LOS ANGELES — Jury selection began this morning in the government’s case against gay porn star Jarec Wentworth.
Wentworth, who was working in Men.com productions before his arrest in March, is charged with extortion and making criminal threats after the FBI arrested him in a sting operation.
Wentworth extorted his victim, D.B., and threatened to ruin his reputation by outing his affairs on Twitter, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit.
D.B., who has been slated as a witness in the case at Los Angeles federal court, is reportedly multimillionaire Magic Jack exec Donald Burns.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge John Walter granted Wentworth’s motion to dismiss the seventh count of the government's first superseding indictment.
Walter found that in because of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month in Johnson v. U.S., Wentworth's attempted extortion of D.B. was not a crime of violence.
But Walter denied Wentworth's motion to dismiss counts of extortion and attempted extortion affecting interstate commerce by nonviolent threat.
After jury selection, the trial is slated to begin, lasting an estimated three days.
