Box Turtle Bulletin

Details of CNN’s Interview with “Lucien” Leaked

Details of CNN’s exclusive interview with Jo-Vanni Roman (a.k.a. “Lucien”), the Miami escort who accompanied anti-gay activist George Rekers on a ten-day trip to Europe, appeared briefly on the AC360 blog briefly, but it now appears to have been pulled. We don’t know if it’s because they didn’t want to give too much away ahead of time, or if other news stories (the Nashville floods, the oil spill in the gulf, financial problems in Greece, British elections) threaten to push this story off to another day. At any rate, we were able to capture some of what you can expect to see, assuming the story airs tonight:

Here’s the background. “Lucien” says Rekers hired him by answering his ad on the website, RentBoy.com. He says Rekers would have been exposed to all kinds of naked men in compromising sexual positions on the website before getting through to the ads for male companions.

“Lucien” showed me the contract he signed with Rekers. It does show he was hired to carry Rekers luggage because he needed help with that, but #3 in the contract terms spells out that Lucien “will provide George Rekers a massage for at least one hour each day of the trip in their shared rooms using the same procedures (“Lucien”) provided to George Rekers in Florida.” “Lucien” told me he had given Rekers two “sexual massages” in Florida at hotels before they even left for Europe and that Rekers had requested the massages be “sexual.” “Lucien” says he gave Rekers what he called the “long stroke” which included touching his genitals. He said the massages took place in their shared rooms in both London and Madrid. For his services, “Lucien” was paid $75 a day plus the cost of his air travel.

In a statement, George Rekers said “I hired him as a companion and to help with luggage, and that I did not hire him as a prostitute for any sexual purpose.” In a separate statement, Rekers said, “Professor George Rekers requires an assistant to lift his luggage in his travels because of an ongoing condition following surgery… Dr. Rekers found his recent travel assistant by interviewing acquaintances. There was nothing inappropriate with this relationship. Professor Rekers was not involved in any illegal or sexual behavior with his travel assistant.”

Lucien wasn’t paid for our interview and says he has turned down payments from other organizations for his story. He isn’t looking to make money on this. He says Rekers became sort of a “father figure” to him and he feels sorry for him. He told me George Rekers has asked him repeatedly not to talk to the media and not to tell anyone about his “sexual massages” but “Lucien” is talking because he wants people, especially in Florida, “to know who Rekers really is.”

CNN also got a comment from Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, whose office paid Rekers $120,000 to serve as an expert witness in the state’s defense of Florida’s adoption ban for gay couples:

McCollum’s office told us Rekers came to their attention “by recommendation from another academic after an exhaustive search” and that Rekers “had exceptional credentials and he had provided testimony in similar cases on two separate occasions, one of which was a Florida case in Federal Court.” The statement goes on: “The contract was executed at the direction of the Department of Children and Families, and the ACLU did not object to his position as an expert at the hearing. He has completed his testimony and is no longer involved in this case.”

AC360° airs tonight at 10:00 p.m. Eastern and 7:00 p.m. Pacific