News Dec 21, 2016 at 4:00 am

On Top of Criminal Charges, Hickey Now Faces Allegations That He Violated Consumer Protection Laws

Attorney General Bob Ferguson says he hopes the case will send a message. jason redmond

Comments

2
@1, aside from making an asshat comment, you also didn't read the article. This piece is about civil litigation for consumer fraud and deceptive business practices, not the criminal rape prosecution against the guy.

But to answer your (rhetorical and asinine) question: yeah he's also breaking the law when a check bounces. Would you put down McDonalds workers that sued if their paychecks bounced? Would you be pissed if your employer tricked you into working for the last two weeks for free?

Work is work, and if all of the allegations are true, this guy deserves all of the criminal and civil liability the courts can impose against him (and considering rape and sexual assault prosecutions have such a low guilty verdict rate....it's nice to see the AG piling on with a civil suit as well).
3
Was it an MRA asshole JAQing off in #1?
4
Zarne's a social justice warrior is all. Rather play hug-a-thug with the perp than protect the public. Creepy, yes, but at least somebody cares about Matt Hickey's feelings, and can relate to the guy. Everybody does their part.
10
You're not up on this, are you #1? No checks were involved. Read "The Audition" and go from there.
12
I get it. I get it. I do.

Matt Hickey is the MRA Che Guevara. You guys should print a bunch of red t-shirts. Make dorm room posters. He speaks to you, through his life, he embodies what you are. Don't let no one take that away from you bro.

Anybody can't see what there is to love in Matt Hickey will never see what there is to love in Zarne. Simple as that.
13
@5 "When did the rape happen then?"
After he drugged or got the three women so inebriated that they couldn't give consent. (if you followed the case, you would know the three women in the criminal charges are not the same women that did the porn auditions, he also got one of those very inebriated as well)

15
Good work Sydney and others at The Stranger! This is what good investigative journalism is all about.
17
@16 A mandate that would no doubt win a majority in a fair election.
18
This is a creepy story, but someone answer this:

If Matt Hickey was a real porn recruiter, slept with the women after giving them booze and drugs, and paid them... would there be a story here?

Because that's literally the porn, modeling, and fashion business. Ever hear of Dov Charney?

These women went to Matt's apartment and willingly got boozed up with the intention of sleeping with him on camera for money, right? So isn't the AG's case basically that he was making porn without a license?
19
"If Matt Hickey was a real porn recruiter, slept with the women after giving them booze and drugs, and paid them... would there be a story here?"

There still would be criminal charges if Matt Hickey had a bona fide talent agency..

First, Matt Hickey didn't sleep with the women in the criminal charges. He raped them. He either purposefully drugged them or got them so drunk they couldn't give consent. The women in the criminal complaints weren't part of his fraudulent criminal scheme.

Second, how Matt Hickey ran his "talent agency" was far from being professional. There was no model consent forms, anything that showed it was a bona fide business. It was criminal enterprise. , I believed he raped these women under false pretenses as well. He used fraudulent means to rape these women. Besides for one or two of these women in his porn scheme, he used the same tactic of trying to drugged/inebriate the women so they couldn't give consent.

Dov Charney is a creep, but I assume that American Apparel did get model consent forms, He/American Apparel did pay for their modeling shoots. The photos were actually published in American Apparel ads, (many with Charney in them) . Dov Charney did get removed from American Apparel after numerous sexual harassment lawsuits were settled.

Porn Stars/Adult Entertainment performers are actors. They get paid for their work, (not much, and it is a brutal business) but they are actors. They deserve rights and respect, and it is still a business, with some hands off methods by those involved in the business.

What Matt Hickey did, was criminal. He used fraudulent means to rape and physically assault these women..
21
At least I don't run a newspaper in Seattle that hired this guy as a freelancer.
22
How could you avoid hiring someone like him? Just look at this thread; dudes who think like that are everywhere. Practically the norm. They don't call it rape culture because it consists of exactly one guy who's currently in jail in lieu of bail.

Have you MRAs seen all the awesome Che Guevara effect tutorials on the web? You guys have your symbol! It's a great day for you.
23
Maybe people should consider other vocations other than porn. Or is that all you can do with a gender studies degree from Evergreen State College?
24
Rape accusations aside, Hickey may have been doing something unethical. But illegal?

