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Mother Wins Lawsuit Against Hotel for Showing Gay
Porn on TV
by Cody Lyon found at EDGE
Boston Tuesday Nov 6, 2007
On October 12, 2007, a Los Angeles County Superior Court jury
awarded Edwina McCombs, a Tennessee resident on vacation with her two daughters,
then aged 8 and 9, $85,000 after the two little girls were unintentionally
exposed to hardcore pornographic material in a Value Lodge motel room in the
suburban town of Artesia. According to the plaintiff law firm, the material had
included "close up images of people engaged in sodomy and homosexual
acts."
"She first went to the police, where she was informed that there is no law
in California that prohibits the showing of pornography to children" and
"she would have to bring a civil action," said Elliot F. Krieger, one
of Ms McCombs’ attorneys from Jarvis & Krieger law firm in Long Beach.
The jury held the motel was liable since it allegedly didn’t have "lock
outs" to pornography on its television screens. The award was based on
McCombs’ claim of emotional distress and negligence.
Unlike most hotels, where guests go through a pay-per-view system for adult
movies, Artesia’s Value Lodge readily broadcasts porn over a particular
channel on its TV screens free of charge. The motel claimed warning signs were
in place in the rooms. Further, according to the hotel’s lawyer, if guests
requested that the material be blocked during check in, or if the front desk saw
children with parents, employees could block the movies.
But allegedly that’s not what happened at Value Lodge the night Edwina McCombs
checked in on Aug. 3, 2006. Instead, while McCombs was in the bathroom and
assumed the two girls were watching children’s shows, they knocked on the
bathroom door and told their mommy that something was terribly wrong.
In a cultural landscape where cable and broadcast networks are littered with
reality television dripping with innuendo and sexual couplings, suggestive music
videos and celebrity crotch shots, some might find the idea that someone could
win thousands of dollars after two children are exposed to a few minutes of
pornography ridiculous.
A Right-Wing Victory?
On the other side, social conservatives bent on seeing an elimination of what
they see as the takeover of our culture by porn, are calling the California
verdict a victory over ubiquitous sleaze.
They can now point to a brave mother who took it upon herself to stand up,
protect her children and who ended up a warrior in the war on porn. But beneath
the initial reporting and touting of triumph over titillation, clues point to a
sad, disturbing story and what is very possibly a frivolous exploitation of the
civil justice system.
"This is an interesting and somewhat scary story," said Marjorie Heins,
founder of The Free Expression Policy Project in New York.
Heins, who wrote "Not in Front of the Children: Indecency, Censorship and
the Innocence of Youth" said that given today’s political climate, the
hotel probably should have been more fearful about allowing access to the adult
channel. But she argued that the verdict was scary, because "the notion
that someone can be held liable for showing a movie, based on the psychological
harm is supposedly caused puts all creative expression in jeopardy."
Artesia, a suburban city in Southeast Los Angeles is best known for its Little
India neighborhood. The Value Lodge on Artesia Boulevard offers rooms for $60 to
$65 dollars a night. The motel offers a three-hour rate of $45. Regardless of
what an hourly rate implies, the motel has the appearance as a "family
hotel" according to those involved in the civil action. A police
spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department that covers the
area wouldn’t say whether the hotel has a high incidence of complaints.
The motel had appeared to be a decent spot to spend the evening for McCombs and
her children, Krieger said. . She had been planning on visiting a friend in the
San Fernando Valley that evening, but was to tired to go that far.
Max Chiang, who defended motel owner Charles Su, describes himself as Christian.
But Chiang’s scenario differs widely from the way the case is being portrayed
among anti- pornography groups. McCombs, who had run into some money from her
2005 divorce, is a longtime resident of Los Angeles who recently moved to
Tennessee with her two daughters to enjoy the lower cost of living. She had
decided she preferred California and was looking to move back and a potential
financial windfall from this case would enable that, he maintained.
He says the original amount that McCombs and her lawyers asked for to cover the
damages was around $400,000. The motel owner, he says, didn’t have that kind
of money, and instead offered $50,000 to settle the case.
Krieger said McCombs had no intention of moving back to California. He wouldn’t
not say the exact amount of money he was originally seeking, only that it was
more than $85,000. Apparently in anticipation of a large settlement in a jury
trial, McCombs then mortgaged her home in Tennessee to pay mounting
psychological evaluation bills.
"She did mortgage her house-she did it because she wanted the best
treatment for her daughters and that treatment is expensive," Krieger said.
By the time of the trial, in October, McCombs had spent over $29,000 in
psychological evaluation costs alone, an amount her insurance company refused to
pay.
That money was paid by VISA credit card to Yorba Linda California
Forensic/Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Michael Perrotti, who also happened to
testify as an expert witness in the trial. According to court transcripts,
Perrotti received $1,500 per day for his testimony. (A hotel management expert
also testified.)
How Objective Is ’Expert Testimony’?
