More from the HIV cases in Porn.

[Mike AI]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/22/national...print&position=

April 22, 2004
Officers Get List of Names of Actors in Sex Films
By NICK MADIGAN

OS ANGELES, April 21 — Investigators for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services obtained on Wednesday a list of the legal names of 53 adult-movie actors who were known to have had sexual contact with two actors infected with the AIDS virus or with someone else who had sex with the two.

The investigators obtained the list in a visit to a clinic in the San Fernando Valley that tests 1,200 adult-film performers a month for sexually transmitted diseases.

Health Department officials said the list of legal names, as opposed to stage names, would make it easier to track down both the actors and anyone outside the industry with whom they might have had sex.

Sharon Mitchell, the director of the clinic, which is run by the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation, said she had handed over the names only at the insistence of a pair of investigators.

"We're not happy about this," said Dr. Mitchell, a former adult-film actress who holds a master's degree in public health and a Ph.D. in human sexuality. "The legal names of our talent have always been held in the strictest confidentiality and privacy. We've been persuaded to cooperate."

Dr. Mitchell acknowledged that there were potential benefits to the county's involvement. "The upside," she said, "is that we will know once and for all the bugaboo of, `Did this reach the general population or not?' "

When adult-movie producers learned last week that two actors were infected, most companies in the local industry agreed to halt filming for 60 days so performers who worked with them could be tested again for exposure to H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS.

Since then, public health officials say they have been trying to find better ways to monitor and regulate the industry.

On Tuesday, the county's public health director, Jonathan E. Fielding, wrote Dr. Mitchell a letter saying his department was "initiating an official investigation of this outbreak" to limit further spread of disease.

On the same day, Dr. Fielding wrote to Len Welch, acting chief of the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration in San Francisco, requesting a state investigation into an adult-film company in Chatsworth, in the San Fernando Valley, where the two infected actors, Darren James and Lara Roxx, "performed high-risk sexual acts" and apparently became infected as a result.

Dr. Fielding said the most important task was finding people outside the adult-movie industry who might have contracted the H.I.V. virus from those inside it. "We want to make sure they're all covered, and counseled," he said.

Susan Gard, a spokeswoman for the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said her agency could not investigate cases of potential exposure to H.I.V. unless the workers in question were employed by a production company. Independent contractors and freelancers, which most actors are, would not come under the agency's jurisdiction.

The agency could step in more easily, Ms. Gard said, if it can be shown that companies have violated state laws that cover injury and illness prevention or if precautions regarding bloodborne pathogens can be proved inadequate.

The California Department of Health Services might have to become involved, she said.

"It's unclear at this point what each agency is going to be able to do," Ms. Gard said. "We're really at Square 1."

The focus on the San Fernando Valley's pornography industry, which is said to generate several billion dollars a year, comes on the heels of renewed efforts to regulate and monitor bathhouses where men meet to have sex, often anonymously. County officials were aghast last month when a study financed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 11 percent of customers at two bathhouses in Los Angeles tested positive for H.I.V. Officials are considering requiring testing at bathhouses for H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Dr. Fielding said that in a few weeks he would submit to the county's board of supervisors new recommendations for regulating bathhouses and sex clubs.

Dr. Mitchell and some industry leaders plan a news conference on Thursday to explain their position on the possibility that their industry could be subject to far greater scrutiny than before.

[RawAlex]

Wonder how long before the IRS has that list of 53 people in an attempt to "scare them out of work"?

Mark this down, this might be the event that blows the porn industry out of California...

Alex

[Forest]

I wonder if she openned herself up to legal issues ( sharon) by violating dr patient privacy issues

[Forest]

Originally posted by RawAlex@Apr 22 2004, 10:00 AM
Wonder how long before the IRS has that list of 53 people in an attempt to "scare them out of work"?

Mark this down, this might be the event that blows the porn industry out of California...

Alex

the IRS?

most talent is paid in cash i thought

[Peaches]

Originally posted by Forest@Apr 22 2004, 11:01 AM
I wonder if she openned herself up to legal issues ( sharon) by violating dr patient privacy issues

From what others have posted, the talent signs a consent form to give access to those records. That said, any doctor who gives out information like that w/o consulting an attorney first is an idiot. Hopefully the consulting was done.