Is it illegal for an aerospace company to contact employees of competitors purportedly to make them job offers, but in reality to find out what projects that are working on? Yes? I don't see many of their managers marched into court in orange jump suits.
25
The Stranger thinks girls are too dumb to know better and to do sufficient research prior to taking tequila shots with a stranger with the intent to willingly have sex with said stranger for money.

Girls are just so silly!
26
Is Dan Savage still making money off sex trafficking by running ads for johns paid for by exploiters of young flesh?
28
@ 24, a scam is a scam.
29
#18 "this is a creepy story, but someone answer this."
Your casually entitled tone is the first red flag. Very bro-y to demand explanations for things you don't understand.
As far as your absurd hypothetical scenario that is meant to, i don't know, prove a bizarro world matt hickey's innocence, it, um. seems like the only point is to prove bizarro world matt biceys' innocence.
so okay, in good faith i will appease your demand and answer you, kinda.
There is no dude in the porn industry who has girls over to his apartment to fuck them as part of a "job interview".
oh pistolgrips, my oatmeal's ready.
ta!😉
32
@24 - actually, an employer offering a job only in order to solicit trade secrets would, I believe, constitute tortious interference, because the company was offering inducements under false pretenses to the employee to get them to violate their obligation of non-disclosure to current employer. Much like in this case, the "prospective employer" would be open to civil, not criminal, action. Much like this case, the odds of the scheme being uncovered would be low.
33
@18, @20 - "If a man dresses as a woman and gives you a blowjob, would you even be upset if it turned out he had a vagina?" The logical equivalent of your nonsensical argument. If he was a porn recruiter, there would be no story, but see, he wasn't. So tired of bullshit false equivalencies.
34
@27 - your imaginary sister asked me to remind you that hickey wasn't charged with rape. He is being sued for consumer fraud.
35
Hickey IS being charged with three counts of rape. They are just not with the women involved in this scam
38
Does your sister know that you use her rape as your shield, Zarne?

I can't believe my MRA Bingo Card doesn't have a "my sister was raped" square. Fucking liberals can't do shit right, you know?
39
I'm not excusing the rape, I'm saying would these women have been upset if they were "paid professionals" as you say porn actors are? The problem here is Matt wasn't making porn, he was being a creep to get women to sleep with him. But the fact remains: the women went there knowing they would be sleeping with him on camera for money.

Meanwhile, The Stranger runs ads for human trafficking, and allows people to post death threats to elected officials in articles written by the same "investigative journalist" who wrote this amazing piece.
40
Good lord, can some of you people discussing the rapes vs. fraud understand that there are two separate issues, one civil, one criminal? This is the civil complaint about the alleged fraud; go bitch about the rapes in the criminal threads. And briefly consider that he wasn't just advertising porn. He was advertising for fetish modeling that also allegedly ended up rape-y.
42
A laughable case of wasted taxpayer money.
43
@36 - he was criminally charged in a separate case for having sex with women too drunk to consent. You know - rape.

In this case, he's being sued for deceiving other women into giving consent.

The two cases have no connection, so stop trying to connect them.
44
@42 - hahahhahahahaha. Public money shouldn't be used to enforce the laws and protect people from predators? Your boy doesn't sound very innocent.
45
@39 - it doesn't matter what the women *would* have done if it were a real audition. There was no money, there never was. If you're trying to say it wasn't rape, fine, but in this case thats not what he's being accused of.
46
" But the fact remains: the women went there knowing they would be sleeping with him on camera for money."

Whether the women who went to the audition knowing they were going to have sex with the photographer, what happened was rape. The consent was given via fraudulent means. It is coercion by Matt Hickey with some in depth fraudulent ways.

If you read the original article.

http://www.thestranger.com/feature/2016/…

@39 All the women who went through the audition, felt like they were sexually assaulted, no matter if it was a porn audition or not. They were assaulted, given Mr. Hickey had to go to some lengths to cover his true intentions, to rape these women..

Read the comments section from the original article done by Sydney, you read about how women in Matt's past dealt with his serious behavioral problems, in Seattle and Olympia.

I see many of the comments here, are borderline for the women who did the porn/modeling auditions as "They were asking for it", given they went to an alleged porn shoot with a creepy guy. I see this as a serious criminal offender trying to find a way to continue his paraphilia. Matt raped numerous women, three of those were not part of this whole porn audition scheme, he just got them blacked out drunk and raped them..

