I will continually adjust this timeline for new or changing information:
3/2/2012: An important date because Mr. Marcus is believed to have worked with a Chicago stripper who allegedly gave him Syphilis
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
6/24/2012: Mr. Marcus works with Lylith Lavey on a Bang Bros. shoot; the infamous pictures of Lavey engulfing his genitals are published all over the Internet. The photos are subsequently yanked. Lavey was repped by 101 Modeling.
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.
7/26/2012: Works on a shoot that forms the basis of a police complaint filed against him by two female porn performers.
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.
September, 2012: Lylith Lavey files a lawsuit against Mr. Marcus stemming from the scene they did together 6/24/2012
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.”
9/13/2012: Female performers mysteriously quit the business. I write: “The industry is still puzzling over the sudden departure of Remy LaCroix. Judging from all the buzz, LaCroix, a Spiegler girl, was a shoe-in for a Performer of the Year nomination as well as Best New Starlet.
LaCroix was very popular and well liked, then all of a sudden she made an announcement, online, the end of June that she was retiring from the business.
LaCroix wrote: “I’m gracefully backing out of porn. There’s a multitude of reasons to give now, but the bottom line is that it just doesn’t feel right anymore… physically, mentally, or emotionally.”
“People got wondering why LaCroix would quit out of the blue. Was there more to it?
“LaCroix goes on to thank her agent Marc Spiegler for the support she had received. The question begs, did Marcus and LaCroix work together? I know they’re in the cast of Anal Size My Wife 3 from West Coast Productions, one of LaCroix’s last movies, but they were paired with different partners. At least on camera.
“For the record, Mr. Marcus does Angelina Valentine, and I would be having her ass checked out, just to be on the safe side.
“Curiously, right after LaCroix’s departure two other Spiegler girls made career altering moves.
“Andy San Dimas and Katrina Rose both announced that they would only be doing g/g scenes.
“Both women had very strong careers then all of a sudden took, at least for them, a giant step backward. Rose, in particular, has been particularly critical of Marcus using her Twitter account to vent her spleen about the way he handled his situation. Was there something very personal going on there?
“Just as that drama was unfolding, Leilani Leeane and Lia Lor created more by announcing that they were leaving Spiegler for Derek Hay of La Direct models.
“Relative to the Marcus timeline, the nagging question about San Dimas and Rose points to that controversial orgy in which Chastity Lynn called out Mr. Marcus for having open sores.
“Lynn refused to work with Marcus that day. But, lo and behold, San Dimas and Kristina Rose participated in that scene. Orgies being what they are, San Dimas and Rose must have had sexual contact with Marcus.
“The finished product was titled Orgy Masters. The movie is on the Jules Jordan label. Alexander DeVoe is credited as director and besides Lynn, San Dimas and Rose, others in the cast are Mr Pete, Mr Marcus, Lexington Steele, London Keyes, Prince Yahshua, Juelz Ventura, Leilani Leeanne, Tiffany Doll, and Lola James.
“Call it another coincidence, but soon after that movie is when Leilani Leeane made her decision to leave Spiegler. London Keyes, another Spiegler girl from that shoot, however remains on the agency roster. Chastity Lynn, by the way, is also another Spiegler girl as is Juelz Ventura.
“For the conspiracy minded, the departure of two of Digital Playground’s contract stars right in the middle of this timeline makes you now wonder if they had been scared for their lives.
Bibi Jones announces: “The earlier I get out of this industry the better it’s going to be.”
Riley Steele soon followed with a statement of her own. Both ladies said they had been promised a lot.
10/29/2012: Mr. Marcus served with the Lylith Lavey lawsuit
11/4/2012: Release date of Racially Motivated 4 from Jules Jordan featuring a scene between Mr. Marcus and Alex Chance
11/6/2012: Measure B is passed. It’s felt that the Mr. Marcus scandal had a lot to do with that.
1/21/2013: Attorney Paul Cambria is interviewd by The Daily Beast. Cambria is asked these questions about Mr. Marcus:
TDB: Very recently, a performer, Mr. Marcus, easily circumvented the industry testing and worked with syphilis. Wouldn’t that suggest the testing system is not particularly effective and therefore unacceptable?
PC: The problem with that is there is no demonstration that he contracted it in the adult business instead of in his private life.
TDB: Nonetheless he worked in the business while he was positive for syphilis without condoms.
