Update to the Ray Guhn Case and More arrests
 

PENSACOLA, Fla. ? Prosecutors have charged adult webmaster Ray Guhn with money laundering, adding to existing obscenity, racketeering and prostitution charges filed last year.
Kevin Patrick Stevens, Andrew Kevin Draft, William Lee Beach and Thomas W. Dwyer also have been charged in the case. Jane Marie Dreka is being sought by authorities for arrest.

Prosecutors also have dropped Guhn's charges in Escambia County, where the case has been ongoing for a year, and re-filed them in Santa Rosa County, an act that his attorney Lawrence Walters told XBIZ is likely an attempt at venue shopping.

"I can only imagine that the prosecutors are trying to obtain an advantage by moving to another county to get a more favorable jury or judge," Walters said. "We have been litigating for a year in Escambia and we don't think it's appropriate to start over."

Walters also said that the new money laundering charges are more serious than any of Guhn's others. He said Florida law states that if a person profits from the commission of any crime ? including obscenity ? then the government can claim money laundering is taking place.

"If all material is presumed to be protected by the constitution until declared illegal by the judge or jury, then how could my client have had any idea that there was any attempt to money launder?" Walters said.

Walters' next priority, he said, is to have the case transferred back to Escambia County. He said that the state constitution declares defendants have the right to choose which venue in which to be prosecuted, as long as it is available, and Escambia County clearly is available.

Walters said he has filed a motion to transfer and expects a hearing to be scheduled next month.

He said that there is no case law that recognizes that the government can add money laundering charges and move the trial location. Though it's unfortunate that the charges have reached this extent, he said, this case is becoming more important.

"It's another groundbreaking precedent issue that this case may actually resolve," Walters said.

Guhn, whose real name is Clinton McCowan, was arrested last year on charges of racketeering, engaging in prostitution and the manufacture and sale of obscene material. The arrest culminated a months-long investigation into the operations of Guhn's company, Global Technologies Inc., doing business as Ray Guhn Productions. The website that he shot content for, CumOnHerFace.com, is part of the Cash Titans affiliate program, which he owned.

Assistant State Attorney Russ Edgar did not respond to an interview request by press time.

ouch :Oh crap

"Walters also said that the new money laundering charges are more serious than any of Guhn's others. He said Florida law states that if a person profits from the commission of any crime — including obscenity — then the government can claim money laundering is taking place."

UnFUCKINGbelievable...

Do not stop there, there is the use of the word "conspiracy" in some recent laws which could make things nasty.

The Red districts in Florida can be downright scary with the Bible thumpers. Best of luck in your case, but I just think these guys are determined to put a porn guy in jail and might get away with it.

sighs... may Ray Guhn have the look of the irish on his side. He's going to need it.

Oh well... he had a good run for a while.

To Give some more information on the new arrests, here is the scoop on the 3new people added to our case.

William Beach - aka Old Man, was an actor on our site
Jane Dreka - aka Sandra was an actress on our site
Tom Dwyer - allowed his house to be used in some of our shoots.

So now you have actors and actresses and a guy allowing his house to be used charged with Racketeering.

Now thats scary

why hit ray when sooo many others are sooooo much worse.


sad

fucked up :helpme:

Just wait until they hit the affiliate list and work down that as well. :Oh crap

That is one of the most ineffective arguments anyone can make in a criminal case.

Having read about some of the things that went on with their website, you won't see me supporting them.

Matt, im curious, what are some of the things you read about us??

why would they arrest old man and sandra?

LOL, theirs was one of the best websites out there.

also wheres a direct link to this news story.

yes before they changed to a "cookie cutter reality design"

Hmm I wasnt aware of that :(

But prior to all the shit going down COHF was an awesome site.

COHF still isnt bad content its just now filmed by abunch of loud mouthed canadians..

no offense canadians but those fuckers on the new cohf videos are fuckin annoying.

Well nothing that goes against my belief that consenting adults should be able to do what they want, and other consenting adults should be able to purchase video of it reguardless of where they live. So in that sense I definitely hope you win.

My beef is moreso over the fact that the media has now been served up alleged "stereotypical sleeze producer" actions to report on. Today's new breed of made-for-internet productions have in general done so much to move away from that stuff and thus silence a lot of the porn criticism.

In any event, a victory here would be a great sign for the more tame material.

maybe they should call up the mini-mart who sold the trojan condoms

file it all under RICO & call it a day ....i mean wtf :1orglaugh

One would assume they were arrested as they were paid to have sex, therefore backing up the original charges of prostitution, no?

For the guy using his house, that's probably some sort of bullshit about contributing to a crime.

as i am still getting signups and rebills i wonder:
where is my money?

thanks for the update, money laundering carries a long term in prison even for small amounts of money, good luck

Allthough I sympathize with you guys you were kinda asking for this to happen.
Shooting hardcore porn in FL as almost anywhere in the US is illegal. Now you
can say everybody does it doesn't make it legal.

