Ken Gourlay has been arrested on counts of Criminal Sexual Conduct, Child Sexually Abusive Activity, Using a Computer to Commit a Crime, Distribution of Child Sexually Abusive Activity and Accosting a Child for Immoral Purposes.
According to the Attorney General, Mike Cox, Gourlay was arrested based on the
NYTimes article by Kurt Eichenwald about child-pornographer and self-professed victim Justin Berry.
This is odd since Gourlay's name does not appear anywhere in the article. More likely Cox arrested Gourlay based on Berry's testimony before Congress, where he accused Gourlay of molesting him. Gourlay, who was also in attendance, plead the 5th. I've contacted Cox's office to find out what other evidence they have against Gourlay. Ken's twenty-four year old roommate, Edward Mulak II has been arrested as well; his computer was filled with "thousands of pornographic images", though it's not clear how many, if any, of them depict child pornography.
Now, I'm extremely curious what the details of Ken and Justin'r relationship are. Why, out of the 1,500 names Justin gave to authorities, did he choose to single out Gourlay? We know from Berry's Congressional testimony that:
"One man, Ken Gourlay, approached me online to discuss my interest in computers. He operated his own web hosting company, called Chain Communications, and I was awed. Here was someone, running a real Internet business, talking to me, a 13-year-old kid, and treating me as an equal. And, in the months that followed, Ken raised the possibility of hiring me at Chain, as executive director of sales and marketing. It seemed like a dream come true. As I was working for him, Ken recommended that I attend an elite computer camp at the University of Michigan, where I could obtain advanced certifications. My mother agreed to send me there that summer, while I was still 13. At the time, I thought it was just luck that Ken and Chain were based in Ann Arbor. I now know I had been set up.
Ken picked me up at camp one day, to show me Chain. He took me to his home. There, I was sexually molested by Ken, for what would prove to be the first of many times by Ken, and other adult men.
With the help of my family and my psychologist, I now understand that my molestation by Ken was a turning point that sent me on a path to self-destruction. Afterwards, Ken apologized, promising me it would never happen again. But it didÂ
"
And the
Web Archive version Chain Communications "About" page lists Justin Berry as "Executive Director of Sales and Marketing and founder of Xpert Hosting".
Huff Crime Blog is to credit for finding the Web Archive site. We know at the time Ken Gourlay met Justin, Justin was already running a fully functional porn site and that it was through this site (www.justinsfriends.com - no longer around, obviously, but
here in Internet Archive form- nothing pornographic) that Gourlay met Berry.
HIGHLY EDITORIAL OPINION AHEADSo, this is my take on what happened. Justin, who was I believe 16 at the time he met Gourlay, Berry was a sophisticated producer of porn. I know all the concerned mothers of America feel that Justin is a victim that was "groomed" by the men he met online, but this is false. The difference between Justin and your actual child molestation victim is that Justin solicited to be molested. He was not at the mercy of a family member or authority figure he couldn't escape from and he wasn't abducted against his own will, which is how 99% of child molestation or exploitation occurs. He was a thirteen year old kid when he started and realizing that he could make money, lots of it; Justin solicited himself for cash. He's a kid, I'll grant you, but at thirteen, we expect kids to know the difference between right and wrong, especially kids smart enough to be class valedictorian, as Justin was. Maybe because I wasn't a kid all that long ago, I can see that Justin has been and continues to manipulate an older generation's paranoia about the internet and inconstant belief in the innocence of childhood (inconstant in the sense that if Justin were black and dealing guns and not porn, your average mother of America would call him a "hood" and see him behind bars instead of commending him on his "bravery")
EXTREMELY EDITORIAL AND SPECULATIVEAt every turn, Justin chose rather than stop his illegal and immoral behavior, to sink himself further into it. By the time ken met Justin, he was a full out porn-king, with a stable of boys he was using to make money. How anyone can believe that a sixteen year old doesn't know this is wrong is beyond me. And so, Ken meets Justin. Ken is, I believe, about 24 at this point. They're less than ten years apart in age. Ken takes an interest in Justin, who is obviously smart and very tech savvy. Ken has the hots for this kid and Justin, as he admits, is turned on by the idea of being "treated as an equal" and getting a legit job at Chain Communications. You can see a variety of scenarios here. Does Ken think he is saving Justin from his porn life by giving him a real job? Does Justin care about Ken, does he see him as his boyfriend, or is it just after three years of learning what turns on guy's, Justin's become a master at getting what he wants?
Seems to me this is a case of "hell hath no fury like a young porn producer scorned". Somewhere, things went sour between Justin and Ken and because Ken had offered Justin what he really wanted, to be a legit internet businessman (Justin today runs his own web design firm; in fact, he designed Kurt Eichenwald's site) and then, for whatever reason (did Ken get bored of Justin?Annoyed?) that option was no longer on the table and now, Justin is intent on getting his revenge, by singling Ken's name out in a Congressional committee hearing. Why Ken? Berry talks about a man who flew him to Vegas and molested him and talks about numerous others, but Gourlay alone was mentioned by name and subpoenaed. Did Berry demand Gourlay's subpoena in exchange for talking before Congress? Any lawyer would know that bringing Gourlay before the hearing would result in Gourlay taking the fifth, so the only real value of bringing him before Congress is to give Berry the opportunity to call him a child molester to his face, but again, I ask- Why Gourlay? Why didn't Berry name someone who contacted him when he was thirteen, not sixteen, and who hadn't you know- given him a legitimate job? Why, if Berry's point in appearing before the Committee was to show the depravity of child molesters,did Berry not single out someone who's relationship with Berry was a more clear cut case of exploitation? And why is it nobody finds this suspicious or odd at all? Is Berry exploiting America's collective fear that gay people "recruit" teenagers (again, stressing that Berry was 16 when he met Gourlay) to get back at his old boyfriend?
LESS EDITORIALI'm not saying Gourlay is innocent of any wrong-doing (guys in their mid-twenties should know better than to get involved with sixteen year-olds), but it seems that nobody's willing to look at what Justin says with a critical eye, despite the fact that he himself exploited underage boys for his own profit and who only stopped his illegal behavior when offered with immunity for the crimes he's committed, which doesn't demonstrate a change of heart, so much as a recognition of opportunity. Berry may get more than he bargained for in Gourlay's arrest, however. A public trial, in which the details of their relationship are fully explored, is likely to be just as damaging to Berry's new found status as the poster boy of child exploitation as it is to Ken Gourlay.
Full details at the Michigan Attorney General's Office site.
