SAN DIEGO (CN) – The ex-girlfriend of a porn producer for GirlsDoPorn testified Tuesday she was paid $300 a week to harass the attorneys representing the 22 Jane Does accusing the online porn purveyor of a bait-and-switch scheme to get them to appear in its videos.
Jamia McDonald said she dated GirlsDoPorn producer Kevin Gibson for two years and that she spent every weekend at the home he shared with his “business partner,” GirlsDoPorn owner Michael Pratt.
Gibson is not named in the fraud civil suit which accuses Pratt, videographer Matthew Wolfe and actor Andre Garcia of inducing women between the ages of 18 and 22 to appear in porn videos based on the false representation they would be sold on DVDs overseas only.
In reality, GirlsDoPorn never produced DVDS. Instead, the company posted the videos on its subscription-based website with clips and full-length videos uploaded to some of the most trafficked websites in the world including PornHub.
McDonald said in Superior Court Judge Kevin Enright’s courtroom Tuesday that Gibson paid her $300 a week in 2018 to make harassing phone calls to attorney Brian Holm, one of the attorneys representing the Does.
A nude photo of three people shown in court Tuesday included a man who appeared to be Holm.
McDonald said she was instructed by Gibson to text the doctored image to Holm’s cellphone in addition to calling him multiple times a day. She said she witnessed Gibson and Pratt edit the photo at an Airbnb they were staying at in San Diego.
When McDonald tried to ask her boyfriend questions about why he wanted her to repeatedly call Holm’s phone, Gibson threatened to break up with her, she said.
“He refused to give me any real information about what I was doing, just that I needed to do it or he would get someone else to,” McDonald said.
“I was out of work at the time and needed money to support my son,” she added.
McDonald said Gibson told her the attorneys “were the ones stalking and harassing him,” but noted he also hired his friends to harass one of the Does at her job at a San Diego nightclub.
Defense attorney George Rikos objected constantly throughout the questioning, but he and his co-counsel Aaron Sadock and Daniel Kaplan declined to cross-examine McDonald, indicating they would call her later as a witness.
That testimony could be delayed, however, as the defense attorneys lodged a second request in as many weeks to stay the civil trial after Judge Joel Wohlfeil issued a temporary restraining order freezing the defendants’ assets on Tuesday morning.
As part of the order, Wohlfeil – who has overseen court hearings in the case – also ordered payment processing companies which tender subscription payments to the GirlsDoPorn website to refuse any changes including “causing any of these processors to deposit funds or cryptocurrency into a new account.”
The defendants were also ordered to send all funds, documents or assets in foreign countries to the United States within five business days.
Wohlfeil found good cause to believe immediate and irreparable harm will affect the Does based on actions the defendants “admitted” including disposing of and transferring assets overseas and claiming insolvency.
Wohlfeil scheduled a hearing on a preliminary injunction and appointment of a receiver to oversee GirlsDoPorn’s assets for Nov. 19.
Judge Enright will consider whether to stay the case during proceedings Wednesday.
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