BCO Is Pushing Up The Daisies

Well this is interesting. I discovered this while mining for info on an upcoming post; it would appear that Brent Corrigan Online, the former home of Brent Corrigan, but kept in operation for a time by Brent and Grant's erstwhile business partner Lee Bergeron, is now officially dead:

Since a Google search of "Brent Corrigan Online" doesn't even bring up cached links to the BCO site anymore, the death must have occured some time ago. Wow, talk about a tree falling in the forest... Does anyone happen to know when it ceased operating? Being this was a pay site, I'm surprised there has been no uproar over this from subscribers. Was there any kind of notice and/or refund to customers?

The Email

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Le Cirque Revisited

On January 11, 2007, Harlow Cuadra and Joe Kerekes got together for dinner and drinks with two people they were desperate to do business with at the posh 'Le Cirque' restaurant in Las Vegas, Nevada. Thirteen days later they would kill someone.

What must they have been thinking on this day, a wee bit over two years ago? And what led them from dinner to murder in thirteeen days? Based on the facts we know (and thanks to PC, we actually know a LOT), I'm going to try to answer those questions - day by day - over the next ten days. So, join me now as we crawl into the minds of Harlow and Joe, nearly two years ago...

First though, to understand their likely frame of mind on this night, we need to briefly look at how they ended up here at this porn convention in Vegas at this particular fancy restaurant on the 11th.

In a nutshell, the reason was money. Harlow and Joe needed money, and they needed it badly. This is a stone cold fact, and it cannot be overemphasized.

For those unfamiliar with Harlow and Joe's now well documented pre-murder financial crisis, click here. I wrote this a year ago, and since then there's only one thing I'd add: It's very probable (IMO) that Harlow and Joe's primary home loan was (or I should say is) one of these currently infamous "subprime" mortgages.

Here's a quote from a bestseller I'm currently reading (Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money:

"'Subprime' mortgage loans are aimed by local brokers at families or neighborhoods with poor or patchy credit histories...

...And most had introductory 'teaser' periods, whereby the initial interest payments - usually for the first two years - were kept artificially low, back-loading the cost of the loan....[causing] a huge upward leap in interest payments in the third year of the loan."

Both italics are mine. First italic point, when your main source of income is a felonious activity in your state...it's fair to assume your bank would look upon your creditworthiness, at best, as "patchy."

Second italic point, Harlow and Joe bought their home in December of 2005. Yep. Assuming this was your typical "subprime" mortgage, Harlow and Joe would have been feeing the extreme financial pain of their new drastically higher payments in (da DUM!)...January of 2007. Hm, yepsters, WHAT a coincidence.

You combine that with disappointing revenues from their lacklusterly reviewed "Boybatter" new porn site endeavor, and you begin to feel the degree of financial desperation Harlow and Joe must have been in two years ago. So, when Brent Corrigan casually suggested they finally meet at the big porn trade show out in Vegas that month, you can bet Harlow and Joe jumped at the chance. As Harlow admits in the Roecker interview, he saw it as a juicy "carrot" to good to pass up.

Harlow also admitted (in a now deleted blog post) checking out and running the Alexa numbers on Brent Corrigan's web site early on, and thus they knew of the huge and rabidly loyal online fan base Brent possessed. "Online" is the key word to keep in mind here. Harlow and Joe needed more income NOW, not later, so when they spoke to their roommates (such as Justin Hensley) of making a small fortune off of Brent, I don't think they were thinking so much in terms of DVD sales (which would take a while to produce and distribute and finally reap profits from) but in online Boybatter subscriptions, the electronic dollars from which they could collect almost immediately.

So, you can see what their object is at this dinner meeting. They HAVE to get Brent onto Boybatter. They NEED the online subscription surge a demonstrable porn megastar like Brent will bring to their relatively obscure porn site. They can't just settle for Brent and Grant's original proposal, which was for Harlow to simply shoot a scene for Brent Corrigan Online (and collect merely a standard scene fee). They HAD to be profit participants. They gotta pay those bills and mortgages, and they need to pay them NOW.

So, they tap the last of their available credit on the few cards they can still draw from, and they fly out to Vegas...at their own expense. They pick prectically the most expensive restaurant in Vegas in a Hail Mary attempt to impress Sean and Grant; to convince them, I suppose, that Boybatter was "bigleague." Joe's $6000 Bernini rabbitskin faux-chinchilla coat (now the namesake of a erudite blog) perhaps was bought with the same purpose? Anyways, it is clear from all this that Harlow and Joe were the supplicant party going into this meeting. And like good negotiators, they were doing the best they could to obscure this desperation from Sean and Grant.

