A little more than a year after one of the recruiters for the Scottsdale-based porn website Backroom Casting Couch was arrested on child-pornography charges, another associate of the website has gotten himself in trouble with law enforcement.
Kevin Kelsch, 30, was arrested in Paradise Valley in late August after his ex-girlfriend told police she discovered that Kelsch had been secretly recording the two of them having sex.
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We don't know what exactly Kelsch's role is with Backroom Casting Couch, although he's rumored to be a recruiter. Based on a Paradise Valley police report obtained by New Times, there's a clear connection between Kelsch, the website, and the website's "star," Eric Whittaker.
Kelsch did not deny to New Times that he was a Backroom Casting Couch recruiter, instead giving us Whittaker's personal e-mail address and telling us to direct any questions about the website to him.
Whittaker did not respond to New Times' e-mail.
Also take note of the following "tweet" sent by Kelsch. Using the name of his "modeling" company, Hexed Media, Kelsch directed this since-deleted "tweet" at Whittaker to say "#imakethemagichappen," in regards to landing the latest Backroom Casting Couch model from Arizona State University.
Kelsch was also living with a guy named "Eric," according to the police report, although his last name is redacted in that section. According to the report, either "Eric" or their other roommate eventually kicked Kelsch out of the house before going to drug rehab.
The report states that the alleged victim in this case, a 19-year-old woman, received text messages saying that Kelsch had set up hidden cameras in the house, and had secretly recorded the two of them having sex.
The girl's father told police that Kelsch owns a porn website, but the name of that website is redacted from the report.
The report also states that a detective asked the sergeant investigating the case to search the website for any evidence of this girl being on there.
"I then searched the website [redacted]," the report says. "This website states that they trick women into thinking they are auditioning for jobs in the pornography industry and get them to have sex on camera. This is a paid/subscriber site but offers free sample pictures and short videos."
Sound familiar?
"It was apparent from the videos that although the women may have been tricked into thinking they were auditioning for a job, they clearly knew they were being recorded as the camera was prominent in the videos," the police report states. "These videos also appear to take place in an office, and not a residence."
The alleged victim in question was not featured on the website, according to the report.
The woman also provided a statement to police, saying that she actually received a still picture from the video of herself, and also received another photo of her friend being recorded by the secret video camera.
She said that it all made sense as to why Kelsch would insist that they had sex in a specific spot in his room, as the spy camera was disguised as some sort of charger that was plugged into the wall.
"Kevin knew that I was completely against pornography & that I did not approve of his job & would never participate in anything like that," she wrote.
After telling Kelsch that she was going to report him for having the secretly recorded videos of her and other girls, Kelsch offered her $10,000, according to her statement. She reiterated that she never consented to doing anything with Kelsch on video.
Court documents filed by police contend that this $10,000 was in exchange for the woman not reporting this to the cops.
A Paradise Valley police spokesman tells New Times that prosecutors sent the case back to police at some point after Kelsch's arrest. That means charges haven't officially been filed against Kelsch, but police say the case will be resubmitted.
Kelsch was booked into jail on a felony charge of unlawful recording after his arrest on August 23.
