Erotic Eleven
In January 1993, Las Vegas police busted a Free Speech fundraiser for naughty behavior. Margold ran the show and was charged with multiple counts of pandering. The eleven porn stars charged, named the "Erotic Eleven" by Bill, include Nina Hartley, Sharon Mitchell, Patricia Kennedy, Trixi Tyler, Beatrice Valle, Nina Suave, Lacy Rose, Shaylene, Danyel Cheeks, Ariana and Naughty Angel. All were charged with "Infamous crimes against nature including open and gross lewdnesss and conspiracy to commit prostitution." Translation, they got too friendly with each other and members of the audience during the four hour event.At least six cops sat through it till the end, before making arrests. Later police gave out the performer's real names and addresses to the news media, leading to harassment of some of the women.
A friend of Bill's, Ray Pistol, the owner of Showgirl Video, paid most of the fines.
Henri Pachard made a movie about the affair Infamous Crimes Against Nature starring the "Erotic Eleven."
"The plot here has the gals driving from LA to Vegas to appear in a sexy stage show. Mike Horner's the cop who stops one carload for speeding, settles for a blow job from Patricia Kennedy, but follows them into town town to spy on their sex lives. Danyel's the real star of the tape with three anal scenes. Also getting their rears plunged are Nikki Sinn by Joey Silvera and Samantha York by Jim Sparks. Horner threatens to arrest Nikki Sinn and Ariana unless they help him get the goods on good-guy politician Tom Byron." (AVN 97)
Nina Hartley told Talking Blue in 1998: "We plea bargained from felony indictments to misdemeanors "for appearing in obscene or immoral or indecent performance", time served, one night in jail. And a "charitable donation", call it what you will, of $20,000. And that was it.
"But I go to Canada two or three times a year to dance and when you go there to dance, you have to get a work visa. No problem. You go to the border, show them your passport, show them your contract to work, pay $100.00 dollars and you get a work visa. Well I was turned away at the border for being unsuitable to enter Canada because of my criminal record.
"So they escorted me to a plane to leave the country. That should have been the end of it, but my employer promoted this tour in Canada and told me to sneak back in. So, duh, I did and a week later, immigration caught up with me and I had to spend three days in jail. Now mind you, this was in February. Twenty degrees below zero. Freezing. The other girls in the cell block were making fun of me for trying to "sneak into Canada in Winter, and I was from California!" They were so shocked. My husband and wife were going crazy and thinking about breaking me out of jail. But all I can say was it was a very interesting three days in jail.
"So now, what stands for everyone that was arrested as the Erotic Eleven, that if they want to go to Canada, it is a whole rigmarole. They have to apply for permission from the minister of immigration, promising that you are going to be a good girl when you go to Canada. In the year 2001 I will be able to go to Canada without hassle.
"Certain people [Bill Margold] who were in charge of the gig have a very "thumb your nose" attitude to authority and they are perpetually stuck at this 15 year old boy attitude and don't care what happens to them. I think they follow their own agenda a little more than required. The women trusted them, the people who put on the show. So when we were told "anything goes"...you don't tell a bunch of porno actresses and not expect a really wild show.
"So we were having a great time. So when the arrests came down, it was doubly upsetting because I assumed the proper channels had been filled. Someone had been paid off and gotten permits. Something! I had heard later on that somebody was aware that the cops would try to shut it down. It was a very political bust. The police didn't shut the show down at the first sight of criminal behavior, they waited till the end of the show. If we knew we were doing something wrong, we would have ceased activity. So we were all arrested on misdemeanor charges, solicitation of prostitution, conspiracy to commit prostitution, and open and gross lewdness. That would have been a $200 fine and go home. (Vice) pushed for felony charges. The girls were going to be charged with Nevada's "Crimes Against Nature" statute, also known as "felony lesbianism". I was singled out and charged with Pandering, which is encouraging someone into the act of prostitution. I was looking at over six years in prison and the women six years on each count. It was very messy.
"The Nevada District Attorney wanted us to register as sex offenders and there were women in the group with children. Meaning they could have their children taken away from them. It was a very tense year, before we plea bargained down to the misdemeanor.
"Besides the degrading treatment we got at the Las Vegas Police station, the women were very disrespected. One woman was body cavity searched in public! One woman was denied her psychiatric medication. And apparently, when you get in their holding cells, the window has blinds on the outside, so you can't control who looks in. So, as a matter of record, they put a little card on the window of who is in the cell. So anyone can get the information, other police, reporters, anyone. So the next day, the Nevada papers printed our real names under pictures of us, with complete disregard for our personal safety. It was another attempt to humiliate and cause extreme stress. Fascism is coming, it's creeping along." (www.talkingblue.com)
Sex show charges handed down
Warren Bates
02/27/93
The Las Vegas Review-Journal
Ten porn actresses are among the 13 indicted in connection with the show at a book and video store.
Thirteen people, most of them X-rated movie stars, were indicted Friday on sex-related charges in connection with a promotional sex show last month at Pure Pleasure Book & Video.
Ten female porn actresses were indicted on a seldom used Nevada charge _ infamous crime against nature _ a felony that prohibits homosexual acts. The charges come in the same week the Nevada Supreme Court agreed to hear a case challenging the constitutionality of the law.
That case involves a Las Vegas man arrested on charges of attempting to solicit a homosexual act of an undercover officer at an athletic club on Maryland Parkway.
District Judge Nancy Becker on Friday set bail at $2,000 for the women, who will have to surrender before their March 16 arraignment before District Judge Thomas Foley.
