Prosecutor: Music promoter on trial for child porn ‘preys on young men and their dreams’

“A Pied Piper, a predator who preys on young teenage boys.”

That’s how a prosecutor described self-styled music promoter and youth mentor Stevie Porter as testimony began Tuesday in Porter’s trial on charges of child molestation, enticing a child for indecent purposes and 10 counts of child sexual exploitation.

Assistant District Attorney Chris Williams said Porter used boys’ dreams of music stardom to lure them into his home, ply them with alcohol and marijuana, show them pornography and try to seduce them.

That pattern of conduct came to an abrupt end on Jan. 26, 2013, when one of the teenagers at Porter’s home asked to used his host’s cell phone, Williams said:

“He gets upset,” the prosecutor said of the teen, who turned to Porter that night and said, “Hey man! You gay?”

The youth had found a boy’s nude photo on the phone, which he and the other teens took with them after a struggle with Porter, Williams said. They also took Porter’s Toshiba laptop computer, the prosecutor said.

Porter called the police, reporting he had been robbed, but “something seemed odd when they talked to Mr. Porter,” Williams said of the police investigators.

The detective who questioned him became suspicious, particularly when she learned of a police report filed the previous Dec. 7, when a mother told officers her 14-year-old son was missing, and police learned the boy had spent the night at what was then Porter’s Forrest Road home.

The teen boy told police Porter had given him booze and marijuana, showed him pornography and made “sexually provocative statements,” Williams said. When police went to Porter’s home, Porter had the boy and an underage girl there with him hide in a back room until officers left, the prosecutor said.

The boy’s stepfather later found the teen walking along the road, Williams said.

The teens who took Porter’s phone and laptop showed the recorded images to their parents, who gave the equipment to Columbus attorney Alphonza Whitaker, brother of Chief Assistant District Attorney Alonza Whitaker. He later gave it to police.

The police got warrants to search the devices and to search Porter’s home. They started sorting through the computer images, finding photos of nude teens and video of a 17-year-old having sex with a girl.

That teenager told police Porter had lured him to the Forrest Road residence with the promise of helping him with a career in rap music. He also consumed alcohol and marijuana there, where Porter told him, “You and your friends can come have sex in my house,” Williams said.

Police tried to identify all the teens depicted, but some wanted nothing to do with the case, the prosecutor said: “For a variety of reasons, we can’t expect them to testify.”

But jurors should not think the witnesses’ absence translates to an absence of evidence, he said: “Make no mistake, this man is a predator. He preys on young men and their dreams.”

The defense

Porter’s attorney Stacey Jackson told the jury photos found on cell phones are not sufficient evidence to find his client guilty. Prosecutors have to prove that Porter knew the images were there.

He pointed out the electronics taken from Porter’s home were in the custody of others for days, when files could have been added or altered. The teens also had access to Porter’s devices while visiting his home, as sometimes they were there when he was not, Jackson said.

Among the first witnesses Tuesday was the boy who at age 14 spent the night at Porter’s home in 2012. Now 19, he said Porter picked him and three others up to give them a ride.

Porter was collecting their personal information for use in music promotions when he started talking about sex, the teen said: “He said like nasty stuff.”

He said Porter handled a candy cane in a sexual manner and made lewd comments: “He said, ‘I can see your bulges and stuff. I bet you’re the biggest.’ … He was like referring to private parts.”

Porter showed him and a girl a video of a couple having sex, and Porter tried to get him to sleep with him, but he refused, and instead slept in the living room by the girl, he said.

The boy’s mother reported him missing the next morning. When police showed up at Porter’s home, Porter told the boy and girl to go to a back bedroom and stay quiet. They remained there until officers left, he said.

A police officer testified he was outside Porter’s house for about 30 minutes. They were waiting for someone to come to the door, having been told by two other boys that the missing youth was inside, he said.

Jackson asked the teen why he didn’t come outside while the police were there. “I didn’t know what he was going to do,” the witness said of Porter.

Though the youth did not have a cell phone, one of his friends did, he said. Jackson asked why he didn’t call for a ride if Porter’s conduct made him uncomfortable.

“I was uncomfortable,” the witness said, “but I was drunk and I was young, so I guess I made a bad decision.”

Also testifying Tuesday was the then-teenager prosecutors said Porter videotaped having sex with a girl, without the couple’s knowledge. Now 22, he said he had wanted to be a rapper, and Porter was to be his producer.

He testified that Porter would serve him “liquor and weed,” and brought over girls with whom he could have sex. Though he called this a common practice, he said he’d only visited Porter’s home twice.

He identified himself in a still image derived from the videotape, and in still images of himself he said he shot with a cell phone, but did not know Porter had obtained.

He said Porter was not in the room during the sex act captured on the video police found, and he did not know who recorded it.

Other evidence presented Tuesday included an audiotaped interview of detectives’ questioning Porter about his reported robbery. He told them a Carver High School football star was involved, and alleged one of the youths could be in a gang.

He denied being gay, telling Detective Amanda Hogan that was a rumor.

He also denied serving teens alcohol and marijuana, saying they brought their own to his home. And he said he’d made no inappropriate comments to them that weren’t in jest.

Hogan testified Tuesday that she felt “uneasy” after interviewing Porter, as he had no visible injuries, despite claiming the teens beat him with a tire iron. He seemed mostly to want his computer equipment returned, she said.

A few days later, Alphonza Whitaker called her to say he had Porter’s computer and cell phone, which he told her he would surrender if she got a search warrant, she said.

On Feb. 4, 2013, she got the search warrant, collected the equipment and submitted it to a police computer technician to extract data that included several photos of shirtless or entirely nude males under the age of 18, she said.

Hogan said police got Porter’s computer on Feb. 1 and got a search warrant for it on Feb. 4, 2013. Police arrested Porter the following Feb. 6. He was indicted Dec. 1, 2015.

He subsequently filed complaints against Columbus police and the district attorney’s office, claiming they mishandled the investigation into his reported robbery.

Williams said that if convicted, Porter faces five to 20 years for child molestation, 10 to 30 years for enticing a child for an indecent purpose, and one to 20 years for each count of child sexual exploitation, which is how Georgia defines possession of child pornography.

This story was originally published October 31, 2017 at 5:39 PM with the headline "Prosecutor: Music promoter on trial for child porn ‘preys on young men and their dreams’."