Jason James Ellis' photographs have graced the covers of Elle, Maxim and numerous muscle and fitness magazines but more than the 36-year-old's telephoto lens graced the loins of a 15-year-old girl, alleges the Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA), which in March 2008 charged the famed Newport Beach photographer with statutory rape.
Ellis' former fiancée had also been accused of sexually assaulting the girl, but the OCDA later dropped charges against her.
Now comes the strangest twist of all: Ellis has reportedly married the rape victim.
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Joseph Serna gets the scoop for the Daily Pilot.
Ellis is alleged to have carried on a sexual relationship with the unidentified girl in 2007 and 2008. She is now 18. The Pilot chose not to identify her because she may have been the victim of a crime.
Serna reports the
now-woman (and -wife) has stopped cooperating with authorities in their felony case
against (now-husband) Ellis. But the case apparently trudges on: He's due back in court for a pre-trial hearing on May 20.
Perhaps he'll be back from his honeymoon by then.
The photographer faces six felonies, including lewd acts on a child and unlawful sexual
intercourse. He could get up to seven years in state prison if convicted. (Tip should Ellis wind up there: avoid the darkroom.)
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.