Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

‘Who Wants to Be a Porn Star?’

A bogus talent agent jailed on rape charges faces a civil lawsuit from the Washington attorney general, accused of luring young women to his home for “porn star” auditions in which he demanded sex as an “attitude test.”

SEATTLE (CN) — A bogus talent agent jailed on rape charges faces a civil lawsuit from the Washington attorney general, accused of luring young women to his home for “porn star” auditions in which he demanded sex as an “attitude test.”

Michael-Jon Matthew “Matt” Hickey was arrested in October and charged with raping three women, including one who met him through his fictitious talent-recruitment business.

Attorney General Bob Ferguson sued Hickey on Dec. 21.

“This is one of the most egregious scams I’ve seen as attorney general,” the attorney general said in a statement. “Beyond the monetary damage his victims suffered pursuing the defendant’s fictional job opportunities, they endured emotional trauma and unconscionable loss of privacy through his deception.”

Posing as a talent scout named Deja Stwalley, Hickey claimed to run a woman-owned pornography business called New Seattle Talent, Ferguson says in King County Superior Court. The lawsuit includes a screen shot of a New Seattle Talent online ad, under the headline, “Who wants to be a pornstar?”

The ad begins: “This is the best job you’ll ever have.”

Hickey, 40, recruited young women online and through Facebook, asking them to audition for an adult film studio and claimed the jobs paid from $1,200 to $3,500 a day.

“To be considered for these upcoming opportunities, all they needed to do was ‘audition with one of our specially chosen “hunks”.’ All auditions were in fact conducted exclusively by Matt Hickey,” the state says.

As part of the “audition,” women had to pose for nude photos and have sex with Hickey, as an “attitude test” for their portfolio, according to the complaint.

“Stwalley told women that the sex was an ‘attitude test’ necessary to secure jobs and verify their willingness and capacity to perform sex acts with a stranger in front of film producers. Stwalley explained that Hickey’s written review of each woman’s sexual performance would be included in her talent portfolio. Hickey confirmed that as part of the audition he had sex with ‘many of Stwalley’s girls’ who are now successful in the adult entertainment industry. All the women interviewed affirmed that they only had sex with Hickey because they believed it was necessary in order to secure the job opportunities presented by Stwalley,” according to the attorney general.

But Hickey had no intention of finding jobs for the women and was interested only in obtaining “nude photos for his photography portfolio and to satisfy his sexual desires,” the state says in the lengthy lawsuit, which contains photos of a rather frumpily dressed woman allegedly named Deja Stwalley.

“Defendant never secured or attempted to secure employment for these women. Defendant had no contacts in the adult film industry and deceived women by fabricating the job opportunities he advertised. Yet, defendant repeatedly promised women that studios were interested in hiring them. For example, he told one woman ‘might have something in Portland too dunno yet though waiting on the details.’ Despite never taking any action to obtain employment for women, Stwalley repeatedly encouraged women to schedule additional photo shoots with Hickey. Defendant persisted with deceiving these women for months and in some instances for years.”

Ferguson says the deception “extended well beyond the Deja Stwalley profile” and included fake business websites, email addresses and a Google Voice phone number with a Las Vegas area code. Hickey created a second fake online profile of a woman who gave a ringing endorsement of Deja Stwalley’s business.

Hickey kept the nude audition photos and some still appear online.

“In addition to the loss of job opportunity, time, effort, and money, these women suffered an intangible loss of their bodily integrity and privacy. Matt Hickey continues to maintain sole control over the hundreds or even thousands of photos he deceptively obtained and, to this day, some of the photos still appear online,” the attorney general says.

Hickey fled Seattle last summer as police closed in and moved to Las Vegas, the Seattle Times reported after he was arrested in Las Vegas in October. Hickey’s “pattern is always the same,” the Times reported, attributing the quotation to “charging papers” from state prosecutors.

“‘The defendant has raped both acquaintances and women he has just met … going back as far as 2001,’” the Times reported still quoting the charging papers. “‘Most, if not all, of his victims “black out” and have little memory of the actual sex. If the victim later confronts the defendant and accuses him of rape, he denies raping them and tells them they initiated it or were “into it.”’”

Ferguson seeks civil penalties for multiple violations of the Washington Consumer Protection Act and the Commercial Electronic Mail Act, restitution to victims and an injunction.

In one message to a woman, cited in the complaint, “Deja Stwalley” told the recruit:

“best thing you can do is not be nervous and take direction well

“stay fresh faced

“and do as you’re told”

Categories / Criminal

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...