Previous we here at the blog reported to our readers on the absolutely nightmarish saga of a Backpage pimp from Houston Texas named David Mearis who received the largest sentence we’ve yet seen in connection with the human sex trafficking scam Tony Ortega advocated on behalf of for years.
We noted at the time just how many similarities there were between the low level pimps like Mearis and the predatory pimps higher up the corporate chain and wondered aloud if these same judgements might also be applied to the pimps running the show.
One day in and the new year is already starting off with a bang. Here at the blog we’ve long been sounding the alarm bells over the conduct of sex trafficking apologists like Tony Ortega. One of the major concerns we had about the way Tony conducted himself with such brazen hypocrisy during his tenure at the Village Voice was the degree to which he was actively working to destroy the lives of the countless children being exploited by his Backpage owners.
In terms of bad press for Backpage, it has been nothing short of a disaster. In addition to the two separate child sex trafficking rape cases, this past week, a third case made the news.
On Wednesday, 26yr old Trevien Thomas of Fresno, California pleaded guilty to driving a 14-year-old girl from Dallas and forcing her to into prostitution for days in Houston.
The accused pimp entered his plea by video conference because of the COVID-19 pandemic, telling Senior U.
In what many are calling the biggest judgement against a Backpage pimp to date, this Monday brought news that East Texas man who trafficked children and adults during an “eight-year reign of terror” in North Houston was ordered to serve a life sentence in federal prison and pay nearly $1 million in restitution to multiple victims.
Read that again — a lifetime sentence and one million dollars in restitutions.
David Mearis, 45, was convicted by a federal jury in October 2019 of forcing several girls into prostitution and grooming teen victims into adulthood so he could peddle them online for profit using Backpage.
If it comes as a shock to you to learn that human trafficking wasn’t a federal crime in the United States until the year 2000, you are not alone. It is a fact many have asked us to confirm this year — and one which, frankly, still amazes even us.
As we look back over the year that was, the one question we were asked by readers more than another was some version of: ‘How is what Tony Ortega did during his tenure as Backpage’s officially/unofficial spokesman considered any way close to legal?
Back at the end of October we raised the then controversial proposition that landlords should begin using their positions to deny rental privileges to those who engage in or promote human trafficking .
At that time we even, somewhat jokingly, suggested in our piece that this might be a compelling argument for Tony’s wife to consider, seeing as her deadbeat husband Tony Ortega was guilty of being a unrepentant spokesman for the underage sex trafficking factory — Backpage.
At the end of last year we began digging still further into Tony Ortega’s dirty history, shilling for Backpage and disparaging anyone with the courage to speak up against the vile criminality of selling underage girls to internet perverts. We noted how through all the public backlash Tony Ortega continued spreading his lies unchecked, allowing Backpage to do even more damage.
Today we’d like to explore some of the reasons Tony Ortega made such devious to help keep this digital pimp syndicate afloat.
Tony Ortega was once a hack tabloid writer trying pass himself off as a hot shot professional in New York. That, however, was a lie that couldn’t last long.
Ortega’s bizarre masquerade was soon exposed and Ortega was unmasked, revealing him to be the ridiculous little ‘emperor with no clothes’ we always knew he was.
These days Tony Ortega fills his days by pretending to be busy, living out his sad days as unemployed blogger in Scarsdale, New York.
It has been a tumultuous week for the pro-human sex trafficking camp. Tony Ortega may no longer be the cheerleader he once was for the vile exploitation of women and underage girls during his days as a talking head for the Backpage crime syndicate, but as we’ve reported to our readers previously the dark reverberations of his disgusting rhetoric continues to infect the thinking of a dangerous number of new online enterprises.
Terrific news announced Friday, as Mastercard and Visa have vowed to join the fight against those using Tony Ortega’s rehashed pro-sex trafficking rhetoric.
The two largest credit card companies in America have made it abundantly clear that the old arguments Tony Ortega used to defend his child sex-trafficking pals over at Backpage are no longer fooling anyone and any hopes the pro-sex trafficking crowd had of gaining a foothold in the exploitative war against young women and girls is dead-on-arrival.
