Miami Appeals Court Upholds Porn Predators' Conviction

MIAMI, Fla.—In a ruling handed down on Tuesday, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed the decision of a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida which sentenced Lavont Flanders, Jr. and an accomplice to multiple consecutive life terms—and it's a cautionary tale for any woman who's thinking about getting into the adult business, and even a few newbies who are already in it. According to the appeals ruling, Flanders—aka "Antone Cobe"; aka "Shannon"; aka "Larry Griffin"; aka "Karen Watson"; aka "Darius"; aka "Ladarius Cobe"; aka "Darius Cove"; aka "Errick Farmer"; aka "Eric Lawson"; aka "Erick Liwson"; aka "Tina Clintmore"; aka "Erick Blossom"; aka "Gregory Bagget"—and co-defendant Emerson Callum were the "masterminds" behind a scheme where they "fraudulently lured women to South Florida, drugged them with Benzodiazepines, filmed them engaging in sexual acts, and distributed the pornographic footage." (Just who bought the stuff was not disclosed.) "As part of the scheme, Flanders, using one of numerous aliases, would recruit women off of modeling websites and convince them to travel to South Florida for an 'audition' for a liquor commercial," the opinion stated. "He usually advised the women to come alone to the audition. When they arrived, Flanders explained that they would need to act out a scene for a commercial before they could be taken to a second man, later identified as Callum, to film test footage. Flanders convinced the women that the auditions required them to taste alcohol, say scripted lines, and repeat the scene several times. Unbeknownst to the women, the alcohol was laced with Benzodiazepines, a drug known to impair memory and reduce inhibitions. "As Flanders drove the women to another location to meet Callum, whom they thought was a Bacardi agent, the victims became dizzy, groggy, and often 'blacked out'," the opinion continues. "Flanders and Callum then had the women sign Model Release Forms. The women remembered little, as they helplessly fell unconscious, waking momentarily only to realize that Callum was having sex with them while Flanders filmed. When they fully regained consciousness the following day in their cars or hotel rooms, they were disoriented, confused, and sometimes bleeding and covered in bodily fluids. At least four victims tested positive for Callum’s DNA, recovered from vaginal swabs, and for Benzodiazepines. "Unbeknownst to the victims, Callum distributed and attempted to distribute videos of the assaults over the Internet and to businesses through his pornographic production company, Miami Vibes Enterprises. The distributed videos were edited to remove portions where the victims were obviously unconscious." Searches conducted by police of Flanders' and Callum's homes in 2007 and 2011 found, among other things, "Model Release Forms for five victims, and a copy of one victim’s student ID. Officers also found a package containing letters from Flanders to HomeGrownVideo revealing that Flanders was attempting to sell pornographic videos of Callum and several young women, including one of the victims." Of course, Homegrown, being a reputable company, didn't bite. "Analysis of recovered computers showed that Flanders used them to email victims and conduct hundreds of searches on modeling websites and searches for images of unconscious women," the opinion continues. The cops also found "hundreds of victims’ DVDs (commercial and master copies), and DVD cover inserts" and "a handwritten note indicating that one victim’s footage was filmed at a Miami motel." The DVDs, according to the opinion, "were being sold in pornography stores and on the Internet." Flanders raised a number of not-well-taken objections to his conviction, and the appeals court rightly shot them down—but the point is, as producer/director Axel Braun found to his dismay, that some people will tell any number of lies and use any number of deceptive practices (not the least of which, besides drugging the women, is stealing the identity of a well-known director) to trick women into appearing in homemade content. Fortunately, that pool of felons just got a bit smaller.