Phoenix brothel owner is sentenced

County Superior Court that, while it may have been morally wrong, the porn studio he ran was legal. He acknowledged, however, that he isn’t a legal expert.

“Maybe I’m wrong,” he said. “I’m just a fat, old pornographer.”

Hartwell accused the prosecution of fabricating information, manipulating victim testimonies with bribes, and withholding important evidence from the jury.

This evidence came in the form of hard drives, which he claimed contained more than 4,000 sex videos filmed in his studio.

“If I had been a sex trafficker, that would have been a horrible crime,” Hartwell said. “If I had sexually assaulted, that would have been a horrible crime. But I did not, and the hard drives show that.”

These tapes were not shown to the jury. They were, however, accepted by the court to be used in appeals.

Hartwell said he deeply cared for the women who worked for him, and he would never have done anything to hurt them or scare them. Prosecutor Vanessa Cuevas said otherwise.

“The most insulting assertion the defendant has made is that the women were not victims, they were just employees,” Cuevas said. “How dare he?”

She referenced the testimonies of Hartwell’s former employees, saying that they called him violent, territorial and threatening.

Hartwell denied all of this, claiming that the videos on the hard drives would show the women laughing and enjoying themselves. And, he asserted, there is nothing unlawful about that.

“I paid women to have sex while I filmed it,” Hartwell said. “And that is protected.”

Rick Poster, Hartwell’s defense attorney, said a life sentence in this case would be far too harsh, compared to previous sentences in harsher cases.

“What the state is asking for, certainly, is a life sentence,” Poster said. “Should we treat Mr. Hartwell worse than someone who has taken the life of someone else?”

The defense suggested a sentence no longer than seven years with a lifetime probation, so Hartwell wouldn’t have as high a risk of dying in prison.

The prosecution suggested a 44-year sentence as punishment for the trauma they believe he caused the victims both at the time of the offense, as well as the trauma they had to relive as they shared their testimonies.

After hours of backand-forth deliberation between the defense and the prosecution, the judge sentenced Hartwell to two consecutive 12-year sentences in an Arizona Department of Corrections facility. He will be credited for the 1,527 days he has already served.