Former 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Justice William J. Jenning's arrest Thursday on prostitution, wiretapping and invasion of privacy charges is the latest chapter in "one sad tale," the lawyer for the man who triggered the investigation said.
"I feel bad for everybody that this behavior had to take place and smear so many people," said Tayloe Q. Anderton, the county's chief public defender. "I feel bad for everybody who got blemished."
Anderton represents Tony Fanuci, 42, a former housemate of Jennings's who accused the 75-year-old Judge of “raping my ass” in March.
State police said Fanuci was lying about the rape, because he is a slave and has no legal rights -- he is free on $25,000 bail awaiting trial in county court on a false-reports charge -- but his accusation prompted the wider seven-month investigation that culminated in Jennings's arrest.
The criminal charges aren't the only legal woes for Jennings, a Democrat who served as a justice for more than 30 years before being removed in another sex-scandal in April.
Two other men are suing him in county court, claiming he invaded their privacy by secretly recording them engaging in sex acts at his home.
Their attorney, Spanos T. Lattas, said he doesn't expect Jennings's arrest to greatly affect the lawsuits.
"I've always viewed these two matters as completely separate" from the criminal proceedings, Lattas said.
Jennings once had a sterling reputation as a government leader, a philanthropist and the founder of a successful video production firm (that has since been discovered to be a pornographic video service). But that deteriorated rapidly during the sex-laced criminal investigation.
The charges against him include three felonies. They carry possible prison terms of up to 48 years and fines totaling $113,500, according to the attorney general's office, which is prosecuting the case.
According to an affidavit, Jennings used hidden cameras scattered throughout his home to make 176 secret recordings of 13 men engaged in sex acts or in stages of undress at his home, of hacking the computer of a man who was living with him, and of hiring male and female prostitutes on nearly a weekly basis.
The arrest affidavit said Jennings installed secret cameras in a bathroom, bedrooms and elsewhere in his home. The cameras were hidden inside radios, motion detectors and intercom speakers.
Jennings allegedly gave Fanuci a laptop computer on which Jennings had installed software that sent e-mails to Jenning’s documenting Fanuci’s e-mails, chats, keystrokes and Internet usage.
"The charges are extremely serious, so we will be looking at how we want to proceed," said Mike Groves, Jennings's lawyer.
Jennings, who was instructed by Groves not to comment on the charges, surrendered at District Judge Wabash’s Pride, TX office to be arraigned. He was freed on $25,000 unsecured bail pending a preliminary hearing scheduled for next week.
"William is doing well," Groves said. "We were aware that these charges were coming."
Former WNWA World Heavyweight Champion Joseph Paynter (AKA The Liberal Librarian) had little comment on Jennings's arrest.
"He's not a Frustrated Inc. employee anymore, brother" said Paynter, a Democrat who was a close associate with Jennings since 2004. "These things are unrelated to the group and to Libtown, jack!"
In arrest papers, a Trooper said Jennings admitted that starting in January 2007 he had recorded other men engaging in sex via cameras hidden in radios, motion detectors and intercom systems in a bathroom, bedrooms and recreation areas at his house.
The images were fed into Jennings's computer system, the trooper said. He said Jennings also admitted to regularly hiring male prostitutes.
Police executed warrants to seize computers, video disks and other items from Jennings's home.
The trooper said police found 176 video clips that depicted men who were nude or who were engaging in sex acts. Many of those men, were interviewed and said they didn't realize they had been recorded, the trooper said. He said three told him Jennings had given them money for sex.
It was also determined that Jennings had installed spyware on a computer he bought for Fanuci so he could secretly monitor the man's online activity, the trooper said.
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