The following e-mail exchange took place between R. Scott Moxley and Bill Orton. Moxley is the Weekly's lead investigative reporter and the author of a Sept. 26 interview with a gay Republican activist who identified Orange County Assemblyman Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) as an unreliable ally of the gay community. When the email exchange took place, Orton was a Correa staffer. That changed sometime shortly after Moxley began calling Correa for his comments on Orton's emails. Yesterday, the assemblyman's spokesperson told Moxley that Orton was no longer on Correa's staff, and directed him to call the Assembly Rules Committee.
From: bi********@as*.gov
To: rs**********@oc******.com
Oct. 17, 11:02 a.m.
Okay, this is definitely note [sic] for the record. . . . Hey, RSM, I'm technically single . . . or, uh, maybe technically I'm not . . . (I'm in the process of a divorce) . . . but . . . Do you date guys? (Kind of a preface to my asking if you want to go out.)
From: Moxley To: Orton Oct. 17, 4:12 p.m. Very funny, Bill. You're a comedian! Next stop: the Improv!
4:20 p.m.
Just wanted to know. You see, I've got a date with a woman named Kimberly on Monday and feels like a pretty good situation for she and I. But, you know, it's always good to check things out . . . none of which is for the record, you know.
4:21 p.m. I know a guy named Kim who likes people to think he/she is a woman. Maybe they are the same. Did you feel stubble on his/her legs during your last date?
4:30 p.m.
My blonde bombshell babe Kimberly is most DEFINITELY a woman. No offense, Scott. Just the fervor by which you tossed up the softballs to the Log Cabin dude and the constant hits on one particular lawmaker made me kinda think you might be open to being asked out. . . .
4:31 p.m. Hits on which lawmaker?
4:38 p.m.
No comment.
4:38 p.m. You do realize that I've not agreed to anything here as being off the record, right?
4:47 p.m.
Then you're a bigger bastard than I imagined. You are welcome to use MY name and to indicate anything you wish about ME. This is, as I said, a personal inquiry.
4:58 p.m. I'm obviously not in your league intelligence-wise, but it appears that your anti-gay communication today was done using state of California resources. That is what “asm.ca.gov” indicates at the end of your e-mail address, doesn't it? And is the assemblyman aware of or does he share the sentiments you've given me in these messages?
5:13 p.m.
Scott, 1. You are correct that I should not have used my work account for a personal question. 2. While having coffee together earlier this year, I was not at all struck by a deficiency of any sort in your intelligence. Indeed, you seem a rather erudite guy. 3. My personal inquiry was just that. I have asked exactly three guys out on a date since my wife and I separated. (Got turned down by one, ignored by the second and, well, the third I perhaps should not have asked, but I did anyway. And I should not have done so from work. It would be wrong to characterize my inquiry as anti-anything, except anti-smart on my part.
Oct. 23, 10:11 a.m. So, Bill, you're telling me that you are gay?
[No answer.]
Oct. 24, 1:09 p.m. Bill, I'd like an answer to my previous e-mail.
From: bi*******@ea*******.net
Oct. 24, 4:36 p.m.
What I can say is that in talking to my wife about some of the really stupid things I have done in my life, we were able to reopen some communication channels that had been blocked for much of this year. This has created the possibility for us to pull back from the precipice of divorce and to again explore the bonds that have linked us for these 14 years (not the least of which is our common desire to do what is best for our nine-year-old daughter). One can never predict the future, but as my wife and I are beginning the path of reconciliation, my earlier question becomes moot. I can feel good that in the four months of my separation, I dated only one person—a very nice woman in Huntington Beach named Kimberly, who I shall no longer date, as I am committing to giving my marriage a renewed effort. So if my question is moot and Kimberly is the only person other than my wife who I have kissed in 14 years, I guess the answer to your most recent question is: no.
Oct. 31, 12:45 p.m. Did you consider that your boss is now campaigning for gay votes in his hopes to become an Orange County supervisor in 2004? Oh, and, Bill, even if I was gay, you wouldn't have a chance.
Final note: on his personal website (billyorton.com), “Bill Orton–Democrat of California,” the Correa aide inexplicably has posted a picture of a woman he says he “adores”: 18-year-old Italian female porn star Anekee van der Velden. Orton's political website provides a link to the large-breasted teenager's site (anekee.com) which contains numerous nude photos, as well as van der Velden's cheerleader masturbation fantasy: “One day I decided to try a little something. I wore my T-shirt braless, so that my boobs would jiggle and shake all around while I jumped around and danced on the sidelines. My erect nipples caught the attention of all the men sitting in the stands. You should have seen the men trying to hide their hard-ons from their wives and daughters!”
On his own site, Orton wrote about the porn star: “Ooooo yeah . . . her's is an immense beauteousness.”
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.