Prosecutors in the GirlsDoPorn sex-trafficking case have dropped criminal charges against a woman accused of posing as a fake reference model to recruit actresses for adult videos, according to court filings in San Diego federal court.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in its notice to the judge that it was dismissing Amberlyn Dee Nored from the prosecution “to satisfy the ends of justice” but did not offer specifics. Nored’s defense attorney did not respond to a request by the Union-Tribune to elaborate.
The dismissal, confirmed this week, comes as trial nears for one defendant continuing to fight the charges, while the lead defendant remains a fugitive. Others have pleaded guilty.
Prosecutors have accused several people involved with the San Diego-based GirlsDoPorn business of engaging in sex trafficking — coercing young women and at least one minor into having sex on camera and then posting the videos online. Many women have testified in a separate lawsuit that they were promised the videos wouldn’t be made public but would go to private DVD collections overseas.
Women said they were given alcohol and marijuana to dull their inhibitions before signing the contract, a process they were rushed through. Some said they were sexually assaulted and held in hotel rooms against their will until the filming concluded, according to prosecutors.
Nored was accused of being paid to falsely assure women that she had participated in videos herself and that her videos had not been posted online in an effort to make recruits feel more comfortable, according to testimony in the lawsuit filed by 22 women.
While the lawsuit was pending in 2019, federal prosecutors filed sex-trafficking charges against key participants, including GirlsDoPorn co-owner Michael James Pratt, a New Zealand citizen who is believed to have fled the country during the civil trial. The FBI is now offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information that leads to his arrest.
Pratt’s business partner Matthew Isaac Wolfe is still headed to trial.
Adult performer Ruben Andre Garcia, administrative assistant Valerie Moser and videographer Theodore Gyi have pleaded guilty.
Pratt, Wolfe and Garcia are also on the hook for a $12.7 million civil judgement handed down by a San Diego Superior Court judge last year.
