According to the Provo, UT Daily Herald the founder of “Flix Club” a defunct company that edited swearing and nudity from films and resold them as “family friendly’ versions, has been arrested on charges that he and another man paid two 14-year-old girls for sex. Police also said that the men may have been using the “family friendly” video business as a front for producing porn.
Daniel Dean Thompson, 31, of Orem, was released from the Utah County Jail on bond Friday afternoon, according to the Utah County Jail Web site. Isaac R. Lifferth, 24, of Springville, is still in jail. Bail was set at $30,000.
Thompson, owner of the edited-movie retail store at 908 S. State St. in Orem, was arrested on two charges of forcible sexual abuse and two charges of unlawful sexual activity with a 14-year-old. Lifferth was arrested on two charges of forcible sexual abuse, a charge of unlawful possession of a prescription drug, two charges of aiding prostitution, two charges of unlawful sexual activity with a 14-year-old and two charges of patronizing a prostitute.
According to a report Thursday by John McCombs, an investigating officer with the Orem Police Department, Thompson told the girls that edited movies were sold at Flix Club as a front, but he and Lifferth actually made and distributed pornography.
Thompson, a former dealer of edited movies with CleanFlicks, started Flix Club at the same address after the dealership was terminated at a time when the Hollywood movie industry was bringing legal pressure on businesses that edited movies.
Flix Club was forced to close last year in the wake of a landmark federal court ruling that said several movie-editing businesses violated U.S. copyright laws when they altered movies to remove nudity, profanity and other offensive content and offered “sanitized” versions for sale.
A former employer said of Thompson, “He was always talking about fighting Hollywood for the good of the children.”
Clean-film business was front for porn, police say [Daily Herald via Philmguy]
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@MDSasquatch: Because traditionally, the more sexually restricted a society is (and utah takes the cake), the more demand there is for illicit sexual goods (pr0n etc.)
It’s the same reason amsterdam has less drug related problems than new york- it’s (semi) legal and regulated, so it takes all the thrill out of it for those who get off on excess.
@Celticlady: I will never be a mom, but potentially a father and I pray I will not become a hypocrit and will stand by my words of raising my children (if i ever have any) with as much as hope as I can they will care about making right decisions for themselves and try my best to teach them of consequences and then to have faith in them to live their lives. I’m sure it’s easier to say now but if I ever found out a child of mine was having a relationship with a much older adult, I’d probably try to stop it but I’d never involve the police, but I hope I’ll be able to look and care more about trying to find out why they have the need to seek that kind of attention and fulfillment from a person that far out of their peers and to truly help my child as opposed to just alienate them by trying to reign over them saying I own them until they leave my house.
My parents had a few times where they could let me choose to follow my course of actions and probably reach failure (which sort of happened, but taught me alot from start to the end) or attempt to hard intervene, which if they would have then, i would have shut them out of my life probably forever.
You just can’t control your childrens’ choice of relationships, attempting to do so by force will just lead to alienation.
@darkened:
You have got to be kidding. You would give a 14 year old child the opportunity to decide to put their own life in jeopardy, and play a part in destroying other lives?
@Steel_Pelican:
You entirely missed my point earlier, this is a clear example of the adult using his position as a respected member of a church, that is supposed to be an example of model citizen and morality coercing a youth into acts they would almost for all certainty not have done on their own.
That is a far cry from a 14 yearold girl that cares so much about having new pair of shoes or some shiny jewelry she would readily sell her body as a means to get it.
@Celticlady:
Well I think pretty much the only person arguing that was darkened who just may have some sort of ulterior motive. As I mentioned previously at 20, 25, 30 and on you can still have those regrettable “hook ups” because you didn’t fully understand what you were getting yourself into. Biologically with pregnancy and STD risks (despite what some people will annoyingly argue) I have no doubt that they fully understand. Emotionally however is something completely different.
@darkened: ‘Ageism’ only applies when talking about ADULTS of differing ages. Children are certainly not the same as adults, and likening that to racism is absolutely ludicrous.
Yes, of course, having arbitrary cut-off ages for things like voting, driving, drinking, and sexual consent may not be a perfect solution, but it’s a valid solution, the best solution available, and there is no reason to change it.