Paying experts to testify in trials has long evoked controversy, but most agree
that it’s a necessary component of winning a state civil case. "Even the
most careful, thorough, honest experts will typically only be willing to
participate in the trial process if they are compensated," said Jennifer
Mnookin, a professor at the University of California Law School who specializes
in evidence and expert theory. But she also criticizes the widespread use of the
practice.
On his website, Dr Michael J. Perrotti lists extensive treatment and expert
evaluation experience as well as a long list of testimonies at civil and
criminal trials. He has also worked as a forensic consultant on the television
program CSI. In addition, Perrotti advertises that he offers biblical
counseling. He also lists among his honors an award for soliciting large
donations to the Republican Party.
During the trial, Perrotti testified that he had spent around 100 hours with
multiple clinical interviews, background, history and mental status examinations
of the two young girls as well as the mother and father.
The girls themselves were dressed head to toe in white. "They looked like
little angels from above," Chiang said.
Perrotti testified that McCombs’ daughters had been traumatized by the
exposure to pornographic material. After a number of clinical tests, he says he
found psychological symptoms that included dissociation; symptoms related to-but
still not meeting-the criteria for diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
or PTSD; and that the two girls’ thinking had become sexualized. While Dr.
Perrotti only said there were symptoms similar to PTSD, the very use of the term
is bound to raise questions.
Dr. Steven J. Berokowitz, assistant professor at the Child Study Center at Yale
University, has done extensive work with child and trauma. He also serves as
medical director of the National Center for Children Exposed to Violence as well
as director of the Intensive-In Home Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Service.
"While we like to say that events cause symptoms of PTSD, that’s just not
true," Berkowitz said. "There are events or experience that are ’likely’
to cause PTSD than others. Rape is high on the list. So is torture. But it’s
much more what we bring to the event."
The best predictor of a diagnosis of PTSD is a history of child abuse, he added,
even in soldiers. As it turns out, during testimony Perroti revealed that the
younger daughter had been sexually molested by an older child cousin a few years
earlier and that might have contributed to her traumatic reaction to the
pornographic material.
During friendly questioning from Leejanice Toback, another of McCombs’
lawyers, Perrotti stated that the two girls would need at least two to four more
years of therapy to deal with the PTSD-like symptoms and "remove" the
harmful images now implanted in the girl’s heads. The cost of the future
treatment for the girl and their Mother would be more than $150,000.
Berkowitz agrees that exposure to pornography can be a very disturbing
experience for a young child and can cause traumatic symptoms. Berkowitz said it
would be impossible for him to fully evaluate this particular case since he did
not have all of the background information.
He added, however, that the 100 hours of evaluation in the pre-trial preparation
was suspicious and the cost and time for future therapy, even if the child was
diagnosed with PTSD symptoms in relation to the trauma would probably not
approach two years or $150, 000. "Six months to a year tops," he said.
In alternately graphic and tedious courtroom testimony, Perrotti described in
detail a litany of destructive psychological symptoms beyond PTSD that he
attributed to the brief exposure to pornographic material. "She described
having something like a concussion, things went black, and then she was in the
sky and the clouds with her (stuffed) animals looking down on herself--kind of
to get away from the traumatic event," he said in the courtroom. "It
was so terrifying to her."
The flurry of references to the children’s use of the word pornography sparked
Judge William J. Birney’s curiosity. "It strikes me as somewhat strange
that an 8-year old in her very first contact with you when you were interviewing
her comes up and uses the term ’pornography’" the judge said. "She
must have heard that from somewhere"
Perrotti explained that since the daughter was part of a legal case and the fact
that the Mother was impacted she was bound to learn the word. "I never
heard it out my grandchildren of the same age" answered the judge, evoking
laughter in the courtroom.
With that, Perrotti made a point that this was exactly the real issue in this
case. He stated that before the incident, the two young girls did not talk about
sexual things. "A tomboy and a boy kissing was no big deal. Now they are
thinking about two boys kissing. Now they are thinking about French kissing. So
their thinking has become sexualized," Perrotti said.
Berkowitz believes the sexual orientation of the porn would not make much of a
difference. "It has more to do with how graphic the material was," he
said.
Legal experts caution against equating homosexuality with pornography.
"Pornography, and the harm it might cause children, should be assessed in
an even-handed way that doesn’t rely on distinctions drawn to sexual
orientation," said Douglas NeJaime, Assistant Professor at the Williams
Institute at UCLA.
Perhaps a more key aspect to this case might have been Ms McCombs reaction to
the incident. According to Perrotti, a therapist in Tennessee had indicated Ms
McCombs had a "histrionic" personality. "That means she
dramatizes things," he said. Still he added, "I think her feelings are
normal as far as a mother who’s children are exposed to such a thing."
In the trial, it came out that McCombs had been diagnosed with symptoms of
depression, she’d had anger management counseling, and she also exhibited
hysterical traits and she too, had been molested as a child. "The kids are
already highly stressed, things sound chaotic after the divorce, the mother’s
histrionics," Berkowitz said. "All of these things can contribute to a
child’s reaction."