PC: But he was tested and it was detected during his adult performance.
TDB: But he altered his test and kept on working without a condom. Doesn’t that say clearly testing isn’t enough?
PC: Anyone can commit a crime. And, if you commit a crime we’re stuck with that. That happens. But that doesn’t scrap the whole system, because one person committed a crime.
TDB: Is it a crime to alter a test in a voluntary system?
PC: I think so. It is a voluntary system with an agreement and with a health hazard. I think you can argue it is a form of assault or battery when you intentionally infect someone with a disease and you lie about it. But that is besides our point. He could agree to wear a condom and in the middle of it, pull the condom off and put his dick in this girl. He could do that too.
2/19/2013: On Jessica Bangkok’s radio show, Mr. Marcus has sex on air with a performer named Alexandra Smith
2/20/2013: Lylith Lavey lawsuit assigned to a mediator
2/25/2013: Lisa Ann@thereallisaann tweets: I have some news that is so absolutely shocking I have been just trying to accept it before I share it, this will blow Your Mind…
…So you all know that I have a Radio Show on Radio Sex, used to be Spice Radio, is Owned by Manwin and resides in the PlayBoy Building..
…Let me preface with.. I love doing my Radio Show, I love what it offers to the New Girls who want to Feature Dance etc….
…Last Tuesday night, the show after mine, with the same program director as mine, decided to “Play God” with the destiny of Radio Sex. We all know the Mr Marcus Situation…
…We also know the Playboy Building and Manwin have NO Permits for LIVE sex and did not check tests. I have pulled some photos that I will send later, but no one will let me know who the girl was, as her head is removed from the images.
2/28/2013: Mr.Marcus @akaMrMarcus Tweeted the following: “Just left the gym. Put in 2 hours of lifting. About to fuck these haters with pure strength.” One must assume Marcus is talking about the fallout created by his appearance on Jessica Bangkok’s show – one which cost Bangkok her job.
3/1/2013: TMZ reports that Jessica Bangkok got fired for letting Mr. Marcus have sex on her radio show with a performer named Alexandra Smith. The story says Bangkok along with Debi Diamond and Nicki Hunter got the hook after the channel’s owner [Manwin] launched an investigation into Jessica’s show, “Real Life Stories.”
Reports TMZ: “The honchos at the radio station were livid that Jessica knew of Mr. Marcus’ history yet let him do the dirty in studio. During their investigation, the honchos also discovered Debi and Nicki were doing sexual things on the air which is a big no-no. So they also got the axe.”
3/26/2013: Marcus gives a very revealing interview to Vlad TV posted on YouTube in which he talks about his role in the adult industry syphilis scare from last summer. It’s the Marcus same-old, same-old with Marcus perched on his high horse of resentment galloping towards those who would criticize him.
In an interview she did with Vlad TV, Kelly Divine said Mr. Marcus was disrespecting a whole industry of people for doing what he did. Marcus makes the following statements:
…“The place I went to tested it and I came up positive. But the trick to that was I went to my own personal doctor and got tested before that and was treated. I was expecting a quick recovery because in this industry that’s pretty much standard. You catch an STD, you get a shot or you take a pill. You lay off work for seven days, come roaring back. That’s pretty consistent. And that’s the situation I thought I was in as well.”
…“It scares a lot of people and there’s a lot of ignorance surrounding it. There’s two different tests. They give you two tests- one that looks for it and one that knows you already have it. And so the results are different because that’s how they print out.
…“I had the test that was still looking for it. Unfortunately it came back showing that it was supposed to be still in my system which it wasn’t because I had been treated.”
…“That’s the thing about it. It’s just because the tests we use are sensitive to the antibodies that we’re taking to actually treat it. So it’s, like, they call it like a false-positive. If you’re taking medicine for something else for a cold or a flu, if you’re on certain antibiotics and you go and get tested, you’re blood looks at the antibodies in your system and reads positive. And that’s a false positive. Those things happen.”
…“Two things happened,” Marcus explained. “I didn’t want to disclose on my test the results of that… was really false positive by this time. I took the medicine and laid off work- eleven days actually. But with this situation the test- I needed one that would let me go back to work.
