I will continually adjust this timeline for new or changing information:
3/27/2012: Mr. Marcus performs in a scene with Krissy Lynn for Bang Bros.’ Monsters of Cock. www.data18.com/content/update_91371.html His genitals don’t feature the rash we would see later in his scene with Lylith Lavey.
May, 2012: performer Chastity Lynn calls out Marcus on set for having open sores and refuses to work with him
6/12/12: TTS begins testing for syphilis as part of its basic panel of tests
6/13/12: Mr. Marcus claims in an interview with Nica Noelle that he received a clean bill of health from Talent Testing Services
6/15/12: Marcus learns that he’s lost a contract with a male enhancement product and returns to work
6/27/12: Photos reveal that Marcus in Stage 2 of Syphilis works with Lylith Lavey on a Bang Bros. shoot
7/9/12: Orgy Masters is released by Jules Jordan. This was the shoot in which Chrissy Lynn called out Mr. Marcus. It lists a date of production as 6/6/12.
7/10/12: Manwin announces that it will be accepting test results from TTS. It’s also announced that adult entertainers performing in scenes commissioned for Manwin websites are obliged to provide health tests that are no older than 15 days. In cases where a performer works for any of the company’s brands multiple times in a 30-day period, Manwin will pay for all additional tests, required due to the 15-day testing window.
7/11/12: Marcus, feeling sick goes to his personal physician
7/12/12: Marcus learns that he’s tested positive for Syphilis
7/13/12: He’s given a penicillin shot and told to abstain from sex from 7 to 10 days
7/21/12: Marcus goes for his monthly check up to TTS services
7/23/12: He gets the results back; he shows reactive for Syphilis; Marcus cancels a shoot that he had scheduled; Marcus says he was dismayed that there was no doctor at TTS to talk to and was upset that he was not offered any aftercare or asked about his recent sexual history in order to properly notify performers until his final visit to the Northridge, Calif. facility.
7/24/12: Marcus returns to work and shoots a scene; according to Marcus, the producer of that particular shoot only asked to see “proof” of a test, rather than a full paper/digital copy. Taking advantage of the situation, Mr. Marcus says he showed the producer a copy of the results on his cell phone, but admits to hiding the part that showed that he tested positive for syphilis. Marcus later says he does not believe working on July 24, 11 days after treatment, was a mistake.
7/24/2012: Manwin sets up a Performer Subsidy Fund in which active performers participating in APHSS will receive a monthly subsidy to help defray the cost of STI testing.
The Fund is costing Manwin $50,000 a month in contributions through the end of the year and is being set up through the Free Speech Coalition’s APHSS program. Even if a performer doesn’t work for a Manwin production, he/she will be entitled to a sum equal to the average price of an industry-standard performer’s test panel which is about $120.
The pilot program will be in place by Aug. 1. The first checks go out in early September. and Manwin is contributing $50,000 monthly to the program through the rest of the year.
8/1/12 to 8/7/12: Mr. Marcus returns to TTS and is told his “numbers are still there”; Marcus alleges that a TTS clinician told him that the part of his test that shows “reactive or non-reactive” for syphilis could be removed from his test “because it’s always going to be there.”
8/7/12: It’s on this date that Marcus is now claiming a TTS employee helped him alter his test results.
8/7/12: Marcus produces altered test results and works for Blazing Bucks with talent from L.A. Direct; On the TTS test dated July 21, Marcus folded the test in such a way that the syphilis portion was obscured, photocopied it, and presented it to the Blazing Bucks director. However Marcus in his interview with Nica Noelle is claiming he cancelled his shoot.
8/7/2012: Manwin said it won’t accept STI test results originating from Talent Testing Services. In a statement, Manwin said it hoped to continue discussions with TTS “to come to an agreement that will allow them to work together.”
8/8/12: Between July 24th and August 8th Marcus works a total of three times
8/8/12: Attorney Michael Fattorosi begins tweeting that syphilis outbreak in Europe is landing in the US
8/8/12: AVN receives a tip from a “reliable source” with knowledge of adult video production in Europe. The source tells AVN there is currently an outbreak of syphilis in Budapest. AVN corroborates the tip with Sandy’s Models and Brill Babes, two of the biggest modeling agencies in the Hungarian capital. The infection is widespread enough that all production has been put on hold in Budapest until Aug. 21. The number of infections is put at 14 females and 4 males.
“There is some serious situation here in Budapest,” Cameron of Sandy’s Models told AVN. “Yesterday the Labor [department] sent a warning e-mail that they found that syphillis-infected people’s number dramatically increased.”
8/9/12: Talent Testing Service said it won’t participate in the APHSS program because the manual entry for inputting performer data by participating facilities is “unsafe.”
Sixto Pacheco, president and CEO of TTS said that over time it became evident that TTS’ initial position of “not participating in the Manwin/FSC/APHSS mechanism for testing/reporting is the correct one.”
8/15/12: Mark Blazing from Blazing Bucks catches the discrepancies; Blazing calls Marcus telling him “‘This test doesn’t look right. Do you have another version of it?’ Marcus replies, “Well, I do.’ Blazing says, “Marcus I need another test from you. Can you give me another test? This is not right. I gotta let somebody know that you altered this test. It looks altered. It doesn’t look right. I’m gonna get Derek [Hay] on the phone.” Derek Hay confronts Marcus with the evidence.
