Sage Lewis and his friend Robert Paris were convicted of first-degree sexual conduct in Grand Haven, MI, Friday for raping a 17-year-old girl at Lewis’s home, along with Lewis’s father, Kelly Lewis, who, being obviously a real stand-up guy, videotaped the whole thing, then later pled guilty to multiple felonies and was locked up for 12-20 years. The trial for the two 19-year-olds, held separately, wrapped up Friday after the jury watched the video of the incident and determined that the girl was not able to consent due to being, you know, passed out drunk, despite Lewis’s protests that she was awake and consenting. One reason he thought she must want it, it seems, was that she was interested in hearing about his brief career in porn in California, Chicago, and Florida. She wanted to see the trailer for one of the movies he’d shot, which he had on his phone. Obviously she wanted to be sexually assaulted later in the evening. And obviously Sage Lewis is a total dickhead for taking advantage of drunk underage woman. No issues with his conviction or arguments about his moral fiber here.
But I do have a very serious bone to pick with the way the media handled finding out that Sage Lewis had participated in shooting and acting in a few porn films: rather than reporting on the trial, the headlines from all over Michigan read, “Sage Lewis’s past as porn actor plays a role in rape trial involving 17-year-old girl.” Because, duh, it only stands to reason that a guy who could do something as reprehensible as filming a porno with consenting adults must then be more likely to rape a minor… with his friend… and his dad. It’s rhetoric like this in the headlines we read every day that contributes to the public thinking that people in the porn industry are heathens and criminals: maybe, had Lewis not gotten his dick buried in the degrading and disgusting porn industry first, he would never have raped a poor unsuspecting girl! It can’t be the result of having grown up with a felonious gutter fiend like his father, or being just a turd in general! No, it’s got to have something to do with the porn.
When he was convicted of first-degree sexual conduct (which is a bizarre name for a crime, isn’t it? I mean, I feel like I’ve probably engaged in first-degree sexual conduct in my time while I was, you know, having flesh-on-flesh sexual contact with a partner… seems awfully ambiguous, no?) on Friday, he told the judge and jurors, “I didn’t do anything wrong!”
But during the trial the day before, he reportedly told the court that “did feel a little bad about doing” porn.
Let me repeat that. Dude didn’t do anything wrong by having sex with a passed-out minor on tape, taking turns with his friend and his father, but he had regrets about being in porn.
…let me just sit here and let that sink in for a few minutes…
Ok. Goddammit, what is wrong with people?! How does holding a camera while some consenting adults have perfectly legal, perfectly pleasurable sex in front of you, or signing the proper paperwork and then having perfectly legal, STD-tested, consensual sex with another adult for an adult film, worse than having sex with a passed out drunk minor? How are the two even related? They’re not. It’s simple; his acting in and filming porn has absolutely no bearing, or at least should have no bearing, on what he, his friend, and his father did to a 17-year-old girl in their hot tub and on their bed… and which his father videotaped.
Obviously Sage Lewis and father have some bizarre ideas about what constitutes family fun night, and I wouldn’t hesitate to say that their conduct was not only criminal but also just plain weird. Running a train on someone with your 44-year old dad and buddy is pretty out-there behavior, and reeeeally close to homoerotic incest. But that’s not the point, is it? The point is that this guy is being put through the wringer by the media and his own emotions not because of his bizarre-o familial sexual proclivities or because he raped someone, but because he did some porn a few times.
I don’t even have anything else to say about this. I’ve given up on humanity. I’m gonna just go get drunk.
—Miss Lagsalot
I have to disagree with this article and point out a few inaccuracies. The first one is that it was Jordan Paris’s father who was convicted for not only taping the rape but for also taking part in it by also having sex with the 17yr old.
The second is the crime they were convicted of was “First degree criminal sexual conduct” not ‘first degree sexual conduct as reported here. The word criminal makes a big difference in understanding the conviction.
I had not heard of this case and did a quick google search after reading about it here. I am one who will usually rant about how sex, sex work and porn are abused in mainstream media but in this case I disagree. Out of several articles I read it was only one that mentioned the prior porn history of Sage and it was his defense attorney who used it as an excuse. Maybe that was the point you were trying to make here but I didn’t get that impression.
I personally didn’t see any articles with the headline about his prior porn career or the media exploiting this. What I did see was a scumbag defense attorney using it as an excuse for him having sex with a 17 year old girl who was passed out.
Diva,
Glad you pointed out the “criminal” in the charge; my brain skipped over that part. Makes me feel a lot better about Michigan law to realize there’s “criminal” in there!
Also, as for the porn history: http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/03/sage_lewiss_past_as_porn_actor.html is the main link I followed (Headline reads” Sage Lewis’s past as porn actor plays a role in rape trial involving 17-year-old girl”), but when I later Googled “Sage Lewis porn” I got a ton of reprints from other publications that used the same article and same headline.
I think there was more than one scumbag present at this trial; lawyer, son, son’s friend, dad (who wasn’t there but sure was involved), and John Tunison of the Grand Rapids Press.