…“The person at the testing facility [TTS] said no problem. He said when the results come back, it’ll test for everything but it won’t print..have all that on your test results. It won’t have that syphilis results. So I’m, like, cool. It came back a day later and there it was. That was the test but I never presented that to anybody. I showed it to a certain producer in the industry to show him the difference, to show him this clinic had also co-signed I was fine. It was my way of saying to them, I’m good, I’m good to go back to work.”
…“Normally there’s a doctor in these places, and the doctor will say, hey, this is what you do where I’ll sign off. Or your treatment is good. The thing with syphilis is there’s a number that’s associated with it and it reads reactive because of the medicine. But you can treat it. Unfortunately, they didn’t implement the second test till after I went through all my bullshit.
“It could have been avoided just by me saying, hey, I got syphilis…and…everybody else get checked out. But it didn’t occur to me like that because my doctors were saying it’s a simple bacteria, here’s the shot, easy to treat, you’re good to go.”
…“They Talent Testing Service] got to protect their interests.”
…“I was telling you the fucking truth. I’m telling you what’s going on. I’m telling you the steps. Those motherfuckers [Talent Testing Services] don’t even give a fuck, to be honest. They don’t care.
“Syphilis was rare. It was just something that was a fluke, you know what I mean? They had two different protocols set in place. They even said if I came over to them they would have had a doctor sign off and say he’s been treated, he’s good to go. He’s not infectious. But they didn’t have that shit in place.”
…“The problem that went out, too, the cats were quick to throw me under the bus. They were like, you are the reason the industry shut down. You are the cause of the outbreak. I was, like, I just admitted to this test. I admitted to having this STD but I also said I got it treated and I didn’t work with anybody or infect anybody. But that’s not what they heard. All they heard is this dude shut down the industry.”
…“I’m one dude, man. I don’t think this industry will allow me to shut down their ability to pay their mortgage or a child’s college tuition. They wouldn’t allow that to happen. People were still shooting. The industry never shut down. Of course. The industry’s too big for that shit.”
…“It was also political. There was a Measure B-thing going on and there was a condom law that was going to be voted on. It was a perfect storm for everything to go to shit.”
4/8/2013: Rob Black reports on his Internet show that Steve Hirsch offered Mr. Marcus a directing gig for Vivid
5/3/2013: Mr. Marcus’ attorney Martin Cutler says that performer Lylith LaVey’s emotional distress lawsuit filed against the male porn star is full of holes because she knew the risks involved in shoots. In the Bang Bros video from June 24, 2012, LaVey could be seen giving fellatio to Mr. Marcus, whose penis clearly showed evidence of a possible STD.
Mr. Marcus, in a previous interview with XBIZ, said the sores at the time looked more like a skin irritation. “It looked like a patch of rough skin, like maybe a reaction to some kind of lube that irritated me,” he previously told XBIZ.
“In my 24 years of practicing law, I have never seen a more frivolous case against a defendant than this one,” Cutler told XBIZ. “There was an assumption of risk in the case of the shoot. She’s a porn actress — she knew what she was getting into.”
Lavey’s attorney is Adam Rose. XBiz writes: “While Marcus drew the brunt of people’s outrage, many also suggested that industry testing lab Talent Testing Services and the Free Speech Coalition’s Adult Production Health & Safety Services mishandled the crisis due to “politics.”
5/9/2013: TMZ reports that Mr. Marcus was arrested for a DUI. Marcus was pulled over in a Hyundai Elantra around 2:30 AM after cops noticed the car weaving all over the road. During the stop, the cops smelled booze, so they performed a field sobriety test.
5/22/2013: Marcus is arrested for a second DUI as reported by LA Times
6/4/2013: Marcus is brought before a judge stemming from a complaint filed against him by two female performers. In addition to 30 days in jail, Superior Court Judge Catherine Ewell sentences Mr. Marcus to 36 months probation and 15 days of community labor for falsifying a test and placing talent in danger.
6/4/2013: “The potential spread of syphilis and other communicable diseases is a serious threat to our entire community,” said City Attorney Carmen Trutanich. “My office will continue to hold accountable those who place the health and welfare of others in danger in such a reckless and thoughtless manner.”
6/4/2013: Los Angeles Deputy City Attorney Diego Edber said that Mr. Marcus was originally charged with four counts of knowingly exposing adult actresses he worked with to syphilis, including one count of unlawful touching.
9/5/2013: Date set for a settlement conference in the Lavey lawsuit
9/30/2013: If no agreement can be reached, this date has been established for a trial.