8/16/12: XBiz reports that a male talent worked three times with an altered test; it turns out to be Marcus; the Blazing Bucks episode is reported; Derek Hay and Shy Love furnish details. Marcus is removed from Shy Love’s talent roster.
8/18/12: A worker genealogy is initiated by APHSS
8/22/12 Marcus gives a press conference in which he makes allegations that a TTS employee helped him change results
8/22/12: Sixto Pacheco vehemently denies any of his employees had a hand in changing Marcus’ tests
8/22/12: Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, reports there are five cases of syphilis and that the number will grow.
8/22/12: Joanne Cachapero from Free Speech announces on the Inside the Industry Show that there’s only two syphilis cases that APHSS is aware of.
8/23/12: Mark Blazing from Blazing Bucks issues a statement; OverBoard Video, the production arm for BlazingBucks stops all production
8/23/12: TTS further elaborates on the allegations made by Marcus
8/27/12: Mr. Marcus interviews with The Daily Beast telling them he began having Stage 2 symptoms.
He also tells them he has no clue how he was infected: “You look over your partners. It’s a mystery game. It’s really hard especially for me, a performer in the adult industry for 18 years, I mean, you have a lot of partners. Some of these girls, they come and they go. They don’t necessarily stick around. You may work with them once, but it doesn’t mean you’re going to work with them again. At some point, it became pointless. I know we are trying to now to find out who’s who and what’s what. But I can’t go backwards.”
8/27/12: Lylith Lavey assures her followers on Twitter that she had tested negative for STIs twice since that 6/27/12 scene with Marcus and she also has been taking “precautionary meds.”
8/28/12: Mr. Marcus interviews with SF Weekly; In hindsight he says he needed the money and performed but now absolves TTS of any complicity: “It was all me, no one else helped.”
8/28/12: Marcus tells XBiz his remarks to SF Weekly were taken out of context and that the interview was biased and that he was mis-quoted.
8/29/12: APHHS announces that nearly 300 porn performers have been tested and treated for syphilis. These include performers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Fort Lauderdale, FL and other locations nationwide, says APHSS.
8/29/12: APHSS in a press release states that their doctors after “continued and exhaustive research” discovered a new test for syphilis — Treponemal EIA. This state-of-the-art test significantly shortens the window for syphilis testing from 90 days to 14 days. This new test is FDA approved and has 99-100 percent levels of sensitivity and specificity, APHSS said. Only one problem the test has been around since 2005.
8/29/12: FSC’s Joanne Cachapero issues a statement to the LA Weekly that porn will be back in production by the weekend.
8/29/12: Diane Duke in a revised statement attributes the Treponemal EIA testing protocol to the Phoenix Bio-tech Corporation.
According to Duke, it’s FDA approved as a confirmatory diagnostic test for syphilis and has 99-100% levels of sensitivity and specificity. Says Duke: performers who have not had the treatment, the waiting time to begin performing has just been reduced from 90 days to 14 days. Performers who have already received a preventative shot or prescription are clear to work, with a clean panel, 10 days after receiving treatment.
8/30/12: Veteran performer jessica drake writes an article on her blog decrying the industry’s greed in handling the syphilis outbreak.
8/31/12: Diane Duke is Named CEO of Free Speech Coalition. Her contract is renewed through 2015.
8/31/12: Performer Kora Peters announced that she’s contacted the Center for Disease Control to get them involved.
9/1/12: Mr. Marcus interviews with Vibe.com. Marcus says he will begin using his website to tell his story. In the same Vibe.com interview, former star and porn director Diane DeVoe states: “People are still shooting movies. And you can print that. This is a loose association of rebels. They can’t always afford to take two weeks off of work. Anytime you show up to work, just like a policeman or a fireman, you are saying an x amount of money is worth my health and safety.”
DeVoe also believes Mr. Marcus will most likely be blacklisted from the porn business. She points out that the simmering racism that has become par-for-the-course in the XXX-rated film world has been turned up to 11 following the syphilis scare. “If you go on Twitter, that’s already begun. You see certain women saying, ‘That’s why I don’t do interracial.’ And other women are saying, ‘I don’t think I’m going to do interracial anymore.’”
9/2/12: XBiz interviews a number of people from the business. While owners appeared to be on the side of FSC/APHSS, respected performer and industry icon Tom Byron reveals that industry talent agents have been fining performers who refused to work during the moratorium. Byron, who’s called for Marcus to retire, is also of the opinion that the syphilis outbreak couldn’t have been handled any worse than what it was. Immoral Productions proprietor Dan Leal believes that Diane Duke & Co. botched Operation Syphilis.
“The supposed leaders in the adult industry who jumped the gun and tried to defend the actions of someone who has jeopardized the health of hundreds of performers need to step down,” says Leal.
9/4/12: Nica Noelle’s interview with Mr. Marcus is published by XBiz. More contradictions surface.
9/6/12: TTS disputes statement made by Mr. Marcus to Nica Noelle that he tested at TTS June 13. TTS states: “We have list of all his testing…he did not test with us in June, period.”