Tim Tritch says he has a bold plan that will help adult performers — but should anyone heed an unhinged man whose loyalties turn on a dime?

A history lesson, by Michael Whiteacre

Wednesday, a pro-AHF gossip site masquerading as a pro-porn site, run by a failed talent agent, outer and shamer of porn star escorts, user of substandard testing protocols, suspected embezzler, homophobe and stripper beater, published an Op/Ed by a man some in the adult community may remember: Tim Tritch.

Tritch addressed his open letter to the Adult Performers Advocacy Committee (APAC).

Here’s Tritch making his pitch (all typos here and infra in original):

I have to admit that I was wrong. APAC is not a worthless organization. Right now they are in a perfect postition to make some simple, yet effective fundamental changes in the industry that would benefit everybody, themselves, producers and agents, and as much as I personally hate to say it, especially the agents. You don’t have to have a good personal relationship to make a business relationship work, sometimes it even helps, it helps when one side pushes, and the other side pulls, as long as its in the same direction.

While working with AIM I used to say, “To help the girls you have to help the guys,” and that is because for every guy that got an std, at least 3-5 girls would catch it . Now, in order to make APAC successful, you have to help the agents and producers, and contrary to popular belief it wont be that difficult.

It takes money for any organization to survive, and to make money it takes money. And there are several, easy ways for APAC to do this. APAC can use their popularity as performers to raise money in many ways. Right now, today, I have places lined up for fundraisers in conjunction with other causes that will welcome your participation, as they too recognize the potential you have to raise money. The potential money you could raise could make you truely independent of any other organization….

I have been working with other people who are ready to step up and help any member of APAC get signed up for ObamaCare, if you’re not already. This is what your next me geting should be about. Its not difficult, and its affordable. Wouldn’t it be a great marketing tool for the industry as a whole, and APAC in particular to offer this service. Agents, wouldn’t it be great if your peformers had the means to take care of some of the very common problems they face? Wouldn’t it be a great maketing tool for you to attract talent. Derek, remember the collective barganing? Lets do it. APAC is in the perfect position to make it work.

Finally, Tritch gets down to business. He says that AHF’s enemy  — the testing system that replaced the system he helped AHF destroy — is also the enemy of performers!

APAC is also in a perfect position to close some of the holes in your current safety net program. All it takes is cooperation among yourselves. Recently, it was reported that there was a vote at APAC that was 80% in favor of changing the current system. Is your leadership trying to impliment any real changes, or is alot of your leadership in the other 20%? Centralization, and a shared data reporting system can be implemented within 72 hours, all it takes is cooperation. Look at your own vote, you can do it, you have 80% who want it! Technology is there to help. Every single lab today has direct patient reporting capability, and the TTS system is even better than that. Finally, PASS can be a thing of the PAST, and the testing can go back to being a medical program, not an industry program.

Right now, today, there is a simple, yet pretty coprehensive plan that I and several performers have discussed that makes several changes that benefit everyone, and best of all it does not cost one dime more than the current system, and it also PROTECTS not only performers health, but it PROTECTS producers and agents from potential legal issues. Best of all it is 100% HIPPA compliant, and neither OSHA or AHF can touch it. And given the very recent events I can see why the perforers who helped me want to remain anonymous, and that is again, where a strong APAC comes into play. You dont need permission from anyone to implement the plan.

And here is the final kicker, that if played correctly this will benefit everyone. You will be able to use CDC studies and guidelines to show that your testing IS EQUAL to barrier protection, according to ALL CDC studies. I have crunched the numbers with CDC employees, we can reach those threshholds, and use THEIR own documents to prove it. Your APAC system will prove that the std rates are at least equal to any CDC study about the effectiveness of condoms. And it will be APAC that does it, and if that doesn’t strenthen your position in the industry, nothing will. One year, and this is done. And IF I am right, OSHA will have to grant you a variance, and they will gladly rid themselves of this problem. This will take some work, it won’t be simple, but anything worht having usually isn’t. Do you want to keep battling eachother for 25 cents, or do you want to work together to make a dollar?

Sincerely,
Tim Tritch

Wow, sounds great! However, those are some mighty big claims and promises. I wonder what Tritch’s record is on living up to his word…

Thirty pieces of silver

In January 2012, a large cache of AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) emails were leaked on pastebin.com. They provide an alternatively fascinating, illuminating and disturbing glimpse into the empire of Michael Weinstein – a man who has played the City of LA against LA County, and the mainstream “straight” porn industry against the gay porn business; colluded with like-minds at Cal-OSHA, UCLA and LA County Department of Public Health; and chewed up and spat out an assortment of pathetic adult industry fringe players.

On June 11, 2009, Weinstein opened up the Los Angeles Times and saw a headline that declared: “Porn actress tests positive for HIV.” The story of the performer known only as “Patient Zero” was breaking everywhere.