Unfortunately for Harlow and Joe, Sean and Grant were not fooled. In fact, Brent shared his insights about the deal to Jody Wheeler in "either an IM chat or a phone call" BEFORE the murder, stating that "a company out of Norfolk, Virginia wanted to pay him a huge some of money to star in their movies" and that he was "skeptical." The "kind of money the outfit was offering was pretty much unheard of. Too good to be true."

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!").

They then posed for a quick photo-op with a stumbling bird-flipping Harlow outside the restaurant (yeah, LOL, THAT made a good final impression I'm sure...you can pretty much tell by the look on Brent's face here how greatly he would prefer to be elsewhere), and that was that. As they left the Bellagio parking lot, Sean and Grant were probably secretly hoping to never hear from those two clowns again.

Unfortuntely for them (and others), 'twas not to be.

Because getting back to what Harlow and Joe were probably thinking at this point...they clearly missed the brush-off signal. Whether it was the excessive alcohol consumption, or the desperate wishful thinking brought on by their financial crisis, or a combination of both...they came away with a far more rosy impression of where their proposed "deal" stood (as will become apparant in a couple of days).

And that wraps this day up.

---

Oh, what's this? I'm forgetting something, you say? Hmmm, what could I possibly be forgetting?

Oh, that. Oh yeah, someone said something, or other. About our neighbor to the north, IIRC. Hmmm yes that.

Hm. Well you know, I've actually been doing some re-musing about THAT. Which may raise an eyebrow or two, but here goes:

Recall that the whole point of this exercise is to try to put ourselves in Harlow and Joe's shoes over these next few days. So lets try and look at this from their angle...and see if maybe, just maybe, there is another more likely explanation for this that we have never considered before.

Now, we know that Joe made some comment at this dinner about "sending" Bryan elsewhere. And we know Grant said no, no thanks! And we know Grant thought the whole thing a joke at the time. And we know Grant duly reported it to the police after the murder, in which joke essentially became a reality. We know all these things from the various court filings, especially the CCTs (in which Joe basically affirms Grant's description of this offhand remark to a tee).

The way I see it, there are actually two possibilities here: 1) Joe was floating a serious murder proposal "trial balloon" at this moment to Sean and Grant; or 2) Joe was indeed merely joking. OK. Lets take a good HARD look at the first explanation, ie, the one virtually everyone up to this point has (perhaps lazily) been assuming to be the case.

Now, pretend you want to make a SERIOUS proposal to someone (who you barely even know) to murder someone else (who you know, at best, only by reputation). When and where and HOW would you choose to make such an incredible proposition?

Would you do it while everyone is sober and thinking seriously? Or would you wait until everyone is so drunk they can barely understand what you're trying to say (Brent: "He'll just come back.")?

Would you do it in a unpopulated place, unlikely to be overheard? Or would you do it in a place where you are surrounded by nearby diners, attentive waiters, hovering busboys refilling your water glass, etc.?

Would you do it in a secluded place, unlikely to be seen? Or would you do it in a Vegas hotel-casino, where a ZILLION cameras are trained at you, watching your every move?

In other words, is there a STUPIDER time place and manner to propose murder than like this? At Le Cirque?? After several rounds of drinks???

If I were Joe, and I really wanted to float such a shocking trial balloon...GOOD GAWD there MUST have been better opportunities that weekend to do so. I mean granted, Joe is not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, but c'mon, he must have realized no one would take such a suggestion seriously, delivered in the time, place and manner this one supposedly was. Thus I find myself no longer believing in the first possibility above.

In other words, not only did Grant have good reason to believe Joe was joking, GRANT WAS RIGHT. Joe WAS indeed merely joking. On that day, at that time, anyways. Thus I no longer believe murder was hatched on (or before) this day, as we've all too rashly assumed. No, the actual murder plan did not arise for several more days, I think. And we have paid FAR too much attention to this lamb dinner (and this Canada comment) than it actually deserves.

The Vegas dinner on the 11th was but a interesting prelude IMO, nothing more. Days more monumental lie ahead.

Lastday Approaches

Well, today is January 7. Had the latest Harlow Cuadra trial delay not been granted, we would have actually been in the 3rd day of jury selection right now.

Oh well. The new trial date is February 17, and that is tantalizingly soon enough. Barring further delay (which I doubt) we are in the home stretch. The end is near!

And I am pretty sure now there WILL be a trial. IMO, Harlow was smart to reject the "deal." Now that he no longer suicidally joined at the hip to Joe's defense, he is now free to use his most effective strategy: Joe did it all! Well, most of it, anyways...and what little Harlow can be shown to have done, he was FORCED to do! FORCED! Forced to by that violent tempered, kicked out of his church, Marine drill instructor striking, Desert Eagle .50 wielding, bulletholes in the wall above the headboard Joe!

