SAN DIEGO (CN) — Arguing he needs private contact information for victims ensnared in a human trafficking scheme to help defend himself in trial, GirlsDoPorn videographer Matthew Wolfe asked a federal judge Friday to lift a protective order.
But the list of women Wolfe sought contact and other personally identifying information for only grew longer.
That’s because an unredacted superseding indictment from a grand jury dated April 2021 was unsealed Friday morning adding conspiracy to commit sex trafficking charges involving 10 additional victims duped into filming porn flicks for the San Diego-based company Wolfe worked for.
U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino, a George W. Bush appointee, arraigned Wolfe on the new charges Friday. He pleaded not guilty, appearing from detention via video conference.
Attorney Lupe Rodriguez noted in court Wolfe originally faced sex trafficking charges related to two victims, with GirlsDoPorn owner and founder Michael Pratt — a fugitive wanted by the FBI — facing the lion’s share of charges.
Wolfe now faces charges related to 15 victims, Rodriguez said. He complained about what he called an “unfair delay” by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in adding the additional charges months before his trial slated for this summer.
The charges also contradicted conversations between Wolfe’s counsel and prosecutors this past December, Rodriguez said, as he anticipated additional charges involving only seven women.
“I didn’t know it was going to be this kind of indictment,” Rodriguez said of the charges Wolfe now faces, which involve suspected sex trafficking and production of child pornography involving a 16-year-old.
The child porn charges were “something we never anticipated with respect to Mr. Wolfe — it’s not something we focused on during discovery and based off discussions with the government,” Rodriguez added.
Prosecutors say starting in 2012 and continuing through October 2019 — after Wolfe had testified in a civil contract fraud trial in San Diego Superior Court brought by over two dozen women who’d filmed with the company — Wolfe, Pratt and others at the company fraudulently recruited women to appear in their porn videos.
College-age women initially responded to ads on Craigslist for clothed modeling gigs only to be induced to appear in their “first and only” porn films which GirlsDoPorn employees promised would not be published online and were for private collectors or DVD sales overseas.
"Reference women” received commissions for each skeptical woman they convinced to film with the company, telling them they had a positive experience during filming.
Following a months-long civil trial in 2019, San Diego Superior Court Judge Kevin Enright awarded the women $13 million in damages and the rights to their videos.
Last year, Sammartino also awarded the plaintiffs the rights to their videos related to the sex trafficking case following the 20-year sentence of porn actor Andre Garcia.





