and admit they were wrong. All those ‘publications’ and web portals that reported on it in the beginning, implementing Grant and me will never correct their assumptions. A couple have even altogether ignored the trial.

One thing all this has finally made me realize is . . . I need to let past be just that. Even though I have everything to look forward to now, I find myself wanting to write and fixate on all that went wrong. Saying “I told you so” doesn’t do anyone any good. If those that were in the wrong can’t take responsibility for it on their own then nothing can be mended and it’s best to just move on.

I do want to share my inside views on what it’s like to be involved in a case like this. I’ll write that now, and share it after the trial. I’ll try my best to keep cynicism out of it, but I guess I’ve always just sort of . . . been this way.

I’ve had a lot of extremely tough breaks. Yet, I’ve been very fortunate in many other ways. In all earnest, I’m growing tiresome of living this extraordinary life. It’s time for me to just settle down and make a little porn. If mainstream is in the cards for me then I’ll rise to the challenge.

But for now, I’m tired. I’m going to get on a plane, go back to San Diego and live in my new home. First thing Sunday morning, I get right now to it. I have have Brent Corrigan’s Big Easy to finalize! But before that, we’ve released Summit Director’s Cut. It will be onward and upward, as it ever was for me. Even if I caught a few snags on along the way as I ascend.

Posted at 2:25 pm in: Day 2 Day Stuff

Trial Musings 6: Brent Takes Full Responsibility

2009-02-27T17:05:00.021Z

...under oath for the underage incident; and, as PPO notes, theoretically risks criminal exposure by doing so:

Day four of Cuadra trial
Edward Lewis elewis@timesleader.com

WILKES-BARRE - Luzerne County Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. excused the jury to inquire if Sean Lockhart wanted a lawyer after Lockhart made "potentially incriminating" statements that he worked in adult films as a minor.

Lockhart was answering questions from Assistant District Attorney Michael Melnick about his background in adult films when Olszewski stopped the proceeding and excused the jury from the courtroom.

Olszewski cautioned Lockhart that he may have "incriminated himself criminally" by admitting under oath he provided a false identification and was performing in adult films while a minor.

Olszewski gave Lockhart several options, to include speaking with a lawyer or declining to speak with a laywer and continue to testify.

Lockhart declined to speak or have a lawyer, and Olszewski returned the jury to resume the trial."

Update: Since December of 2006, huh? Sounds like more of an "online one-night-stand" to me:

"POSTED 11:32 a.m.

WILKES-BARRE - Sean Lockhart testified he had several "internet interactions" with Harlow Cuadra beginning in December 2006. Lockhart was called to testify in Cuadra's capital murder trial before Luzerne County Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr."

Update 2: More on that "online relationship:"

"Sean Lockhart, a well-known gay pornography star, started his testimony this morning in the capital murder trial of Harlow Cuadra.

Prosecutors allege Cuadra, 27, killed Bryan Kocis in January 2007 at his Dallas Township home because Cuadra thought the rival pornography producer was preventing Cuadra and his partner Joseph Kerekes from signing Lockhart to their pornography production company in Virginia Beach, Va.

Lockhart, a key witness in prosecutor's case, testified Cuadra started contacting him in the fall of 2006 through his My Space account, a social networking Web site. Cuadra was very persistent that the two men produce a flim together, Lockhart said.

Lockhart, 22, testified for about 40 minutes before the lunch break. He will resume his testimony this afternoon...."

At the risk of stating the obvious, I should point out that undoubtably both prosecution and defense have the emails involved in their possession, gathered over the months-long discovery process. Making it, for all intents and purposes, impossible to lie about such matters on the stand, due to the certainty of them being produced upon a discrepancy being uttered.

It appears the facts are this: That Harlow pleaded with Brent to film with him, starting in fall of 2006...with Brent essentially ignoring him until December.

Update 3: Brent "nearly sobbing:"

"While walking along the beach on April 27, 2007, Lockhart said Cuadra and Kerekes were "opening up" about the murder. This made Lockhart upset, he testified, and he fell behind.

"Cuadra dropped back, he touched my arm and he said, 'don't worry, it was quick, he went quick,'" Lockhart testified while nearly sobbing."

Update 4: Extensive court watcher comments by Quicksrt over on PC's blog (5:38) and here...to sum up, Sean was "briliant on the stand!" and "running the show" (no surprise there) while cross examination was rather unambitious, it seems (in view of the defense opening statement, that is a bit of a surprise).

