James Steven Grady AKA Jimmy Stephens of Littleton, Colorado is the owner of and a photographer for the child modeling agency known as "TrueTeenBabes." Grady's website has been a source of controversy since 2002 when
he was raided by law enforcement:
On April 5, Arapahoe County, Colo., deputies raided the home and
offices of photographer James Steven Grady, who also operated the
TrueTeenBabes and TrueTeenCams Web sites.
In the raid, which interrupted live chat session featuring a scantily
clad 18-year-old “model,” deputies seized more than 100,000 images of
teenage girls, including 220 featuring underage girls posing nude or
partially nude, police said. Grady, 42, has pleaded innocent to 886 felony counts of violating a
state statute against sexual exploitation of children. He remains in
jail in lieu of $500,000 bail and could face a maximum sentence of life
in prison if convicted at his trial, currently scheduled to begin on
Oct. 3.
The case against Smith, who was arrested after NBC’s Chicago
affiliate WMAQ reported that the operation of his teen “model” site
apparently violated his parole, may be the strongest of the three, since
it is based on the frequently used federal child pornography statute.
In a statement announcing Smith’s indictment, U.S. Attorney Todd
Graves said that investigators had seized copies the child pornography
that Smith allegedly was selling and had obtained guilty pleas from
three ancillary figures in the case, who apparently are cooperating with
authorities.
Grady was eventually acquitted of the child pornography charges and continued to operate his agency. However he was losing an increasingly large amount of money due to piracy. So Grady teamed up with the owners of several other child modeling agencies to file a lawsuit against an internet forum which had been established by pedophiles to trade pirated images of girls on Gradys website. Grady also created a website titled "Stalking the Pirates" to expose the people participating in the forum.
This wasn't to be the only lawsuit filed by Grady, in 2010 he also filed suit against one of his former photographers, Terri Rieger Oberle of Largo, Florida, for attempting to set up her own agency after a dispute arose with Grady:
 |
| Terri Rieger Oberle |
Largo mother, website operator in dispute over young models
LARGO — Terri Rieger Oberle allowed one daughter to appear in underwear and high heels on the website TrueTeenBabes.com. Another daughter appeared topless on the website TeenBabes.com.
And now, in one of the stranger recent civil cases in Pinellas County, the whole arrangement has wound up in court.
Not because it's illegal.
Not because the mother wanted pictures of her young daughters taken off the websites.
Because of money.
Oberle, 47, of Largo says her daughters are 17 and 20 now and began
appearing on the websites a year or so ago, when they were "roughly" 16
and 19. The websites list the girls' ages as 15 and 19.
She said the young women who appear on the websites are "attractive in it. They're not illegal or anything like that."
The website featuring her younger daughter shows girls ages 13
through 17 in provocative poses, such as in their underwear and with
blouses and pants unbuttoned, but not nude. The other site, which
includes the topless photos of her older daughter, claims to feature
"America's hottest college girls" and "100-percent exclusive topless and
nude photos."
But Oberle says the arrangement broke down when one of her daughters
asked the website operator for more money, and "he fired my daughter."
He also told her daughters they could not appear on any similar
websites, she said.
Oberle declined to comment further.
James S. Grady operates the websites, and he is no stranger to
controversy. He was arrested in 2002 in Colorado on more than 700 counts
of sexual exploitation of a child, but the number of charges was
reduced to 39 by the time the case came to court in 2003. And he was
acquitted.
The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office investigated his websites in
2006 and 2009, but no charges were filed because they did not meet the
legal criteria to be considered child pornography, said spokeswoman
Cecilia Barreda.
Now Grady, 50, is suing Oberle and the two daughters. He says Oberle
signed a "model release" form allowing her younger daughter to appear on
his website using stage names. And he says he paid both daughters for
their time. It's not clear how much he paid, but information on one of
his websites says he pays $100 per hour for photo shoots.
But last year, the lawsuit says, the younger daughter allowed her
photo to be used on a different website called modelmayhem.com. And
someone else helped her create a competing "pay-per-view" website, the
lawsuit says, and offered to auction off "the wardrobe she wears in her
shoots." The older daughter also posted her picture on the competing
website, the lawsuit says.
Grady's lawsuit says this violated copyrighted work that was prepared
for his websites. Grady and his attorney, Luke Lirot, could not be
reached for comment.
Video available here:
http://video.tbo.com/v/30549726/owner-of-teen-modeling-website-sues.htm
Today Grady continues to operate his child modeling website, TrueTeenBabes, he also operates a forum which he uses to promote his website and others like it, known as "JambaTeens." The JambaTeens forum is moderated by Michael Grimes of New Smyrna Beach, Florida, who also operates his own child modeling agency known as "Sandl Models."
 |
| Michael Grimes of New Smyrna Beach, Florida |
