Wilkes Barre, Pa- Authorities continued Sunday to probe the murder of a Dallas Township man and the intentional burning of his home.

Carol Crane, spokeswoman for Luzerne County District Attorney David Lupas, described the investigation to find out who killed 44-year-old Bryan C. Kocis as “aggressive.”

Police are conducting interviews, but they are also hoping people will step forward with clues.

“We’re still asking anyone who might have seen something out of the ordinary to call state police,” Crane said.

Fire crews responding to a call at 60 Midland Drive around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday found the house ablaze and the body of a man, later identified as Kocis, inside. He had been fatally stabbed before the fire was set, police said.

Since then, Kocis’ murder has received attention in the mainstream media, and made headlines on gay news and adult industry Web sites and blogs from New York to New Zealand.

Kocis, who ran “Cobra Video,” a nationwide adult business from his home since 2001, was known for his X-rated videos featuring young men — and for a legal battle with one of his stars.

Kocis filed a federal suit in California against Sean Lockhart in February 2006. The suit was related to Lockhart’s age — he was allegedly 17 when he made films for Cobra Video — and use of his name and image.

A hearing to settle it was scheduled for Feb. 14.

Jason Sechrest posted this on Saturday on www.jasoncurious.com: Yesterday afternoon, I was mulling over the murder of Cobra Video owner Bryan Kocis with a mutual friend of mine and Brent Corrigan’s. Within minutes of bringing up the topic and the obvious motives at hand, the nameless pal began rattling off numerous instances where Brent’s boyfriend and business partner, Grant, had mentioned wanting to “get rid” of Bryan, going so far as to ask said friend if he knew any “cleaners.” “It was a topic of discussion a lot when I was hanging out over there,” he told me, “and Brent would get upset and ask him not to talk about stuff like that in front of people.”

And as he detailed this story to me, I rolled my eyes thinking to myself, “And so the idle rumors and accusations begin.”

Now, is this unnamed and so-called “friend” just trying to stir the stereotypically gay pot full of drama or is he truly a concerned party? Who can say? But one thing is certain. He’s going to be only the first of many with similar stories, be they conjured or authentic.

One Constant Reader left a comment on the story reminding us of how I have referred to Brent Corrigan as Catherine Tramell, Sharon Stone’s character in Basic Instinct, consistently for the past two years. This is true. I have. He has every quality that made her one of the move lovable villains in cinematic history: He’s overtly sexual, frighteningly intelligent, highly manipulative and he has an addiction to risk in seeing how much he can get away with. And yet, like Catherine, we root for him every time!

Suddenly Bryan Kocis is found dead in his home, the victim of multiple stab wounds.

Now I think that Constant Reader is just waiting for the papers to report that the weapon was an ice pick.

I have become relatively close with Brent and Grant over the past year or so and I would even go so far as to call them friends. I wouldn’t like to think that either of them would ever be capable of involvement in such a crime. But I also know that when I take my personal feelings for the two of them out of the equation and look at this on paper, it doesn’t look good for them and that worries me.

It doesn’t look good at all, in fact.

Aside from the obvious factors being the lawsuit against Brent Corrigan and the February court date, what’s most interesting to me is that Brent and Grant are now claiming they had reached a mutually beneficial settlement with Bryan that would even involve them all working together. Perfect alibi and smoking gun, right? But Corrigan told me by phone Thursday, “He knows a lot about the video production end of things and I was looking forward to putting all of this behind us and working together in the future.”

Now a settlement I can understand. But working together? With a convicted child molestor? Brent Corrigan has become the poster boy to fight against everything Bryan Kocis. And now he tells me he was going to work with him again? If Brent was truly taken advantage of and as damaged by the Cobra experience as he has repeatedly claimed, how could he in good conscience work with him again?

Something smells rotten.

Still, Kocis had pleaded guilty to molesting underage boys in the past. It could have been any number of those boys who came back seeking revenge upon him. Or even perhaps one of their fathers, as the papers are claiming the murderer was likely male between the ages of 30 and 40. As another one of my friends put it, “You fuck with the farmer’s son in Dallas Township and the farmer’s probably gonna come after you with an axe!”

So there’s any number of scenarios here, despite a boat load of motives and things not adding up over at the Corrigan residence in San Diego.

Whatever the case may be, I hope they find Kocis’s murderer fast for the sake of Brent and Grant’s reputations and career.

Because even in Bryan’s death, he’s still managing to bring harm Brent’s name.