Weinstein saw an opportunity. He was litigious, and was convinced that the adult industry – a bunch of amateurs by comparison to Big Pharma — could be easily arm-twisted.

However, a battle with the porn industry required Weinstein alter his tactics. Unlike Pfizer, porn companies don’t have shareholders and institutional investors. He needed to besiege and undermine the adult business and its institutions, because you can’t shame the shameless.

Knowing nothing about the porn world, Weinstein needed a ‘in’.

Then, in January 2010, AHF was contacted by a man named Tim Tritch.

For six years, Timothy Merritt Tritch was employed by the labs that tested the specimens drawn at AIM: Heathline Clinical Laboratories and later Westcliff Clinical Labs.

As the Account Representative for the AIM Healthcare account, Tritch took home a small commission on every test. He also liked to hang out at AIM — a lot.

That it, until 2008 – when, for reasons not revealed publicly, Tritch’s tenure at Westcliff (later LabWest) ended.

Subsequently, Tritch talked his way into a job as a consultant to the Licensed Adult Talent Agency Trade Association (LATATA). (This will be important later.)

Tritch’s unctuous persona hid a deep bitter frustration and seething anger that often reared its head in his pseudonymous postings on porn gossip boards (“Joe Know” was a frequent moniker on LukeIsBack), which often sat side by side with overly-ingratiating posts under his true name.

In his Joe Know posts, Tritch sounds positively unhinged.

When I met with Tritch in 2012, he spoke of Joe as if he were not so much a pseudonym as an alternate personality.

Tritch was also the source, anonymously (or pseudonymously, as “Sam”) for many porn industry posts by a hateful (pseudonymous) blogger known as Darrah Ford. Birds of a feather do flock together, for Ford was also anti-porn zealot Shelley Lubben’s biggest fan and booster.

Ironically, one of Tritch’s biggest targets in the Darrah Ford days was Mike South — the man whose gossip blog is now home to Tritch’s typographical error-laden rants.

As late as August 2012, Tritch expressed his utter contempt for South, and fed this author facts to use against him in our online battles.

Now, with nowhere else to go to spread his bile, Tritch has set aside his feelings so he can again feel “involved” in the travails of the adult community.

Any port in a storm.

In 2010, Tritch appeared typical of the kind of personalities that hang out on the fringe of the porn business: he would talk about the close personal terms he was on with porn stars (“I don’t know most stage names,” he’d brag, “I know most performers by their real names.”). The difference was,Tritch was intimately affiliated with an organization at the very heart of the adult film world. He would work AIM’s booths at adult fan conventions, and had even helped build two of AIM’s locations. “I hung doors, painted walls, set up computers, whatever was needed,” Tritch wrote in 2010.

At the beginning of February 2010, Tritch drove his 2000 Toyota Sienna over to Weinstein’s Hollywood offices for a face to face meeting. He presented himself as the ultimate “insider”: he had precious first-hand knowledge of adult industry medical protocols (i.e., the way AIM, and its testing/database system, actually worked) as well as its hiring practices, and — to hear him tell it — he was on close personal terms with almost everyone.

From: tritchtm@ca.rr.com [tritchtm@ca.rr.com] Sent: Tuesday, February 09, 2010 2:39 PM
To: Michael Weinstein
Subject: Tim Tritch

Mr. Weinstein,

Thank-you for taking the time to see me last week. I would like to meet with you again, as soon as possible, to  work out the details of how we can help eachother ahcieve our mutual goals.

This is a complex battle, and I think with my ‘insider’ knowledge and  the backing of an orgainization like AHF, we can together make a big difference for this group of people.

I look forward to meeting with you again, and I look forward to the challenge in front of us.

FIGHT FOR WHAT IS RIGHT!!

Thank-you,

Tim Tritch
(818) XXX-XXXX

Feel free to call me amytime

Weinstein replied:

Michael Weinstein <Michael.Weinstein@aidshealth.org> wrote:

Hi Tim – I would like to get a proposal from you before we meet again. Thanks.

Tritch followed up:

From: tritchtm@ca.rr.com [tritchtm@ca.rr.com] Sent: Sunday, February 14, 2010 3:02 PM
To: Michael Weinstein
Subject: RE: Tim Tritch

Mr. Weinstein,

I would like to make two proposals to you. They are slightly different, and perhaps one of them might suit you better than the other.

1. If you would like me to be a public figure, appearing with you at public events and speaking directly to public office holders and health officials, and directly lobbying members of the adult indsutry to speack with and negotiate with AHF.  For this I would propose a three month contract to begin with, for $2500.00 per month.  At the end of three months, after you have seen what I can “bring to the table”  a renegotiatio future for assistance can be worked out.