Joe is the perfect fall guy for the Harlow defense. There is AMPLE character evidence out there against Joe Kerekes Harlow can use to support this sort of "intimidated spouse" defense theory, so yeah, DUH, this is exactly what Harlow will do. And you know...I actually think it will be effective. I think if Harlow's new lawyers do a reasonably competent job, use the character of Joe to it full advantage, combined with the sweet innocence of the dapperly dressed and bespectacled Harlow, sitting there so meek and innocently in the defendant's chair...yeah I actually think it'll be tough sell for the prosecution to get to 1st degree murder.

OTOH, what with Harlow said on the BBTs, "not guilty" is obviouly out of the question. No, the most likely result (and I voted this way in the recent PC poll, BTW) will be 2nd degree. And you know, if the defense REALLY puts on a good show...I would not rule out 3rd degree either. It's a distinct possiblity, I think.

Third-degree murder is an unpremeditated killing with malice, a definition that includes the gross disregard for the life of another person. It carries a maximum sentence of 20 to 40 years. Under Pennsylvania law, a first-degree murder can be reduced to third-degree murder if the jury finds the defendant acted with diminished capacity, because of intoxication, a mental defect or other factors. And as we know, Harlow has indeed filed to present such "diminished capacity" evidence for sentencing purposes.

So yeah, anyways, my point being, I think we WILL see a trial now, because IMO a trial is mathematically in Harlow's best interests. He may get death, but with the Crazy Joe defense now in play, MUCH more likely he'll get 2nd degree (= life) and I'd say even a decent shot at 3rd degree. The latter means he could conceivably be walking the streets, a free man, when he's 46. Compared to Joe...not a bad deal at all.

Which gets to the main point of this post...we are now nearing the end. My original plan when the trial was set for January 5 was to formally close this blog following the trial...and I had in mind doing this on January 24, the 2nd anniversary of the murder, if the trial had ended soon enough. I probably would have missed the sentencing phase under this old plan, but that was OK...as I've said many times before, I really don't care about the sentence. A guilty verdict was all I was interested in...that to me is the definition of a Chinchilla Victory. Harlow and/or Joe get death? Fine by me. Life? Fine too. Time served, a $500 fine, and anger management classes? Hey, works for me!

But now we have a February trial, so, this blog's closing date will have to be pushed back too. Figure a week or so for jury selection, 2-3 weeks for the actual trail...we could be into April when we get a verdict.

And on top of that sentencing (couple weeks, maybe?), but more importantly, I am just realizing, would be the end of the gag order. At this point a whole host of interesting witnesses, from Sean and Grant to Justin Hensley and Andrew Shunk, will be finally free to speak frankly to the media. OK, now THIS would be worth it for me to hang around for. So, I shall.

So, lets go ahead and set a new "lastday" for this blog at May 15...yep, you guessed it, Arrest Day 2009! On that day, I'll post a few appropriate closing remarks, and that'll be it. Chinchilla Jim shall fade away, as mysteriously as he came.

A couple other administrative details. First, some of you might be thinking "But Jim, don't have to stop blogging. You could always change the name to 'Chinchilla Nation' and blog about..." NO! DON'T EVEN SUGGEST IT!! WILD HORSES could not get me to blog about "him" anymore. Granted, he provides a blogger on a daily basis with enough ridicule material to last a lifetime, but NO, I've had my fill of him...and porn blogging in general. Once Harlow's case is consigned to oblivion, so shall this blog.

Second, the blog will stay up, but be dormant. I was actually thinking of deleting the whole thing on the last day, and thus making a clean break from the past. But there is a lot of good comments on there, I now realize, and it would be unfair for me to delete them all unilaterally. So, the site will remain, just unattended, with further comments turned off.

As for my other blog, that shall remain up (but permanently dormant) too. I've always planned it that way. It's a pity I likely won't be around to see the legal action begun by Angel and Brad reach it's conclusion, but oh well. Deletion was never an option for that blog; I want it left up as a shining example of the impotency of Kent Barclay and his threats to shut people down...and serve as a warning beacon to others not already familiar with him. I figure, if by leaving it up I save even ONE budding porn star the mistake of unknowingly associating with Kent and thus making a huge personal and career mistake, then it will have served it's purpose.

Update: Unrelated but interesting, Chi Chi to host the Cybersockets. Jason Curious is "looking forward to meeting all of the incredibly hard working and deserving fellow nominees in person" which means even if Kent showed up (which he wont), he'd be snubbed.

Update 2: Brent returns to Vegas:

"I’m sitting here in Las Vegas, reflecting on the last time I was here. This trip marks two years since I’ve been back to Sin City; and for good reason. If you’re at all familiar with my story, you know that two years ago this month was the last time I saw Bryan alive. Two years ago this month was the first time I met Harlow and Joe.