Update 5: Leeeavin', on a jet plane! It appears Sean WAS dismissed from the stand at the end of court on Friday, as he is now travelling back to San Diego as per his blog (hat tip to Bryn). Reading it now...done. Wow, powerful stuff. And I think we've only heard the beginning...

Trial Musings 5: OK, You Can Talk About Him Now

2009-02-26T18:30:00.008Z

But only here! :-)

Just two brief observations:

1) "I didn't think he would be good, he was muscular and older,.." when describing 26 y/o Harlow's 'Cobra Boy' credentials... yeah... mmmm, ok...

2) On the settlement, reached that same Vegas weekend Harlow and Joe invited Sean and Grant to dinner: "Everyone was happy with the new arrangement, he said. “The weight of the world had been lifted off (their) shoulders,” Wagner said."

Update: More myths shattered...this time on BOTH sides:

To which I say "Halleluja!" And "Quicky, please marry me!"

Trial Musings 4: Another Myth Dies

2009-02-26T15:27:00.005Z

From today's Citizen's Voice:

"Cuadra had talked about signing Lockhart more than a year before Kocis’ death, Hensley said, but he couldn’t get the actor because of his contract with Kocis."

As we all know, Bryan died in January of 2007. And through roommate Hensley's testamony yesterday, we now know for a FACT that Harlow and Joe knew of Bryan Kocis, Cobra Video, and Brent Corrigan in January of 2006 (or earlier).

And here's what the Out article (which was published in 2007) has to say about the first time Harlow and Joe first came into contact with Sean and Grant:

"Communication between the couples began when Grant saw Harlow’s profile online last fall [of 2006!]."

And thus another myth:

...is slowly lowered into the cold, hallowed earth, accompanied by wafting melody of taps, somberly brayed by a distant trumpet.

Trial Musings 3: Bedrooms and Bulletholes

2009-02-26T14:52:00.006Z

As first mentioned by trial watcher Quickysrt, and finally today by the local media:

"Hensley, called to testify by assistant district attorneys Michael Melnick, Shannon Crake and Allyson Kacmanski, said Kerekes was more dominant in the relationship with Cuadra. Hensley quit when Kerekes fired several shots from a handgun during a fight with Cuadra in their residence.

“They wanted me to stay there and work all the time and not have a social life,” Hensley testified. “I was only allowed to leave on the weekends, and if I went out for a sandwich, I had to come right back.”

The good news for the prosecution in the Hensley testamony has been the use of the word "they" in describing how his life was micromanaged by Harlow and Joe.

The bad news was what came up on defense cross, that Kerekes was "more dominant" and Joe taking a potshot at Harlow...wow. Yeah, deciding to move out after that, good call Justin! :-)

I'd have to say this gun story was really a big win for the defense...insofar as the REAL strategy they are pursuing. Meaning, I don't think this evidence that Joe was an intimidating gun-firing maniac will lead to Harlow being aquitted. Harlow, unlike Justin, decided to stay. And an aquittal strategy that didn't work for Patty Hearst will certainly not work for Harlow.

But it will, I think, help him in sentencing. As the victory conditions stand now, 1st degree/death penalty is a prosecution win. A life sentence (1st or 2nd degree) is a draw (that was, after all, the deal he rejected). And a 3rd degree or less is a Harlow win.

I think the REAL defense strategy is to aim for a lesser sentence, and not an outright aquittal. In my view, this bullet just clinched Harlow a draw, at the very least.

Trial Musings 2: The Gilbert Interview

2009-02-26T13:38:00.008Z

As the prosecution gets ready to call Sean and Grant today, an evidentiary battle may be looming over this:

""Sergeant Douglas Higgins, Dallas Township Police Department, Dallas, Pennsylvania, advised Cpl. Leo D. Hannon Jr. that he interviewed Benjamin Gilbert of Palmdale, California. Gilbert advised that he associated with Sean Lockhart and they last had contact in October 2006 Gilbert recalled that Lockhart had spoken about getting rid of Bryan Kocis; that he hated Kocis; and that Kocis had ruined his life. Gilbert also referred to a friend of Lockhart known as Grant who stated he wanted to find a “cleaner” to take care of Kocis. Gilbert overheard Lockhart telling Grant not to talk about that in front of people you don’t know. Gilbert further advised that Grant is in love with Lockhart and would do anything for Lockhart. ""

Normally, this written report by Sgt. Higgins would have been inadmissible at trial due to the hearsay rule. However...the interviewee in this case, Benjamin Gilbert, tragically committed suicide last week, and hearsay evidence generally becomes easier to introduce in cases where the declarant is unavailable, as more exceptions to the rule kick in. In particular, the declarations against interest exception seems to be one the defense can now try to exploit (arguing risk of civil suit).

