James Deen Cal/OSHA Preliminary Hearing Set for September

LOS ANGELES—A preliminary hearing for adult star James Deen in his fight against Cal/OSHA and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation has been set for September. Deen has refused to accept the citations or pay the egregious fines accompanying the complaints filed against his company, James Deen Productions, by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in September of 2015. Deen plans to continue his fight and go to trial if Cal/OSHA does not settle before or at the hearing. “The adult industry has always been pushed around and used as a scapegoat," Deen said. "We are regularly bullied to help others further their agenda. At a certain point, enough is enough. The adult film industry is a constitutionally protected career. We are very strict with our safety methods because we care about one another. We want to create erotic material for an audience, but that in no way means that we are irresponsible in how we create it.” In March of 2016, Cal/OSHA issued nine workplace safety citations against James Deen Productions, along with fines for $77,875 in regards to failure to use condoms and dental dams for female oral sex while filming adult films in California. The citations were brought against Deen after the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a vocal anti-pornography non-profit organization, filed a complaint against Deen’s company along with eight other adult companies. Deen intends to show that the regulations he is cited for violating are the same regulations that were voted down by Cal/OSHA’s own standards board when there was an attempted act of creating a vertical regulation making section 5193 specific towards the adult industry. The vertical regulation of 5193.1 was decided as not being validly applicable to adult film production. Since then, members of the adult film industry and representatives from Cal/OSHA have been working together to create proper regulations that will actually protect the workers. Deen continues to lead this fight against Cal/OSHA and unaffected outside organizations forcing unsafe and unnecessary regulations on an industry that already regulates itself extremely well. The adult industry already has a testing structure in place that is as safe or safer than any of Cal/OSHA’s proposed options. No complaints have been made against Deen by performers or crew members of his productions. All members of the productions that Deen was cited for tested negative for STI/STDs before and after the productions. The complaints against Deen were strictly biased targeting from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. AHF’s president, Michael Weinstein, has been quoted saying, “We want to thank Cal/OSHA for acting so swiftly on our workplace safety complaint against James Deen Productions and Third Rock by citing and fining Deen, one of the industry’s most well-known producers and adult performers—and the one who is the most vocal critic and prominent public face of the industry in its opposition to condom use.” By taking a stand against the citations, Deen hopes to set a precedent that will allow the adult industry to continue to take control of their own bodies and the content they produce for their viewers. Deen’s hearing is set for Sept. 12 and he will be represented by the Law Offices of Michael W. Fattorosi, P.C. located in Woodland Hills, Calif.