2. If you would like me to remain “behind the scenes” and assist yourself, and your legal counsel to build a plan that can ultimately achieve the goals we are after. For this I would propose a three month contract for $1500.00 per month, to be renegotied based on you evaluation of how beneficial I am to the “cause.’

To be perfectly honest with you Mr. Weinstein, i have no idea if my monetary proposal is entirely to high or if I am ‘lowballing’ myself. Sure, I would like to be paid for my time and expertise in this matter,  but doing the right thing is much more important to me.

I have a very open schedule and would be available to you at any time.

I know I can help you and AHF. I’ve seen firsthand for years what adult performers go through on a daily basis.  I want to be part of bringing change and fairness, and most improtantly, safety to this exploited group of people.

These proposals are negotiable.  Even if you are not satisfied with either of these proposals I would be interested in any ‘counter’ proposals yould  would offer.   And regardless, I would still like to meet with you and help if I can. I honestly think that I am the person you need to help you achieve these goals. I know I can make a difference.

Thank-you for your consideration.

Tim Tritch

FIGHT FOR WHAT IS RIGHT

It’s easy to imagine Weinstein chuckling while reading that.

Following a telephone conversation with Weinstein, Tritch emailed again.

From: tritchtm@ca.rr.com [tritchtm@ca.rr.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2010 2:53 PM
To: Michael Weinstein
Subject: Tim Tritch

Hello Michael,

I am looking forward to being a big part of what you are trying to accomplish. I was very pleased with what I heard in our short phone meeting today. I am anxious to “get moving” and I expect our meeting next week will be a postive, and informative first step.

We need to, some time in the near future, put our agreement in writing. My schedule is very flexible, so any time that is convenient for you is fine with me.  I know you are a busy person, so if you need some time before we finalize any agreement that is completely fine with me.   Again, I’m looking forward to helping, and thank-you.

FIGHT FOR WHAT IS RIGHT

Sincerely,

Tim Tritch

Tritch sounded eager and he was willing to work cheap “to build a plan” with AHF.

Tritch’s 2010 bankruptcy filings, which TRPWL has reviewed, provide some indication of why he was willing to sell out the adult community at such a reasonable price.

The plan

Tritch’s contacts in the industry were likely the deciding factor for Weinstein; Weinstein had, since day one, sought a “divide and conquer” approach to his crusade.  He understood the tremendous potential PR value of having current, active performers speak out against the “unsafe” adult industry, or at least in favor of AHF’s purported cause, but he needed an “in.”

Leaked emails also reveal Shelley Lubben (who, in 2010, was still in AHF’s good graces) “working on” delivering “current adult film workers who want safety in the workplace and condoms.” She clearly had no public relationship with any such performers, but she excused the complete lack of visible evidence of any such effort by claiming, “I’m not doing it publicly … but privately I’m gathering the troops whose voice will make a difference.”

Inevitably, Lubben would fail in her mission time and time again, leaving Weinstein to stamp his feet like Rumpelstiltskin at having to settle for her delivering that which he didn’t really want: more disgruntled and washed up former porn performers.

Weinstein saw potential in a relationship between Tim Tritch and AHF; he listened intently, and his plan began to evolve.  Tritch reportedly opened up about what he later wrote in emails to this author: that the achilles heel of AIM’s system was patient privacy.  Tritch also saw AIM as having become another arm of production, via the “business relationship” between the clinic and producers who could access performer test results.

Sound familiar?

Weinstein decided to hire Tritch.

Hi Tim – Brian Chase will prepare a simple contract. You can submit an invoice electronically next week for the first month’s fee. Thanks.

Tritch liked what he heard.

From: tritchtm@ca.rr.com [tritchtm@ca.rr.com] Sent: Saturday, February 27, 2010 3:20 PM
To: Michael Weinstein
Subject: RE: Tim Tritch

Thank-you Michael. That sounds fine to me. Again, call me anytime, and let your colleagues know they can call me anytime also.

Looking forward to helping.

Tim Tritch

The AHF party line was that AIM had grown too close to the porn producers: they had conferred an unfair monopoly on the clinic, and thus AIM was essentially a “front” for the producers. This was, in key respects, the very opposite of Tritch’s construction of the relationship between AIM and the producers.

In Tritch’s view, it was the producers who had moved closer to AIM, turning what had been designed and operated as an extremely effective harm reduction program into a shield against claims that the industry was not doing enough to safeguard performers. To Tritch, it was this change in the balance that was creating the unhealthy perception that AIM was nothing more than an arm of production, in that AIM had passively allowed producers to claim the clinic as their own, for their own benefit, not the benefit of performers. In other words, AIM’s mission was far too important to allow it to be hi-jacked by producers who simply wanted to claim that AIM was “sufficient.”

Tritch claimed that the AIM clinic, with its so-called monopoly and its centralized database system, were absolutely essential to the health of the industry.

Which was precisely why Weinstein needed to destroy it.