If this written report does get in, it'll be a boon to the defense, no doubt about it. And it seems to me, based on their opening statement, the defense fully intends to exploit the benefits they've gained by this tragedy to the hilt: "...“You’ll hear that Grant Roy and Sean Lockhart hated Bryan Kocis; they even wanted him dead. [italics mine]

This statement is a piece of paper, and as we all know, a piece of paper cannot be cross-examined. Had Gilbert been alive and forced to testify in person to get this story into evidence, I suspect the prosecution would have been able to cast much doubt as to it's veracity upon cross-examination. If it does get in, the best the prosecution can do now is attempt to rebut the piece of paper, perhaps citing Gilbert's manic depression and Paxil usage, both of which are known to cause severe short-term memory problems.

In fact, the now revealed medical evidence that the Gilbert story was misremembered or hallucinated is such that it may permit the prosecution to exclude the report on reliability grounds, instead of hearsay.

Trial Musings 1: A Risky Defense Strategy

2009-02-26T11:57:00.007Z

Two days of actual trial completed. And my initial impression of the trial is as stated in my header above: "...it plods towards it's inevitable conclusion."

There have been some mild surprises, though. Here's what's raised my eyebrow thus far:

1. A "Risky" Defense Strategy?

In his 15 minute opening statement, Harlow defense attorney D'Andrea outlined the defense strategy:

“Our defense is simple, Harlow didn’t do it,” D’Andrea told the jury during his opening statement. “You’ll hear that Grant Roy and Sean Lockhart hated Bryan Kocis; they even wanted him dead. They (Kerekes and Cuadra) had a male escort business, a male prostitution business. It was money that motivated Joseph Kerekes; he prostituted his lover Harlow to make money.”

No surprise here as to Joe. I predicted after Joe's plea that since Harlow was free now to blame the entire murder on Joe, he would do so with a vengeance. Harlow would claim that his participation in the murder was "forced" by Joe, for whom there exists much evidence of a violent and controlling temperment (more on that later). And the trial has thus far born that out: "Cuadra’s lawyers, Joseph D’Andrea and Paul Walker, are suggesting to the jury that three other people had more to gain from Kocis’ death, focusing on Kerekes." [Italics mine]

Back on PC's blog, I initially called the dragging of Sean and Grant into the defense case as a "mistake." After further musing, however, I am now downgrading that call to "risky." My opinion as to the downside of the strategy remains: By claiming Sean and Grant were the murderers, when the prosecution can simply cite the Harlow Apology and demolish that theory with metaphysical certainty, D'Andrea and Walker risk looking like foolhardy conspiracy theorists in front of the jury, thus damaging their credibility.

But there is an upside to the strategy, I had not grasped at first. Note that D'andrea states that he's only going to show Sean and Grant had motive to kill. Motive, and nothing more (just as well, as there is nothing more).

By making Sean and Grant's "motive" part of their case, they now have a golden opportunity to attack the victim, Bryan Kocis. Horrific and inhumane acts committed by Bryan Kocis over the years towards Brent Corrigan, ie, the manipulations, death threats, legal harrassment, slander, libel, employment of hired goons, etc etc etc... all becomes relevant evidence. All show that Sean and Grant indeed had "motive."

The prosecution may try to object to some of this, but I'm not sure how successful they will be. Bryan's many atrocious acts against Sean and Grant do indeed go directly to motive. I think Judge Olszewski will be forced to let most of it in...which will definitely influence the jury away from harshness during sentencing.

But will the benefit outweigh the risk? Time will tell...

An Important Announcement From MJ Taylor

2009-02-23T10:11:00.005Z

Posted here:

"MJ Taylor on Sun, 22nd Feb 2009 10:05 pm

The ONLY person that talks to me about Damon Kruezer, is DAMON KRUEZER. You are seriously delusional. As far as people making false claims about Kruezer and me being influenced by it is totally Not the case. I made that explicitly clear that I will no longer be in contact with you, what part of that did you not understand? The Fuck, or the Off?

