LOS ANGELES (CN) — Five adult film actresses scored a civil victory on Tuesday over their former talent agent Derek Hay, whom their lawyer has called the “Harvey Weinstein of the porn industry.”
Hay, a 60-year-old British man, appeared in more than 800 pornographic films under the name Ben English. He went on to found LA Direct Models, one of the top talent agencies representing adult film performers. He has been accused of a panoply of labor code violations and other misdeeds, including ushering his clients into prostitution. In May, he pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to commit pandering by procuring and one count of perjury. He was sentenced to two months in jail, and is currently on probation.
The civil labor case against Hay began as an action filed with the state labor commission in 2018 by five then-anonymous, now named, performers: Charlotte Cross, Sofi Ryan, Andi Rye, Hadley Viscara and Shay Evans. After the labor commission found in favor of the women, Hay appealed, which sent the action over to civil court.
Last year, a judge denied the women’s motion for summary judgment. But a year of discovery, during which the women obtained “over 160,000 pages of evidence — including texts, WhatsApp messages and voice mail messages between Derek Hay and his co-conspirators,” as well as Hay’s guilty plea, greatly strengthened their hand.
They filed a new motion for summary judgement, and on Tuesday, a different Superior Court judge granted the motion for most causes of action.
“Based on this evidence,” Judge Gail Killefer wrote in her tentative ruling, later adopted as final, the women established that Hay “sent them or caused them to be sent on assignments where their health, safety and welfare could have been adversely affected.”
For example, the women were sent on so-called “POV shoots,” short for “point of view,” in which they were directed to have sex with a man who would film the performance either by holding the camera himself or leaving it on a nearby table. There would be no other crew or security involved in the shoot.
In other instances, the women would be sent to events where there was a high likelihood that they would be assaulted.
When the performers expressed misgivings about their assignment, or tried to cancel them, they would be threatened with “kill fees,” or financial penalties for backing out.
Allan Gelbard, the Los Angeles-based attorney for the five women, said Hay used “his position of authority to financially, sexually and emotionally abuse his clients for his own financial gain and sexual pleasure.”
During the hearing on Tuesday, Gelbard told the judge that her ruling “gives us all the relief we’re entitled to,” and that his clients likely would dismiss the remaining causes of action, ending the case.
“We won on the big stuff,” Gelbard told Courthouse News after the hearing. “This will have a significant impact on the adult industry in general … Agents charging booking fees to production companies is over.”
Gelbard said his clients were seeking roughy $60,000 in fees, commissions and financial penalties taken by Hay, as well as attorneys’ fees.
In addition, Hay is likely to owe restitution to his victims in his criminal case.
Hay cut a defiant figure during his sentencing hearing in May, striking back at one of his victims, Andi Rye, and blaming Adult Video News, a trade publication, which he said had “obsessed over me over the last six years, never failing to write a bad story about me.” His attorney, Richard Freeman, based in Santa Rosa, California, insisted that Hay had only “a very small degree of involvement” with the prostitution ring, adding, “He got no money, made no appointments and directed no activity.”
After the hearing on Tuesday, Freeman said Hay, who is currently living in Las Vegas, was still “digesting” the ruling and “mulling” his next possible steps.