[TheEnforcer]

Man I see all sorts of really big problems ahead for this industry!!

[Mike AI]

Someone just contacted me and mentioned some of the people on the list are foreigners who are illegally working in the US.

I told them I doubt this would become an issue, but people are concerned.

[TheEnforcer]

Originally posted by Mike AI@Apr 22 2004, 10:45 AM
Someone just contacted me and mentioned some of the people on the list are foreigners who are illegally working in the US.

I told them I doubt this would become an issue, but people are concerned.

You know.. I could see the government using that myself. Give them just one more angle of attack on the biz.

[RawAlex]

Forest: think about it. People doing 10 scenes a week for cash, maybe 2-3k a week income. Wonder how much of it they actually declare? it would appear that there are some pretty good records of who worked with who, and how often they worked. I would suspect that it would take just one slightly conservative politician (or staff member) to give a call and fax a list, and the harrassement level goes up another notch. I would suspect the same for all the people working on these productions...

Without intending to, the industry in SoCal has just been opened up for investigations at all levels, inquiries, and tight scrutiny, all in the name of "public health".

Mike, the immigration people are just another "player" in the list of agencies and groups that will be poking everyone with sharp sticks. If you can't kill the industry off with obscenity charges, you can always nickel and dime them to death. What is the penalty for knowingly using illegal workers? If there is potential for jail time, I am sure someone will try.

Alex

[Peaches]

So you're saying these people are being paid in cash and the people paying aren't writing it off as payment to them? The companies paying the money are willing to lose that tax break and risk getting in trouble for not having them down as 1099 employees just for the sake of giving someone cash?

[RawAlex]

Peaches, I don't think the producers are at risk of this (directly), unless they have failed to file appropriate forms and such for these people. While I am sure most people get paid on the up and up, I think enough stuff gets done cash and on the QT to make everyone a little nervous. Just like anything else, you just need one or two cases for the government (and media) to latch on.

I am more thinking individual performers who have declared little or no revenue, but are living large. One of the performers named on the aim website is "DP guy?"... I am not clear that everyone is 100% of who is involved in this business.

Alex

[photogregg]

whew, talked to some other producers...I see problems. No real accounting system

We pay cash, with signed, explicit receipts mentioning the customer, tape number, etc, and our accountant does 1099's, quarterly reports, etc.

Many don't do this, which is going to cause a witch hunt for all of us...damn.

[Mike AI]

Alex, it seems to me that this industry continues to do things that are going to bring the Feds in.

The HIV crisis, spyware, spam, shady billing practices, extreme porn, etc.. etc...

We are our own worst enemies!

It is not Ashcroft I worry about, but the cockholsters who are my "peers" they are the ones who are really killing the golden goose!

[Peaches]

Originally posted by Mike AI@Apr 22 2004, 04:27 PM
It is not Ashcroft I worry about, but the cockholsters who are my "peers" they are the ones who are really killing the golden goose!

It sure looks that way. So far, the HIV and the possible tax situation seem to be problems brought upon the industry from within the industry.

[RawAlex]

Mike, you are correct - the cowboy mentality is the one that kills the party in the end in pretty much all fields.

Ashcroft will be there, don't you worry. He won't have to play the obscenity card, he can just play other cards and get solid arrests before the election. The new "adult spam label" thing could prove to be the undoing of MANY people in the US, be it the spammers or the people paying for their traffic.

The HIV thing is just an opening, a little hole that the people who hate porn will use to drive as many things into as quickly as they can.

Alex

[Fletch XXX]

Originally posted by RawAlex@Apr 22 2004, 07:00 AM
Wonder how long before the IRS has that list of 53 people in an attempt to "scare them out of work"?

Mark this down, this might be the event that blows the porn industry out of California...

Alex

what i found the most funny was last night on the news here in LA, Ron Jeremy was quoted in clips saying:

"Look... if they made porn in California CONDOM ONLY, 50% of the companies would close down."

gee Ron thanks for telling the fucking right wing neocon kid fuckers how to shut down half the companies in California.

the guy speaks out of his ass most of the time and should step down from his bullshit spotlight and shut his mouth about things.





Last edited by Fletch XXX at Apr 22 2004, 03:13 PM