The first people to interview me, would be the first people I worked with. I distinctly remember Jeremy Hall giving me my first one-on-one video interview, with pictures to prove it (Side note: No one gives a FUCK who gave me my first interview anyway).

As far as you having any fans, I seriously doubt it. I would love it if you had a site like this one to where people could openly comment and respond to the bull you shill out. Maybe that would bless you with a reality check to help you realize your desperate, narcissistic, obsessive, and cyberstalking ways. You are so concerned with losing any connections we had that you are kissing ass. It will not get you anywhere.

Howard Andrews will not have any involvement with this frivolous crap, so I advise you to not speak his name. Don’t you fucking dare attest to any statements Howard may have allegedly said. They are first off, not a direct quote, and secondly, you have no right to speak for ANYONE.

People always squirm when they have to come up with answers. Huh Damon? Every time someone calls you out on something, you redirect it onto something else. You have never taken any responsibility for your actions. This is a perfect example of someone who talks about himself way too much but then can never explain their actions that hold any truth. You would think that in this dog-eat-dog world by now you would come up with a bite as big as your bark.

I am not interfering by saying who is, who is not, who should be, or who shouldn’t be your affiliates, like I said, I have no right to speak on behalf of anyone but myself. I was trying to put it mildly and mannerly that I, myself, personally no longer wanted to have anything to do with you or your website. I tried to make that as simple as possible.

I will state this in plain English:
I DO NOT SUPPORT YOU OR YOUR WEBSITE AND WOULD NO LONGER LIKE TO BE IN CONTACT WITH YOU OR RECEIVE EMAILS FROM YOU. I COULD GIVE A SHIT LESS IF YOU POSTED MY PICTURES ON THE SITE. I AM BY NO MEANS UNDER THE INFLUENCES OR IMPRESSIONS OF ANYBODY BUT MYSELF. I WAS ADVISED BY MY PEOPLE OVER A YEAR AGO TO NOT TALK TO YOU, AND I DIDN’T TAKE THE INITIATIVE OF THAT ADVICE. NOW HERE I AM, A YEAR LATER, UNDER MY OWN FREE WILL, BOYCOTTING YOU. FRANKLY I AM QUITE EMBARASSED NOWADAYS TO HAVE EVER BEEN FEATURED ON YOUR SITE OR TO HAVE EVER, EVER BEEN IN CONTACT WITH YOU.

F
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Update: Stupid jealous rivals...grrr...

Update 2: Off topic - The Sword gets bitchy at fedora wearers.

Update 3: Twelve.

Update 4: 12+4, opening statements tomorrow morning. Showtime!

Benjamin Gilbert, Rest In Peace

2009-02-22T00:09:00.015Z

As reported by Jason Sechrest and DeWayne in San Diego, former Harlow trial prosecution witness Benjamin Gilbert (aka Caleb Carter) was found dead yesterday, victim of an apparent suicide-by-hanging in his San Diego apartment.

The precise date of death is unclear, however, as he may actually have been deceased for some time when finally discovered in the apartment he lived in by himself; as you can see, his latest MySpace activity was on Wednesday the 18th, meaning, he could have actually passed away any time between the 18th and Friday the 20th.

As to what personal demons may have driven him to this, who knows. We do know he had sought help for alcohol issues not too long ago, so perhaps that played a role. In the absence of further information, it is probably unwise (not to mention unseemly) to speculate further, despite the our natural burning desire to try to ask and answer the question "why?" when tragedies like this occur.

Rest in peace, Benjamin.

Update: I've just been informed that a "Life Celebration" is being planned in Benjamin's honor by friends of his in San Diego. It will be Monday February 23, at 6pm, at the Brass Rail Nightclub and Lounge.

Update 2: Jason Sechrest posts additional sad details.

Update 3: Sigh. Predictable. Wrong of course (see Update 2), but predictable.

Petrov Gets 20 Years

2009-02-21T00:10:00.002Z

J.C. Adams has the story.

What's interesting here is comparing this to the sentence Joe got (and Harlow offered): Life w/o parole. Both incredibly brutal attacks, however... On one hand, Petrov got a much lighter sentence, 20 years (with a possibility of parole even earlier?). OTOH, Petrov's elderly victims didn't die (they only had their skulls bashed in with a hammer).

