898-year sentence ends 'reign of terror'

An FBI agent takes Gemase Lee Simmons to court in January after he was arrested on federal charges related to child pornography. An FBI agent takes Gemase Lee Simmons to court in January after he was arrested on federal charges related to child pornography. Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close 898-year sentence ends 'reign of terror' 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

A fake reality-show producer was ordered to serve 898 years in stacked prison sentences Friday after authorities said he conned and extorted more than 100 young men and women, many underage, into performing sexual acts with him.

“The court is looking evil in the face right now,” Chief U.S. District Judge Fred Biery told Gemase Lee Simmons, 36, as the sentencing hearing came to a close. “And you're going to have to pay a price for being that evil.”

Citing Simmons' “reign of terror” as one of the most heinous he had seen in his nearly 35 years as a judge, Biery also suggested that the sex offender be housed in solitary confinement at a supermaximum security facility.

Simmons was convicted in February of six counts of bank fraud involving a $52,000 check-kiting scheme, four counts of extortion and 29 counts involving the creation, transportation and possession of child porn.

His scam has been around since at least 2006, when the parents of young “models” complained to the San Antonio Police Department, to no avail, that Simmons had set up a fake modeling agency to steal their money and their innocence, FBI special agent Larry Baker testified Friday.

Simmons would coerce victims as young as 13 into posing nude, adopting multiple personas via text messages to make it seem as though a national company was considering their modeling services, authorities said.

He would also conduct recorded “sessions” in which sex acts were performed on him, supposedly to prepare them for a modeling career, according to witnesses. When some of the victims wised up and attempted to leave, he would require explicit “closing sessions” and large cash payments or threaten to release the photos, they said.

“He could talk anybody into anything,” one victim explained Friday.

While awaiting sentencing, Simmons, who was arrested last year after a federal investigation, managed to scam two fellow inmates into committing sexual acts for what he said was a “sexual deviancy exam” that, if passed, could reduce their sentences, authorities said.

Simmons continued to maintain his innocence Friday, filing a 198-page handwritten request for a new trial that the judge denied. He asked for a sentence of 15 to 30 years.

“I know in my soul I am not the man who created these personas,” he said, acknowledging that he was in many of the videos and photos but contending that he was a victim, too. Prosecutors Tracy Thompson and Bettina Richardson responded to Simmons' request for leniency by reading aloud from “Worth Fighting For,” a self-published book by the defendant that included a speech he gave at Trinity University in 2004. In it, he described a history of sexual abuse in his family and compared sexual predators to “domestic terrorists.”

“There has to be a nationwide commitment to end molestation,” Simmons said in the speech. “I am in favor of stricter laws and stiffer punishment for the abuser. A sentence of anything less than life in prison is a state-granted grace that the abuser does not deserve.”

Laughter briefly erupted in the courtroom as the judge thanked Simmons for his sentencing policy suggestions. Biery then promised that the defendant's wishes expressed in the speech would soon be granted.

ckapitan@express-news.net

Twitter: @HearsaySA