Many of us might have agreed with some of your points as teenagers, but as most of us became adults we outgrew the angry-young man against the hypocritical world dogma.
@tk427: The military is already attempting to pre-recruit students of that age.
@MickeyMoo: 14 is the age of consent in Canada. They seem to think it’s old enough. I wouldn’t sleep with a 14-year-old either, but my point is just that this concept of “old enough” is highly dependent on culture.
@darkened: “Obviously a person that hasn’t fully reached puberty can in no way consent due to the entire lack of physical make up for the act.”
So a 30-year-old person who never went through puberty due to a hormonal problem is incapable of consenting to sexual activity?
Wow thats a shocker a supposed “religious” person who is really a sick and twisted fuck! Hmm that never happens must be a one time occurence. I always thought really hard core christians were jut hiding the sickness they have and trying to impose thier messed up morality on others.
@darkened: “Actually it does equal that, picking some arbitrary characteristic to define a person and then segregate and limit their rights is exactly that.”
Here’s the difference, darkened: Picking an ARBITRARY characteristic, such as skin color, is indeed morally indefensible.
However, picking a characteristic that does in fact have some bearing on the issue at hand IS morally (and legally) defensible. So, for example, Hollywood producers don’t get sued for only auditioning white men to play Shakespeare. But more to the point, children are qualitatively different from adults. It’s not an arbitrary differentiation; children are not capable of caring for themselves without adult assistance. Where we draw the specific LINE between children and adults is at least somewhat arbitrary, but the fact that we differentiate between them is NOT arbitrary and IS morally defensible.
Now, each situation should be considered individually when we are making distinctions between two groups based on single characteristics (is youth an important differentiating factor for free speech rights?), but it’s not a morally indefensible position, and it’s not equivalent to racism.
@Eyebrows McGee: “So, for example, Hollywood producers don’t get sued for only auditioning white men to play Shakespeare.”***
***I meant play the role of Shakespeare in a movie. I just realized that could be read to mean acting in any Shakespeare.
He was just the first dead white male I thought of. Similarly, nobody gets sued for auditioning only black men to play Ray Charles.
@Eyebrows McGee: I agree a child is not an adult, but post adolescents are fully adults lacking only in experience and I feel they should be treated in a sense that fosters responsibility in their actions, not that they have a free reign to do anything they can get away with short of murder and highway robbery until they hit the magic age of 18.
Making a predetermination on that is as fair as making one on being blind, it is no longer arbitrary it is a matter of fact.
@Steel_Pelican: “Adolescents do have that right.”
Actually, that’s not true. It is illegal for minors to have sex, even with each other. I recall hearing of a 15 year old charged with statutory rape for having sex with his 14 year old girlfriend. Pretty effed up…she wasn’t charged with anything.
@Eyebrows McGee: That’s a good question, I do not have the medical insight to answer on whether that would qualify as sexual abuse as having sex with a person in the normal age bracket of prepubescence is irrefutably sexual abuse.
@youbastid: And in Utah (queue jokes) a 13 yearold female was found guilty of sexually molesting her 12 year old boyfriend after they found out she was pregnant by him. And she may even have to be a registered sex offender.
Another great example is a cop that was trolling the interwebs to pick up sex offenders found a 15 y/o girl that liked to strip on her webcam for strangers and she was arrested for making child pornography… of herself.
@darkened:
I didn’t ask what the military is attempting, I was asking you.
@tk427: If it was that important to them that they were able to accelerate their education and physical demands of them to the point where they could succeed, sure. I’d never agree to that forced upon a person like it is done to many youth in Africa, some far younger than that.
@darkened: Woody Allen???!! would you send me your autograph?
What an interesting question. Is a 14 year old able to fully comprehend and make decisions of an adult nature?
If we were back in the times of the 70′s or early 80′s, I would have to say no. But nowadays, kids are maturing faster and faster. Blame it on society and the culture. For that reason, I believe that 14 year olds are capable of fully understanding their actions and the ramifications of their actions. Not just sexual, but everything. 14 year olds should be tried as adults when the commit heinous crimes. In the case of those 2 14 year old girls, they knew damn well what those guys wanted and they went along with it. No one is that naive. No one. And I bet that they will be crying out that they were taken advantage of, yaddi yaddi yaddah.