In addition, he'll be deported to Armenia after finishing his sentence.

And All Of Us Can Move On

2009-02-19T16:05:00.011Z

Brent plans to be free and clear to shoot another video in mid-March (just in time for the 2010 GAYVNs), but not before a pesky detail is attended to:

Update: Seven jurors now selected.

Update 2: Now eight.

Update 3: This is interesting! Judge Olszewski made specific reference to the ongoing LC judicial probe, during a pep talk to the incoming pool of 125 potential Cuadra jurors on Tuesday:

"The specter of recent corruption played a minor role this week during jury selection in the capital murder trial of Harlow Cuadra, who is accused of killing Bryan Kocis and setting fire to his Dallas Township home in January 2007.

Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr., who faces a retention vote in November, commented about the scandal before swearing in a pool of potential jurors.

Jury selection started Tuesday in the trial, the same day former County Court Administrator William T. Sharkey Sr. pleaded guilty in federal court to embezzling county funds.

“It saddens me to make this next remark,” Olszewski told the jurors before reading a prepared statement.

“Everyone in this courtroom is well aware of the highly publicized criminal investigation and prosecution by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of people who held positions of trust in this country.

“While the conduct of these people has cast a dark cloud over our courthouse, that dark cloud, and all the evil it represents, has not in the past, will not today, and will not in the future enter this courtroom.

“Everyone in this courtroom has in the past, will today and will in the future conduct themselves in accordance with the absolute highest ethical, moral and legal standards. Lady Justice and all she represents will to continue to prevail in this courtroom.”

Olszewski, who is running for retention this fall, said he isn’t sure if he will continue to recite the new lines before jury selection in another trial. He said he felt it was important on Tuesday to make his point clear to the room of 125 potential jurors in the case.

“This is a capital case and I want to make sure that everyone in that courtroom knows there will only be justice here,” Olszewski said later."

Update 4: As most of you know, I'm an Occam's Razor based skeptic of most of the Kocis conspiracy theories out there...this new post by DeW however comes the closest yet to de-skeptifying me. The only things lacking here, really, are to solidify retired Pacific Sun owner Motti Green's mob credentials (just calling him a "suspected Mafioso" is a bit weak) and then definitively tie him in to D'Elia.

And if you can show that Motti owns a large chunk of Cobra LLC shares (which I suspect is probably true)...well then all the better.

Update 5: More on Motti - while there is definitely evidence out there that Kocis pal and neighbor Motti Green is a first-class scumball with "somewhat questionable reputation," there is nothing connecting him to the mob that I've been able to find (besides of course his name, which sounds like it was ripped from the pages of a Mario Puzo novel).

Update 6: Hmmmm....Luzerne County bureaucrat "charged with altering an official record..."

Cuadra Trial "Arrives"

2009-02-15T09:57:00.006Z

This today from the Times Leader:

"Cuadra trial in homicide of porn rival Kocis arrives"

Pretty basic stuff, with a stripped down timeline. Only three things mildly raise my eyebrow here:

"Recently filed court records indicate the trial before Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. is scheduled to last until March 13."

This is the first I've heard of a projected end date;

"A number of witnesses from across the country received subpoenas from the district attorney’s office to testify during the trial. Among them are ... Renee Martin of Fort Worth, Texas, described by prosecutors as a business associate of Cuadra and Kerekes."

It would seem that those dire legal threats Renee made against both Melnick and the Luzerne County media to stop calling her a "business associate" of Harlow and Joe have fallen on deaf ears; and

"Four days is scheduled for jury selection."

Which means we should see opening arguments on Monday, February 23. The day before Mardi Gras, woo hoo!

Update: On trial opening day, Elm, in his words, tidies up some bovine excrement...

A Kocisphere Guide to the Oscars

2009-02-13T19:36:00.007Z

The 2009 Acadamy Awards will be held a week from Sunday, February 22, and should provide us all welcome break from any other news stories we may all happen to be following in the days before and after. In the event that some of you may not have seen some or all of the Best Picture nominees, I've gone ahead and provided a brief decription of each film, and done so in such a way that we here in the Kocisphere can perhaps best relate to them.

