No civil lawsuit or criminal case was ever filed against Eric Whitaker, the Arizona pornographer who ran Backroom Casting Couch. Reporting on a possible Backroom Casting Couch lawsuit turns up two recruiter arrests, a sex-crimes detective’s investigation of Whitaker that produced no charges, and a parallel operation called GirlsDoPorn whose owners were hit with a $12.8 million civil judgment and federal sex trafficking convictions. Whitaker’s site launched in 2007 and drew serious law enforcement attention, but he personally walked away from all of it uncharged.1Phoenix New Times. Backroom Casting Couch Turns to Craigslist After Top Recruiters Kiddie Porn Indictment
What Women Said the Site Did
Backroom Casting Couch filmed in a small Scottsdale office with a black leather couch, staging what looked like an audition. Whitaker posed as a casting director, and the production used a hidden-camera style that left ambiguity about whether the women knew the footage was being recorded for distribution.2Vice. Casting Couch Porn in the Age of MeToo
Participants were required to provide two forms of ID and were told the documents would not appear in the finished video. Some were recorded holding those IDs on camera anyway, and screenshots later surfaced on gossip blogs and other sites.3The State Press. Does ASU Have a Porn Problem
The recurring complaint was distribution. Elizabeth Hawkenson said she agreed to film only if her video stayed behind the site’s paywall. Whitaker instead uploaded content to free, high-traffic pornography platforms to push traffic to the paid site.4Phoenix New Times. Backroom Casting Couch Porn Site Recruiter Arrested on Kiddy Porn Charges
Recruiters Who Were Arrested
In mid-2011, Antonio Adrian Gonzalez was arrested and charged with three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, two counts of furnishing obscene materials to a minor, two counts of sexual conduct with a minor, and one count of sexual abuse. Gonzalez had recruited women for the site through his own agencies, Mayflower Modeling and Photos by Gonzo, using social media to reach both underage and adult women. He admitted to police that he recruited girls specifically for Backroom Casting Couch.4Phoenix New Times. Backroom Casting Couch Porn Site Recruiter Arrested on Kiddy Porn Charges
A year later, on August 23, 2012, Kevin Kelsch, 30, was arrested in Paradise Valley on a felony charge of unlawful recording. An ex-girlfriend alleged Kelsch had used hidden cameras disguised as wall chargers to record her and other women during sex, and that he offered her $10,000 to keep her from going to police. Kelsch acknowledged his role recruiting for the site. As of October 2012, prosecutors had returned the case to police without filing formal charges, though investigators said it would be resubmitted.5Phoenix New Times. Backroom Casting Couch Associate Kevin Kelsch Arrested
Why Whitaker Was Never Charged
Whitaker was investigated but never formally charged. Shortly after Gonzalez’s 2011 arrest, a SWAT team executed a search at Whitaker’s residence. A local sex-crimes detective was also looking into complaints against him directly, including allegations that he had transmitted herpes to women who filmed with the site.6Phoenix New Times. Backroom Casting Couchs Anonymous Reality Porn Creep Has Herpes
None of it stopped the operation. Whitaker had already been evicted from the Scottsdale Airport office in 2010 after the building’s owner learned what was going on there. By mid-2011, with Gonzalez out of the picture, he had moved recruitment to Craigslist, posting ads offering women up to $5,000 a day.1Phoenix New Times. Backroom Casting Couch Turns to Craigslist After Top Recruiters Kiddie Porn Indictment
What a Successful Case Looked Like: GirlsDoPorn
The lawsuit that Backroom Casting Couch never generated did happen to a nearly identical operation. GirlsDoPorn, a San Diego site run by Michael Pratt, used Craigslist ads, promised the footage would only be sold on DVDs to private collectors overseas, and then posted the videos on major pornography platforms.7Vice. Girls Do Porn Goes to Trial Over Allegations Women Were Tricked Into Videos The two sites were not connected; GirlsDoPorn was operated by Pratt, Matthew Wolfe, and recruiter Andre Garcia.
In January 2020, after a 99-day bench trial, a San Diego Superior Court judge awarded 22 women roughly $12.8 million in compensatory and punitive damages. The court found the defendants had used fraud and coercion throughout the operation and ruled that the contracts the women signed were unenforceable because any nominal consent was made meaningless by the deception.8Ars Technica. GirlsDoPorn Owners Hit With $13 Million Judgment for Fraud and Coercion
Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of California separately charged the GirlsDoPorn operators with sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion under 18 U.S.C. § 1591. Pratt fled in 2019, landed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list, and was arrested in Spain in December 2022. After extradition he pleaded guilty in June 2025 and was sentenced in September 2025 to 27 years in federal prison. His co-conspirators received sentences ranging from 4 to 20 years.9U.S. Department of Justice. GirlsDoPorn Owner Michael Pratt Sentenced to 27 Years for Sex Trafficking Hundreds of Women
The federal sex trafficking statute the GirlsDoPorn prosecutors used was on the books during the years Backroom Casting Couch was active. Available reporting does not indicate that federal charges were ever brought against Whitaker or the site.