One of the more interesting aspects of Perrotti’s testimony is his assessment
of the impact of pornographic material. He cited studies of adolescents in which
repeated exposure to pornography increased sexual violence and aggressive
behavior in boys. He cited his expertise in the evaluation of sexual offenders,
for whom one of the risk factors is pornography. He also said that paraphilia
("abnormal sexual behavior") can develop out of pornography and that
can lead to dangerous behaviors.
Homosexuality was once listed as a paraphilia in the Diagnostic and Statistical
Manuel of Mental Disorders. Currently, the list includes a number of fetishes
some might consider as simply kinky.
Once again, the judge was curious. "Doctor, how long were these girls
exposed to pornography in that one incident?" Judge Birney asked.
"I believe it was minutes," Perotti replied. Perrotti did not respond
to numerous requests for an interview for this story.
In the end, although Edwina McCombs was awarded $85,000, she may well have ended
up in the hole. She had already paid Perrotti over $30,000 for evaluations and
testimony. And then there are the legal fees and court costs--and "hotel
expert" Alan Snyder, who expressed his disbelief that a family hotel didn’t
have protective measures.
Max Chiang claims that the jury awarded the money it did because it felt sorry
for the young girls, so they basically awarded enough to cover part of the
pre-trial costs, and expenses. Still, a number of conservative organizations are
touting the case as a triumph.
Such organizations have been targeting hotels that show adult films for years.
Groups like Citizens for Community Values, led by self-described former porn
addict Phil Burress, saw success in Cincinnati back in 2002 after engaging in
what it called sting operations at three area hotels. They say that resulted in
the elimination of adult pay-per-view films. Recently, CCV put the pressure on
LodgeNet Entertainment Corp, a supplier of television, on-demand movies and
Internet access to around 1.8 million rooms in 9,300 hotel properties in the
United States, Canada and Mexico.
This past August, a group of 13 organizations--including Family Research Council
and Concerned Women of America--formed an alliance specifically targeting hotels
that offer adult films. The alliance took out a full page ad in some editions of
USA Today asking the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate whether some
pay-per-view films in hotels violate federal and state obscenity laws. The
coalition had also developed a new website, Cleanhotels.com, a directory of
"family friendly" hotels and motels where adult entertainment was not
on the menu.
About a month before the Value Lodge case in California went to court, the
anti-porn group Lighted Candle Society announced Family Fragments.com, a site
meant to serve as an informational port for the organization led by former U.S.
Attorney General Edwin Meese and former California Lieutenant Governor John
Harmer. During an August 2007 appearance on Michael Reagan’s radio talkshow,
the former lieutenant governor said the Lighted Candle Society intended to
attack the pornography industry using civil litigation. In addition to utilizing
existing obscenity laws, the group has said it would attempt to present
scientific evidence that shows pornography causes physiological and
psychological harm, much of this "evidence" based on the research of
people like former Captain Kangaroo singer and producer Dr. Judith Reisman.
Lighted Candle’s Harmer recently co-authored the book "The Sex Industrial
Complex: America’s Secret Combination; Pornographic Culture, Addiction and the
Human Brain." Here, the authors charge, among other things, that
homosexuality has become a huge part of pornography, asserting that the Abu
Gharaib prison torture scandal was porn inspired.
Although there is no tangible proof that points ot Edwina McCombs’ lawsuit
being connected to groups like the Lighted Candle Society, reaction by these
groups to the verdict was swift. ’We’ve been in close contact with the
lawyers in this suit," according to Family Fragments.
"If this hotel is made to pay for this kind of activity, other hotels might
be subject to a lawsuit," threatened Pat Trueman at Alliance Defense Fund,
on the Focus on the Family Citizen Link website. Janet Folger, of Faith to
Action, told Citizen Link that she believed the decision would send shockwaves
and go a long way in protecting children.
Cody Lyon is a New York freelance writer whose work
has appeared in a number of national daily newspapers and New York weeklies.
Lyon also writes a political opinion blog at http://codylyonblogolater.blogspot.com
Comments:
"Mother Wins Lawsuit Against Hotel for
Showing Gay Porn on TV"
Anonymous, 2007-11-06 12:52:35
It makes me sick to my stomach that such a frivalous abuse of the US legal
system would award this pandering mother! it boggles my mind how one can
teach their children that sex is bad and pshcoligically bad for them but
have no problems with gratuitous violence on the TV and Fim screens. The
United States is so backwords and hypocritical in their purtitanical way of
life!
No problem showing tit and ass and multiple murders in vidoes, TV and films
but when a child accidentally witnesses people engaging in sex it becomes a
bad thing!
OMG! One has to wonder what kind of sexually devient life these children
will lead!
skyle6, 2007-11-06 15:24:02
This is so wrong. They should be watching movies of people getting their
eyeballs gouged with scissors, isn’t that the proper form of
entertainment for kids today?
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