1. Slumdog Millionaire: The movie begins with a young man accused by police of a crime he did not commit. Through a series of flashbacks, his life story is revealed: growing up in relative poverty in a broken home, taken in by a child-exploiting crime lord, escaping from same after the crime lord is fortuitously murdered by someone else, working menial jobs until finally he enters the entertainment industry as his own boss...and despite jealous rivals in the industry trying to trip him up, he not only clears himself of the false charges, but goes on to achieve the pinnacle of fame and fortune.

A story line we are all familiar with...except this version takes place in India.

2. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Due perhaps to the influence of a magical clock, Brad Pitt slowly transforms himself into a pre-teen with a birth certificate legitimately listing his age as somewhere in the mid-70s. In other words...the perfect Cobra Boy!

3. Milk: A young man in a tank top is at work, when suddenly the phone rings. He picks up the receiver, and the caller says: "It looks like my guy went a little overboard."

"WHHHAAAT! OMG!" the boy in the tank top exclaims.

"Yeah, Harvey went overboard and announced this huge rally, and we need lots of people to show up. Can you call ten people, then have them call ten people, etc..." says the caller.

"Oh...oh, is that all? Whew. Yeah, um, ok I can do that..." says the tank top boy.

4. The Reader: A 15 year old boy is statutorily raped. Later on the boy learns that his rapist is a facist control freak who would rather kill people than allow them to go free.

Based on a true story from Luzerne County in 2002, except this version is set in postwar Germany. And the 15 year old likes to read a lot.

5. Frost/Nixon: A reporter pays a suspected criminal $600,000 for an interview, despite the fact that such payment is widely seen as unprofessional and unethical.

By the way, this script is suspiciously similar to a screenplay of my own, Roecker/Cuadra, except the dollar amounts in the former seem to have been multiplied by a factor of 12. Hmmm...maybe I should file a copyright complaint...

Brent Gets 13 GAYVN Nominations

2009-02-09T20:56:00.010Z

They like him, they really really like him!

1) Performer of the Year (Brent Corrigan)
2) Best Actor (Brent Corrigan, Just the Sex)
3) Best Supporting Actor (Brent Corrigan, The Porne Ultimtum)
4) Best Bottom (Brent Corrigan)
5) Best All-Sex Film (Just the Sex, Prodigy Pictures)
6) Best Pro-Am Film (Brent Corrigan's Summit, Prodigy Pictures)
7) Best Twink Film (Brent Corrigan's Summit, Prodigy Pictures)
8) " " " (Just the Sex 1, Prodigy Pictures)
9) " " " (Just the Sex 2, Prodigy Pictures)
10) Best Group Scene (Brent Corrigan's Summit, Prodigy Pictures)
11) Best Sex Scene - Duo (Just the Sex, Brent Corrigan and Luke Haas, Prodigy Pictures)
12) " " " - " (The Porne Ultimatum, Kaden Saylor and Brent Corrigan, Dirty Bird Pictures)
13) Best Oral Scene (Just the Sex, Brent Corrigan and Kurt Wild, Prodigy Pictures)

Update: Congrats are in order as well to Brad Star and ASG Entertainment; this shows the honors, rewards and benefits that come one's way when one UNILATERALLY DUMPS the career obstacles to one's success:

1) Best Actor (Brad Star, South Beach Diaries)
2) Best Top (Brad Star)
3) Best HD Feature (South Beach Diaries, ASG Entertainment)
4) Best Solo Performance (Brad Star, South Beach Diaries)
5) Best Marketing (South Beach Diaries, ASG Entertainment)

Ah, ya gotta love that that 5th nomination, LOL! I tell you, it a marketing miracle what you can do, when you UNILATERALLY DUMP what holds you back! :-)

Update 2: Hmmm, anyone notice someone who's conspicuously absent from ANY nomination at all? Here's a hint: I guess crying wolf about being raped does not sit well with those on the GAYVN nominating committee.

Update 3: Hey, is that Brent Corrigan walking shirtless up in the Hollywood Hills? Naw, false alarm...it's just some actor that resembles him.

Judge Al Flora?

2009-01-30T13:54:00.015Z

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

2009-01-28T14:51:00.009Z

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

2009-01-27T15:33:00.004Z

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...

2009-01-24T19:34:00.019Z

...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

2009-01-23T07:30:00.013Z

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

2009-01-22T08:20:00.016Z

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

2009-01-20T09:00:00.019Z

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

2009-01-19T00:24:00.002Z

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

2009-01-18T10:13:00.011Z

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.