The story broke first on Gawker
Apparently the story broke because of social network videos of an indoor firing range and gunshots inside the armory, when police entered they got Peter for cocaine possession and delaying arrest. Adrian Chen writes on Gawker:
Kink CEO Peter Acworth, 42, was arrested at 8:24 p.m. on February 1st and charged with one count of cocaine possession and one count of delaying arrest, according to Albie Esparaza, a San Francisco Police Department Public-Information Officer. Police were initially sent to Kink.com’s massive, $14.5 million studio/dungeon in the old San Francisco Armory at 1800 Mission St. after a concerned citizen reported seeing a video on the internet of men firing guns inside the premises, Exsparaza said. Joshua Carlberg, 40, was also arrested and charged with delaying arrest.
“Basically it stemmed from social media,” Esparaza said. “Someone posted a video online and this person reported it to the police, and they located an indoor shooting range, sort of a makeshift.” Esparaza said police did not find enough evidence for fire-arms-related charges, though the investigation is still open. It’s unclear what video spurred the investigation, or what fetish it might have spoken to. One Kink performer I talked to said that for all the weird stuff Kink puts out, he’d never heard of videos involving live firearms. Acworth is typically fastidious about keeping his torture porn this side of the law, the performer said.
This one is a shocker. I can say that there is an old indoor firing range (used by the original tenants, the US Military) in the Armory but I hadn’t heard of Peter using it for that purpose. I knew that Peter liked to party but him having cocaine on the premises surprises me, I always got the impression that he liked booze and cigars — not Peruvian nose powder. It will be interesting as to how this plays out in court with Peter possibly not being a US Citizen (he was born in the UK).
Porn indusrty has meet the enemy and it is self.
Now in theory since they got him for cocaine at kink headquarters.Could they seize his business?
If he were brought up on federal charges, yes. I don’t know if California has a drug seizure law or not. If it is simple possession usually property is not seized but if it turns out to be a distribution charge Peter would be in big trouble and seizure would be a distinct possibility. Since Peter does not have a prior criminal record this will probably be plea-bargained down to the resisting arrest charge but if he is not a US citizen he would face deportation and the INS won’t give a damn about his $100 million plus business and the tens of millions of dollars his businesses (he has more than just Kink) have produced in tax revenue for the federal government every year for at least ten years now.
Does anyone want to bet that this is perhaps the first brick falling out of that wall? I know he’s referred to as the lesser site, but Adult FYI had a pretty keen observation a few weeks ago about Kink.com – Max Hardcore and Rob Black went to jail for less extreme material. The Justice Department may not have the stomach for the prosecution these days.
Gene and I trade barbs but we also trade emails from time to time and we agree more than we disagree and I do agree with him on this one, Kink tries to cover themselves by making it clear on camera that everything is consensual but this kind of thing can certainly be a thread that could unravel things for them.
True. This could take down the competition (Intersec) as well if the DOJ gets a hair up its ass. If you think Kink’s material is hardcore I invite you to take a look at Intersec’s previews — their scenes are twice as hardcore as Kink’s and other than Matt Williams they don’t tack on interviews to verify everything is above board to protect themselves. Intersec was based in Brooklyn, NY for years then they moved to Manhattan, NY and then cross country to Oakland, CA all within about three months time. That makes me wonder if the NY authorities were getting ready to trump up state obscenity (or even felony assault) charges. I do bet that playing by PD’s (the owner of Intersec) rules with submissives would be fun while it lasted — there are no rules to speak of other than honor a safe-word call and don’t put her in the hospital or kill her. PD used to own Insex and had to give it up in 2005 after he came within a hair’s breadth of obscenity and/or felony assault charges for his sites then. Personally if it is consensual I don’t have a problem with BDSM, I am even into it myself. Unfortunately our government’s leaders don’t feel likewise.
On a lightly related note professors with doctorates must be hard-wired to be into BDSM as dominants. PD was a professor at Carnagie Mellon, Peter Acworth almost became a professor, Daniel Riedel (formerly the CTO of Kink) had the credentials to be a professor IIRC (his speciality was hanging women by hooks piercing the skin — fortunately Kink did not allow him to direct such scenes for them). There were other professors I knew that were into BDSM to varying degrees when I was at the university, none of whom will be named nor will I name the university here, I respect people’s privacy until they don’t return the favor (such as Donkey Long and Monica Foster’s blatant violation of porn performers privacy, they can go fuck an HIV positive tranny), forge a VD test in order to hide infection (looking at Marc Wallice and Mr. Marcus, those two can go fuck each other up the ass sans condom) or unless they voluntarily make it public like PD (his legal name will not be posted here although it is out there to find), Peter and Daniel. I wonder what the ratio of kinky to not kinky was at NASA (since you worked there) with all those doctorate holding employees roaming the halls. Even outside university I have noticed that kinky people tend to be wealthier and of higher social stature than the non kinky in general. That observation has interested me for a long time.
Mike; U just nailed the reason why the FSC isn’t getting anything done at those board meetings, Too much sniffing that coke and Dianne is probably hitting the glass pipe too!!
Yes, that Peruvian nose candy can be really distracting to those that partake. I personally won’t allow said nose candy within ten miles of me — I don’t need the trouble or the addiction. However, I doubt the board uses cocaine together on FSC premises. Diane might snort but she does not have the distinct features of a freebaser (thin, gaunt body and sores on her face and body) or an IV user (no “track marks” on her arms) so I doubt she is hitting the glass pipe or needle. Peter Acworth doesn’t have these features either (he updates his Google + frequently and many recent pictures of him are on it to check for this) so I suspect he is just snorting as well.
Here some thing about story not being looked at alot. That fact story take place in San Francisco that they went after Peter Acworth only after useing tip that he do some thing wrong from youtube video. If realy is this easy to snitch some out to california police deparment on assumptions that doing some wrong. Than porn indusrty gone be in real trouble from those snitch out in los angeles for refuse use condoms porn movies.
Only thing right now FSC seem be gone done right now refuse disclose campaign finance disclosures.