But, I would throw them in jail to.
Of course I am not condoning that adults should look for an underage teen for sex. My point is that yes, at 14, you are capable of making of making adult decisions.
@Steel_Pelican:
“Secondly, as anyone who has lived through that period will tell you, the difference in life experience and maturity between a 14-year-old and an 18-year-old is HUGE. Even with a fully-developed, adult brain, the accumulated life experience of most”
Lets see now…
14 year old: video games, eat food, mooch off parents, live at home, doesn’t work
18 year old: video games, eat food, mooch off parents, live at home, doesn’t work
I don’t see much difference in the maturity level between the 2
@spinachdip: 100 years ago (and in parts of rural Missouri and Utah today) 13 year olds were married off and expected to go make a life. If you’re suggesting that a 14 year old doesn’t have the mental capability now that they had 100 years ago, isn’t that an argument in favor of devolution?
I’m not saying that 14 year olds are geniuses. But, I’ve heard a million stories about all kinds of teenaged nuttiness coming out of the most overprotective homes. That said, I’m not saying you should buy your eight year old porn, but at some point, real conversations about the real world might spare a lot of people a lot of misery. Far better that than home schooling and setting someone loose in college to discover the world of social interactions between people with differing view points and different backgrounds.
PS- I went to public schools in New York City. And I grew up to have a Masters degree from a top school, a steady job with good income and benefits, and relatively few hangups and life disasters. And I don’t think these things are unrelated. Oh, and I looked at the David without wanting to break off his man-junk like all the statues at the Vatican. Go figure.
@stinkingbob: ignorant…plain and simple…you must be a shining example of why safety scissors were invented
The bigger question suggested by the discussion (total thread hijack by Darkened, not complaining, just observing) is:
Which is more outrageous:
#1 – 14 year old girls, selling themselves for $20 so they can run from home
or
#2 – Alleged sexual censors who, while not editing nudity and curse words out of hollywood movies, pay to have sex with barely pubescent minors.
The obvious answer is that #1 is the most outrageous. And that should be surprising, although with the frequency of anti-fornicators turning out to be big fornicators (generally of the 1-2 sigma plus deviation variety), #2 may be outrageous, but it’s miles from surprising anymore. Hell, I’d be more surprised by an anti-fornicator who has a stable, happy marriage with no drugs, no whips, no children, no sheep, no underlings, no bathroom stalls, and really nothing too far out of the vanilla bland. Now that would be surprising.
I think he looks very cute. I’d hit it.
Given that this is Utah, do you think they’ll get the heftier prison term for the porn, or for the child molestation?
@stinkingbob: Thinking back on your own teen years, you don’t see any difference between the person you were at 14 and the person you were at 18?
@braindesign:
*snort*
must…
stop…
laughing!
*gasp*
need…
oxygen!
This story sounds a lot like that of Rupert Murdoch, spewing extreme right wing “pro-christian” stuff on FAUX and then supplying porn channels to customers on cable systems.
The ones preaching the 12th century “morality” are so often the ones with their pubics in public. Ever hear the news story about a fundy christian whose kiddie porn screen saver came up during a public presentation? In front of other christians?
There are so many cases of this sort of sordid hypocrisy that you lose count.
The age of consent in Japan is 13 and Canada is 14 fyi. But then both countries provide adequate sex education so its not an issue. 147 children died by violence in our nation’s capital in 2007 though.
Holy cow some people are stupid. If a 14 year old do not know all about sex, and it’s pros and cons at that age, then their parents have FAILED! And yes, I am a parent.
Fact is, everybody are still kids until they hit 30, once that happens, you really start to experience and explore all life have to offer.
Some states, like my own, the age of consent is 16. I was active at 14. The point is, a child (29 and younger) with adequate education, can make their decisions as young as 9.
Not all kids are retarded …
The police chief for our local town got caught having sex with a 14 year old girl once. Everyone knew that she was 14 and everyone in school with her knew that she was “like a doorknob” if you know what I mean.
When he got caught, he said “I thought she was older than 14.”
I think that in some cases maybe there should not be a law banning in right off the bat, but you should have to prove consent.
Maybe go so far as the “love Contract” on the Chappelle Show.