Recently we reported to our readers about the New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof article. Today, it seems the bombshell ripple effect it’s created has just about everyone talking.
We compared the subject of Kristof’s article, Pornhub, to the sex trafficking clearinghouse Tony Ortega shilled for and suggested the argumentation now being used by Pornhub and its defenders runs along the same lines as the bogus lies Ortega was peddling in order to whitewash Backpage’s rampant criminality.
Tony Ortega
Over the past few posts we’ve been considering the consequences for victims of human sex trafficking, particularly as it impacts its younger victims. The callousness of Backpage execs and its depraved cheerleader, Tony Ortega, in the face of the vast amount of human suffering they are personally responsible cannot be overstated.
As we explained, while Backpage may be dismantled the harmful, long-lasting effects of the sort of human trafficking Tony Ortega tried to convince was nothing more than a ‘radical expression of First Amendment rights’, continue to do harm.
Aaron Drumheller
Ortega continues his petulant silence on the subject as further evidence of Backpage’s bloody history continues to surface.
We’ve been saying this for so long now it’s starting to sound like a broken record. But then, Tony Ortega is not an individual known for having a varied history of creativity. He is, as the saying goes, a one track pony. And, disturbingly, much of his track seems to revolve around the ‘sex-for-cash with at-risk women and underage girls’ portal known as Backpage.
Tony Ortega Backpage Apologist
Yesterday we suggested that Tony Ortega, and his fellow band of henchmen, are long overdue to receive comeuppance for their misdeeds for aiding and abetting Backpage during the horrific run of its illicit human sex trafficking crime spree.
We reported to you how a federal grand jury issued yet another judgement against one of the same pimps Tony Ortega told us we were all “hysterically worrying’ worrying over.
Tony Ortega Backpage Apologist
The more we read about Tony Ortega, the more urgent we feel about authorities stepping in to do something. We felt this way when we first learned about the crackpot theories he was peddling to trashy alt publications.
And while we don’t wish to underplay the seriousness of Tony Ortega’s famously toxic relationship with telling the truth – as we’ve been seeing over the years – it’s the company Ortega keeps that has us wondering if it isn’t time for law enforcement to do something about it.
If it is own thing we all know about the slimy executives of the Backpage sex trafficking syndicate, it is this: they will use every dirty, underhanded trick in the book to slither off the hook.
Maybe it’s a trick they learned from their pitchman, Tony Ortega. One thing is certain, however, this past week they were up to their old tricks again.
We all know the former Backpage executives Michael Lacey and James Larkin, together with their squad of already-indicted unethical employees stand accused of facilitating prostitution.
The people of Texas have spoken and spoken loudly. Tony Ortega and his kind are no longer welcome in their communities. Dallas may have once been the national headquarters for Backpage, the illicit website Tony Ortega proudly shilled for, but my how things have changed in the past few years!
Amateur “hack journalist” and professional sell-out Tony Ortega once sang Backpage’s praises from coast to coast, trying to gloss over the inescapable fact that women and underage girls were daily being sold for sex.
The United States saw the passage of Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA and Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), a bill that held websites criminally responsible for facilitating all forms of illegal sex trafficking, and which shuttered a host of platforms used by pimps and prostitutes alike to advertise their sexual services. Since that time, the law has had a huge impact on sex traffickers profit margins, not to mention the “social acceptance” of their shady business.
If you buy the lies Tony Ortega has advanced during his stint as the mouth piece for the human sex trafficking website Backpage, odds are you are under the delusion that prostitution is merely an economic choice or a victimless crime.
To listen to Tony Ortega you’d think being trafficked for the sex trade was an exercise of your constitutionally protected rights as an American. In reality, however, it’s all a glossy cover for something far deeper and darker.
When Craigslist closed its “adult” section, Backpage became the go-to online spot for illegal sex listings. Its presence grew to be ubiquitous across the United States, making it the target of numerous law enforcement and attorneys general.
Despite Tony Ortega’s whining to contrary.
Despite his list of deceptive excuses as long as your arm.
Despite the loss of revenue to his friends, measured in the hundreds of millions.
Like all clear-thinking, compassionate citizens we hope to curtail the practice of underage sex trafficking and coercive sex slavery.