Pure Pleasure owner Jeff Haseltine, 37, and 49-year-old promoter William Margold, were each charged with five counts of accepting proceeds for prostitution. Margold was also indicted on four counts of pandering.
Marie Hartman, the most well-known of the porn queens, was charged with one count of pandering. She uses the name Nina Hartley when making films.
Fliers for the show advertised it as a lingerie show and auction, but witnesses said they viewed oral and anal sex acts taking place on stage.
Haseltine in the past has denied any prostitution took place, but he gave a terse "no comment" to reporters who tried to interview him after the court hearing.
The attorney for the women, Dominic Gentile, said the case presented fundamental First Amendment issues, but declined to give a preview of his defense.
When asked if he would await the high court's ruling in the athletic club case and argue for dismissal if the man arrested prevailed, he said only "it couldn't hurt."
Indicted by the Clark County grand jury on infamous crime against nature charges were: Nichole Swan, 23; Barbara Reilly, 34; Eileen Rodriguez, 29; Cindy Holmes, 25; Gwen Cory, 25; Robin Britt, 24; Darla O'Brien, 23; Florence Godefroy, 25; Sharon Mitchell, 34; and Gloria Rondon, 25.
Bail was set at $10,000 for Haseltine and $3,000 for Margold. All the defendants are free pending their surrender.
Supreme Court disqualifies judge from porn stars' case
Sean Whaley
08/26/93
The Las Vegas Review-Journal
CARSON CITY _ Ten porn stars arrested on felony sodomy charges after a live Las Vegas sex show in January will be assigned a new judge to hear their case, the Supreme Court said Wednesday.
Attorney Dominic Gentile, representing the actresses, asked the court in June to disqualify District Judge Thomas Foley from hearing the matter and asked that the case, along with three others, be randomly assigned among the remaining District Court judges in Clark County.
Thirteen people were charged with 33 felony counts stemming from the performance. Ten women were charged with sodomy.
While the state law was changed by the 1993 Legislature to make it legal to practice sodomy in private, public acts remain illegal.
In addition to the infamous crime against nature charges against the 10 actresses, adult book store owner Jeff Haseltine and promoter William Margold were charged with accepting the proceeds of prostitution. One porn actress, Nina Hartley , was charged with pandering.
In its unanimous opinion, the court noted that cases must be assigned in a random fashion to the 14 judges in the district. Yet of four indictments returned by a grand jury, all were assigned to Foley.
The opinion noted that the odds of one judge being assigned all four cases in a purely random matter were 1 in 38,416.
The court concluded that the assignments were not random, and ordered that they be reassigned. The court also ruled that Foley be removed from the pool of available judges because, "even a hint of personal interest in or knowledge of the case by the sitting judge should be avoided."
The porn stars and others were arrested Jan. 8 after a sex show in a tent behind the Pure Pleasure Book & Video at 3177 S. Highland Drive.
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Porn stars plead guilty in public sex case
Carri Geer
01/21/94
The Las Vegas Review-Journal
Ten women enter pleas a year after being arrested in connection with a sex show outside a book store.
Ten female porn actresses pleaded guilty Thursday to misdemeanor obscenity charges almost a year after a live Las Vegas sex show prompted their arrests and raised legal questions.
District Judge Sally Loehrer issued a bench warrant for an 11th woman, 26-year-old Gloria Rondon, after her attorney said he had no information about her whereabouts.
Police arrested the women and others Jan. 8, 1993, after a sex show in a tent behind Pure Pleasure Book & Video, 3177 S. Highland Drive.
Chief Deputy District Attorney John Lukens said he negotiated the case for two reasons: The women did not receive money for the acts, and the 1993 state Legislature de-emphasized the criminality of sodomy.
Legislators made it legal to practice sodomy in private, although public acts remain illegal.
"This is the first time that a case like this has ever been prosecuted, so there's no real standard to go by," Lukens said.
A Clark County grand jury indicted 10 of the women in February on a seldom-used charge, infamous crime against nature, a felony that prohibited homosexual acts.
The panel also indicted Pure Pleasure owner Jeff Haseltine, 38, and promoter William Margold, 50, on five counts of accepting proceeds for prostitution. Margold also was indicted on four counts of pandering.
Lukens said the men's cases remain active in the court system, but District Court clerks said Thursday their records fail to show their status.
Marie Hartman, the most famous of the porn queens, was indicted on one count of pandering. She uses the name Nina Hartley in her films.
Fliers for last year's show advertised it as an "XXX lingerie show & auction" and an "anti-censorship show," but witnesses said they viewed oral and anal sex acts taking place on stage.
As part of the plea bargain, the following women pleaded guilty to a charge of participating in an obscene performance: Cindy Holmes, 26; Eileen Rodriguez, 30; Nichole Swan, 24; Barbara Reilly, 35; Robin Britt, 25; Darla O'Brien, 24; Sharon Mitchell, 35; Gwen Corey, 26; Florence Godefroy, 26; and Hartman.
Their attorney, Dominic Gentile, said they paid a total of $15,000 to a group that fights sexual abuse of children and $5,000 to Aid for AIDS of Nevada as part of their penalty. He said they collected most of the money from producers of adult films.
Gentile said the women, who made no court appearances, also had to promise to never again participate in live public performances involving sexual intercourse or sodomy in Nevada.
Lukens said the women were back in town earlier this month during the Consumer Electronics Show to promote their films, but he said their performance complied with the law.