The law should protect those who are sexually assaulted, no matter if they are going to a porn shoot or bridal shower. The law shouldn't punished them because they went to a porn/modeling shoot and they got raped in the process.
47
So if the circumstances were completely different would anyone care?
49
This whole thing has really given a major ick factor to the fact that he used the handle "Matt Fuckin' Hickey" when he used to be on Slog a lot. I can picture him laughing to himself over his little double entendre.
50
@ 48, the district attorney's opinion differs from yours, and it carries more weight as well.
51
@48 "So if a girl gives me a blow job because she thought that Ferrari I was driving was bought not rented, I'm a rapist?"

Why don't you read the original article about this saga..

http://www.thestranger.com/feature/2016/…

This isn't about white lies, or stating one lie. This is about a sexual predator doing some in depth deception, besides prowling for victims. There were also numerous sexual assaults, both of women who did the modeling/porn audition and other women in the Seattle Area. This isn't about being a cad, this is about a defendant who is accused of numerous sexual assaults. He also went to some lengths to hide behind made up characters in order to commit his crime..
52
@18 I'm friends with one of Dov's accusers. It might be not unheard of in the industry, but that doesn't upgrade it to legal/ethical/fair/correct.
54
Guys, Zarna has been here for the last 24 hours straight. Clearly by attaching himself to this story he has no life and is displaying the kind of bizarro rationalizing that he uses to tell himself he's not a loser.

I doubt your "If a guy drives a ferrari and..." argument would hold up in court either. But I'm sure the attorney general appreciates your comment-section "legal advice." Don't worry if they never cite you in court or anything, like they did with... oh wait, THIS STORY??
55
So I'm looking in the Stranger's ad section. I see an ad offering to help get sex offenders of the registry. Numerous ads for strip joints. Sketchy looking "hook up"/sex phonelines. The Stranger seems perfectly OK with perverts and exploiters as long as they pay their bills.
58
@55 & 56 Your affinity for rape and rapists is duly noted. Most people don't like it so much. Good for you for standing up for what you believe in and trail blazing.
59
you lost, apologists. get over it. hickey was charged criminally for some rapes, and then charged civilly for his business scam to solicit sex from women. make all the analogies you want, make all the comparisons you want, you're wrong. you lost.
60
it's not apologists, it's confusing to say sex is a commodity, and sex work is a normal job, but then bring rape charges when you're not paid.

the two cases against him illustrate this perfectly: if he is found guilty of raping these women, will they also be able to sue him for unpaid wages?

and will anyone ever call out The Stranger for running human trafficking ads that enable these types of creeps to rape sex workers?
61
@52 I'm not excusing Dov, I'm saying why is it "acceptable" for Dov to do the same thing as Matt simply because he paid the women and put the photos in magazines?

they're both rapists. one just is a successful rapist.

The Stranger seems to be OK with exploiting women as long as they are paid for it.
62
@45 @46 why don't you also quote the rest of what I said? taking me out of context to make me seem like a rape apologist is almost as scummy as The Stranger running ads for human trafficking.
63
@62. If you want to be in context, then you shouldn't take bits and pieces out of context in the first place.

The women that Matt Hickey has been charged with raped, were not part of the porn auditions, they were friends or friends of acquaintances of Matt Hickey. If you actually read all the article about Matt Hickey's predatory ways, you would see that..

The women in the make believe modeling/porn auditions, were lied for the purpose of these auditions. Hickey made up a fraudulent sham that he was a talent scout, and he was a gateway to making good money as a porn star. He did it to rape these women. He also used many of the same techniques of trying to black out these women to rape them..

I quoted the relevant text that I wanted to respond to.. You also asked a question, which i thought was in good faith, but now, I just see it as MRA trolling and you are a rape apologist, given you refuse to even read up about the case. Matt Hickey has been a sexual predator for probably over a decade..
64
Okay, yeah, this guy is the worst kind of perve and he or anyone who does what he did should go to jail, I agree. But WTF does he have to do with "Men's rights"? That is a VERY large umbrella term that covers everything from assholes on the fringes of 4chan to people fighting for the rights of Single Fathers (yes, they do exist) to doctors who are vocal about men's health.

I love how anyone who accuses Bernie Sanders of being the same as Stalin is called an idiot (and rightfully so) but it is okay to connect a rapist to people like this asshole to the Good Man Project.

And the above will receive as a reply ad hominems and nothing of substance from the same buffoons who don't understand why they lost to Trump and think that dirty word "nuisance" is only used by Foxnews reporters.
65
Isn't this the same guy that went on about sexism in gaming? This is how I expect most SJWs conduct themselves outside of public view.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthickey/2…

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