You guys are a target as a lot of your content works really well with juries in
courts in the US as quite a few people consider girls getting soaked in a gallon
of cum as quite sick and offensive.

All the bullshit that comes with this you could have and should have known.
They'll try to use your case as a precedent for next cases, you'll serve as an
example and what not but what did you expect from your current goverment?

A slap on the wrist or a warning or just getting away with it coz others get
away with as well? You guys DID break the law in the first place so to pretend
like you didn't know you would and could get ass raped on it is stupid and
naive to think.

:2 cents:

Someone should sue the Prosecutor over his misuse of tax payer funds.

Go arrest the people in your flight schools asking to be taught how to fly but not how to land or take off instead.

wow... some fucked off shit

Assuming for the moment that Ray's money movements were just that - ie transacting funds as any webmaster normally does, - it would be interesting to see if the formulation of these charges are a deviant method of "capturing all".

"If" money laundering is now means anything where funds are moved in an alleged illegal business (ie one where there are obscenity charges) - that could be interesting.

Damn... not a good area to be operating an adult biz :(

Here's a question for JimatCOHF:

Why is the CashTitans affiliate program still running, recording sales and rebills, but payments to affiliates arent being made? If you cant pay the responsible thing is to shut down the CashTitans site to affiliates or at least put up a notice on your site. :2 cents:

http://www.pornhero.com/pornhero.jpg
PornHero

:2 cents::2 cents::2 cents:

*Note To Self*- Never move to Florida:2 cents:

AZ/NY have similar laws you know that right?

Any armchair lawyers know what the possibility of something like this happening is?

You've seen the material produced for the sponsor in your sig right? :uhoh :uhoh

BUMP for great question!!!!!!

The majority of counties in FL dont allow hardcore porn, but Miami is still cool. :2 cents:

If i'm not mistaken, they are getting charged with prostitution because they hired actresses to come to parties and fuck them, without a camera being turned on. Is that correct?

one more bump for this question. they owe me some money too..

PornHero, the sites and the program cashtitans were sold after the arrests, you can belive me or not but as to who owns the programs now I have no clue, I have been told it was to a canadian company. I am not involved in any way with any adult company and havent been since my arrest. I wish i could give you more information on who to talk to but honestly I dont have it. I know this doesnt help but you did deserve an answer.

Hate to see this shit happen to local guys. :(

I think someone wanted the direct link to the news story here it is in the nwfl news http://www.nwfdailynews.com/article/7034 and here is the piece xbiz ran on it http://www.xbiz.com/news/legal/81696

no shit im glad im not on that list of affiliates if i were id be getting some legal representation right about now because it looks like it is only a mater of time before affiliates get pulled in to this as well

crazy...

If affiliates are at risk, what about CCBill? They were the ones processing for it at the time. I really don't like this at all. I know tons of people on here that were promoting them back then too.

:(

I wouldn't get nervous as an affiliate before they ever get to go after those
they'll first go after where they think they can get the most money.

Also affiliates don't produce or posses the content so it's a lot harder to
get solid charges on them let alone finding evidence to proof it in court
that can proof undeniable offenses committed by the affiliates.....so I don't
see any reason to panic or worry :2 cents:

then again I'm not a lawyer or know anything substantial about US law
whatsoever so don't blame me if my guess is completely wrong :1orglaugh

Affiliates perhaps, but that isn't clear. If you expand this without boundries, you could go after the processor, the credit card companies, and the individual consumers who purchased the material IF it is deemed obscene. However, while I am not a lawyer, I suspect that provided you stop promoting it when it is judged obscene, it would likely be hard to get back at you for something that wasn't clearly obscene at the time.

Further, affiliates are paid for traffic and advertising space, on a pay per success system. The affiliates don't control the content of the site, and provided you are acting in good faith it would be pretty hard to create the intent required to prosecute. Further, with 2257 laws having been on the books since 1995 or so, and the CoHF people assuring that all of the content is compliant and all models over 18, there is a clearly an explanation that says
that individual webmasters promoting the program had no valid way to determine that the material was obscene (if judged that way), and further that larger companies including Visa and Mastercard had approved the material. You trust the well reasoned judgement of companies such as this.

Further, CoHF continues to have processing, which suggests that there is no change the the status of the site in the eyes of the processing companies or the credit card companies.

It would be a pretty tough sell to get to affilates, although everyone might be notified by mail to removed the material (in a similar manner to video stores being ordered to remove a video if an underage model is found or other issues come up).

This is going to get way the hell beyond nasty.

It's parts of Florida,in Pensacola there are no adult book stores and you decide to produce porn there? If they were out of Miami this would be a nonevent, the bang bros have been featured in the news multiple times and they are fine. Here in Atlanta Mike South is on the cover of the free ALT newspaper as the king of porn, he is fine.
My lawyer said their problem wasnt porn it was pissing off the locals.
Even though the common thought in online adult is I will do what I want wherever I want,sadly thats not the case.