The year that followed was the hardest one I’ve endured yet. With the investigation into Bryan’s murder, the redevelopment of a new website and company, and an ever constant battle to maintain my footing and sanity."

Like Brent I've been doing some reflecting as well; look for some new Musings on the actual two-year "lamb dinner" anniversary (January 14) this Wednesday.

Happy New Year

For those of you going out to celebrate the New Year tonight, here's something that may tickle your fancy if you live in southern California. As you can see by the flyers below, someone who we blogged (and blogged and blogged) about a while ago, namely, "Christian Alexander aka DJ Elektro" is throwing a "New Years Eve 2009 House Party" tonight in El Monte, CA. And as you can all see from the ads, the key theme of this party seems to be contained in the closely related selling points of "All Ages" and "No I.D. Check."

As the deliciously warm irony of this washes over you all on this cold winter's night, let me take this opportunity to wish you (wherever you go, even if it is just staying indoors watching Kathy and Anderson) a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Completely Off Topic Post: Santa's Bailout

Merry Christmas everyone! :-)



Update: And of course, it would not be Christmas without Mason Wyler, the gift who keeps on giving.

And no, he STILL refuses to even acknowledge the photoshopped "black-eye" picture issue. BIG surprise! You notice how he tries to address most every other credibility problem, large and small...besides that one. The black-eye gets the sweep-under-the-rug treatment. AS USUAL!

Here! TV Director John Roecker Funded Harlow's Private Lawyers

As reported earlier on PC's blog, Harlow Cuadra has new (proposed) private attorneys. This announcement came almost simultaneously with Harlow's rejection of a plea deal that could have saved him from the death penalty. In fact, the timing is such that it is not unreasonable to assume that one event (the imminent arrival of the newly retained private lawyers) influenced the other event (the rejection of the deal).

This naturally begs a question: where did Harlow Cuadra and his Defense Fund get the money for this new legal team?

While we obviously don't know the full list of contributors to Harlow's Legal Defense Fund, we do know for certain the identities of at least two: Porn star Jason Ridge, and Here! TV documentarian John Roecker.

We know this for a fact, because Ridge disclosed on his blog back in June of 2007, announcing both himself and Roecker as co-creators of the Fund (click on the screencap for a better view):


Roecker's participation in paying for Harlow's lawyers raises a number of interesting journalistic and ethical questions. Doesn't Roecker's upcoming Harlow documentary stand to gain significantly in ratings if Harlow goes to trial? And as such, Roecker himself stands to gain both financially and in prestige if Harlow is somehow convinced not to plea, does he not?

In other words, Roecker would appear to have some fairly obvious non-altruistic reasons "to help him get an Attorney to fight this all the way Through." Spending money on Harlow, to make money off Harlow, as it were.

Now, lets take these interesting journalist and ethical questions into the realm of the hypothetical, shall we? Hypothetically, lets say Harlow Cuadra, given false hopes by the presence of his new private lawyers and spurred on by the self-interested backers who funded them, continues to spurn all plea overtures and decides to gamble everything on a trial.

And then hypothetically, lets say Harlow loses his ill-conceived long shot gambit, and is found guilty of 1st degree murder.

And finally hypothetically, lets say Harlow gets the death penalty, and is executed.

Given the hypotheticals above...would John Roecker (and the other Harlow Fund contributors with less-than-honorable motives) have Harlow Cuadra's blood on their hands?

Would Here! TVs increased ratings be, in effect, "blood ratings?"

Like I said, some very interesting journalist and ethical questions are raised here. In fact, if all the hypotheticals I listed above come to pass (which I believe could very well happen) it would make for a fascinating story. Perhaps worthy of a serious documentary.

Update: Here! TV officially announces the release date for Roecker's Harlow Cuadra documentary (i.e., Porn Stars Episode 6) as next Friday, 12/19/08:



Update 2: Tomorrow is the scheduled release date. And looking back at their past comments, it's pretty much no secret which direction Roecker and Ridge will slant this. Even before this "documentary" got underway, this was their stated position:

And there you have it. So, there should be no Rolling Stone-like surprises here over this, come Friday. The fix is in, as they say.

Although you know, there is something about this comment of theirs which is very interesting, that I hadn't really seen before. Notice how they don't exactly insist Harlow is innocent; there is this "or" clause in which they are quite happy to accept Harlow committed murder...provided he had help from "a little twink boy and an older man."

In other words, their agenda seems not so much to save Harlow, as it is to ruin others' reputation. Harlow is merely a convenient tool for them to use, towards that ruination.

Update 3: PC completes his invaluable transcription of the episode. Rhetorical question: Could what I wrote above possibly have been more prophetic?

Update 4: Blast from the past - how this Harlow interview most likely came about.