That Sunday afternoon, February 28th, Weinstein got down to business with Tritch by soliciting for plaintiffs in his anti-AIM campaign:

RE: Tim Tritch
From: Michael Weinstein
Sent: Sunday, February 28, 2010 3:17 PM
To: tritchtm@ca.rr.com
Cc: Brian Chase

Dear Tim – We are interested in finding performers who would be willing to participate in filing a suit against AIM for violating their privacy. Do you know anyone? We would cover any legal costs.

Weinstein’s strategy had coalesced – AHF’s focus would now shift to AIM Healthcare. AHF immediately dashed of a press release announcing its new target:

“AHF Calls for Investigation of Porn Clinic AIM, Alleging Violations of Performers’ Privacy Rights”

Weinstein would embark on a campaign to obliterate AIM.  “AIM testing is a fig leaf that does not protect actors from the risks of unprotected sex during filming,” said Weinstein.

On March 4th, AHF mounted a protest in front of the AIM clinic on Van Nuys Blvd. Protesters carried signs reading, “Shame on AIM,” “AIM Owned By Porn” and, in a play on the famous “Silence = Death” AIDS slogan, one particularly offensive placard read: “AIM = Death.”

Cal/OSHA’s Standards Board was set to meet on March 18th. Weinstein himself composed the confident title of the press announcement: “California Embarks on Setting Condoms in Porn Rules”

AHF trotted out Lubben at the meeting (“representing” performers), and Tritch testified. At this point, AIM’s co-founder Sharon Mitchell was already aware that he had gone to work for the enemy.

Mitchell was stunned by his betrayal. She and Tritch had a good relationship, she thought, and she had even loaned him money. There’s loyalty for you.

One week after the Cal/OSHA hearing, Tritch filed an update with his boss:

From: tritchtm@ca.rr.com [tritchtm@ca.rr.com] Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2010 2:44 PM
To: Michael Weinstein

Subject: Tim Tritch

Hello Michael,

I’ve had a few converstions this week with several industry people.  I’ve also been called everything, ‘Judas’, ‘backstabber” etc.   All this does is let me know that I am doing the right thing.  Will  we be able to get together sometime next week?  I’d like to talk with you about a few of the things I’ve been hearing.

And congradulations on the success at last weeks hearing.

Sincerely,

Tim Tritch

 

RE: Tim Tritch
From: Michael Weinstein
Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2010 5:58 PM
To: tritchtm@ca.rr.com

Hi Tim – I am travelling for the next few days so please brief Brian. Thanks.

Weinstein was displeased with Tricth’s failures.

Not only was Tritch apparently not the bona fide trusted industry insider he claimed to be, Weinstein must have thought, those that did know him now considered him a traitor. If Tritch had ever actually tried to rally support for AHF’s agenda, he now certainly appeared stymied in those efforts.

Without support from active industry members, AHF’s divide and conquer plan which would have been supported by Tritch’s “connections” was not gaining traction.  AHF launched a second front:

On April 14, 2010, AHF announced it would file complaints with the California Labor Commissioner against nine porn talent agencies, because the agencies “procure performers for adult film productions who the talent agencies advertise as available to participate in unprotected sexual acts that may result in the exchange of bodily fluids.”

Internal AHF emails now reveal that, by April 16, the focus had shifted so far to AIM, that Chase had to suggest to Weinstein, “I don’t think it would confuse our press strategy to go after both AIM and porn companies.  I think it would have the opposite effect.  If we make the suit it all about AIM, they can try to portray themselves as the little nonprofit clinic that’s just trying to keep the girls healthy.“

That same month, Weinstein wrote Chase about Tim Tritch.

From: Michael Weinstein <Michael.Weinstein@aidshealth.org>
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:32:06
To: Brian Chase<Brian.Chase@aidshealth.org>
Subject: FW: Tim Tritch

Hi Brian – What is Tim’s status with us?

 

From: Brian Chase
Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2010 8:14 PM
To: Michael Weinstein
Subject: Re: Tim Tritch

We canceled his contract because he couldn’t produce the introductions he said he could.

Brian Chase
Assistant General Counsel
AIDS Healthcare Foundation

 

RE: Tim Tritch
From: Michael Weinstein
Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2010 8:34 PM
To: Brian Chase

Good. Thanks.

So, the guy who for six years earned his living taking a commission on performer HIV/STI testing, who then took AHF cash to help them take down AIM — making a bunch of promises he couldn’t keep along the way — now wants adult performers to trust him and his big plans.

The man who aided and abetted AHF destruction of adult performers’ chosen health clinic now expects adult performers to welcome him with open arms.

The man who learned the ins and outs of LATATA, and then joined up with AHF right before the organization began filing complaints on adult talent agencies, now has a great plan for performers and talent agencies alike.

What could possibly go wrong?