2 Arrested as Porn Movie Panderers

Los Angeles police Friday arrested two San Fernando Valley modeling agency operators they said are the major suppliers of actors and actresses to the pornographic film industry in Los Angeles.

The arrests followed an undercover investigation in which a police officer posed as a South American film maker seeking stars for a pornographic film, authorities said.

Owners Arrested

Jim Southe, 42, owner of World Modeling Agency in Sherman Oaks, and Craig (Red) Sawitz, 40, owner of Pretty Girl International Inc. in Sherman Oaks, were arrested on suspicion of pandering, police said.

Two women and two men were also arrested on suspicion of prostitution Friday after they allegedly contracted with the undercover officer to commit sex acts on film in exchange for money, said Sgt. Don Smith, supervising investigator of the police Adminstrative Vice Pornography Unit.

In the culmination of his act as a pornographic film maker, the undercover officer staged a fake “cattle call” audition Friday at Sawitz’s Pretty Girl International office at 13837 Ventura Blvd., Smith said.

Sawitz and the four models were arrested there about 11 a.m., Smith said. Officers armed with search warrants then arrested Southe at his agency about noon, he said.

About 18 other women and four other men who attended the audition were not arrested, Smith said. Police halted the operation as soon as they had enough evidence to link the two accused panderers to the scheme, he said.

Two other women were taken into custody, but were later released pending further investigation, Smith said.

He said one of the men arrested for prostitution, John Johnson, was runner-up for the best supporting actor of the 1985 Erotic Film Festival, the pornographic film industry’s equivalent of the Academy Awards.

The others arrested were identified as Laurie Oiler, 20; Donna Jones, 26; and Jeremy Hapner, 32. Police gave no specific addresses for the prostitution suspects but said all live in the San Fernando Valley.

Taken to Van Nuys Jail

The six people arrested were taken to Van Nuys Jail. Sawitz and Southe were released on $2,000 bail, and the four others were released on their own recognizance, police said.

The Friday raids followed a three-month undercover investigation into the modeling agencies, Smith said. The agencies have been known to police since the early 1970s and were raided before, in the middle and late 1970s, he said.

“Los Angeles is recognized as the X-rated adult film capital of the world because approximately 80% of the materials manufactured and sold nationwide are produced within the City of Los Angeles,” Smith said. The two agencies are the major suppliers to that industry, he said.

Police said the agency owners encouraged employees, including acting and modeling hopefuls who recently moved to the area, to become models in their agencies. The owners then enticed them into nude photo sessions, followed by lucrative offers “to act in pornographic movies,” Smith said.

“We’ve received numerous complaints from people who went to both model agencies thinking they were going to become models and found out what was being asked of them was way beyond what a normal model would be invovled with,” Smith said.

“They get a lot of young, innocent girls that did not want to get involved in this type of activity that are,” Smith said.

Smith said that both agencies scrupulously avoid girls under age 18 and that most of the models are in their 20s. He said there were hundreds of models, actors and actresses affiliated with the agencies.

He said police unsuccessfully had tried many times in recent years to infiltrate both organizations. But this time, the unidentified officer, who “dressed nicely and wore a lot of gold,” managed to convince the agencies that he was seeking to cast a film, Smith said.

The two agency owners allegedly persuaded the officer to make sexually explicit films and agreed to furnish models, he said.

Smith said that, at the “audition” Friday, the undercover officer told the actors and actresses he was going to make a film, then asked: “Has it been explained to you what type of film this is? How much do you work for? Do you have any limitations? What will do you and won’t you do?”

The prostitution suspects were arrested on the basis of their answers, he said.

Among the evidence seized by police were books featuring “hundreds and hundreds of nude photographs” of actors and actresses, Smith said.