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‘King of All Pimps' — who recruited then-NY Gov. Eliot Spitzer hooker Ashley Dupré — claims his reputation was trashed by murder claim

‘King of All Pimps' — who recruited then-NY Gov. Eliot Spitzer hooker Ashley Dupré — claims his reputation was trashed by murder claim

Yahoo27-04-2025
The self-proclaimed 'King of All Pimps' draws the line at being called a killer.
A notorious pimp who regularly bragged about his high-end prostitution ring — and took credit for recruiting Ashley Dupré, the hooker whose tryst with then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer ended the 'Luv Guv's' career — claimed his reputation was trashed by a YouTuber who accused him of killing a young woman 15 years ago.
Jason Itzler is now a foul-mouthed Internet streamer who goes by the online name 'MrBased,' known for 'IRL,' or 'in real life' videos of his everyday activities, often with an autistic TikToker with 3.8 million followers named Josh Block, aka 'World of Tshirts,' in tow.
Itzler is suing YouTuber Alex Novell for defamation after Novell posted a 30-minute video in July titled 'When a Livestreamer Confesses to Murder.'
The footage, narrated by Novell, outlines the still unsolved date rape drug overdose death of Wisconsin college student and aspiring model Julia Sumnicht in 2010 in Miami Beach — and includes audio of Itzler allegedly confessing to buying and providing the GHB Sumnicht took the night of her death.
'How Mr Based (Jason Itzler) got away with murdering Julia Sumnicht in Miami in 2010,' Novell, who has more than 33,000 YouTube subscribers, captioned his 30 minute video.
In the film, Itzler repeatedly denies the allegations.
He 'has suffered severe emotional distress, mental anguish and other physical and psychological injuries' because of Novell, Itzler said in a Manhattan Supreme Court defamation lawsuit.
Novell also allegedly sent someone to trespass at Itzler's East Village home in February 2024 and 'physically attacked' and 'choked' him Jan. 1, Itzler claimed in the litigation.
Court records show Itzler, who has 170,000 TikTok followers and an audience of 189,000 on Instagram, is facing harassment, criminal contempt and making a terroristic threat charges in two pending Brooklyn cases for allegedly threatening Novell and violating an order to stay away from him.
Lawyers for Itzler didn't return messages.
Novell sued Itzler in March in Brooklyn Supreme Court for $250,000 for assaulting him in Manhattan in August. Itzler denied the allegations, court records show.
Novell slammed Itzler's lawsuit, saying it had 'nothing but bogus claims in it and it's an attempt to silence me and this film I made about this case.'
Miami Beach Police did not return a request for comment.
Itzler, 58, was a tabloid staple years before social media's cheap celebrity-making became derigueur.
In the 2000s, Iztler bragged about running New York Confidential, one of the Big Apple's most infamous prostitution rings, and touted giving then-19-year-old 'little lamb' Dupré her start in the Big Apple's tawdry scene.
In 2011 he bizarrely spread what multiple sources then deemed a made-up tale of singer Billy Ray Cyrus doing heroin with an escort at Trump International. In 2012, he was sentenced to four years in prison on drug, pandering and money laundering charges.
Itzler and Dupré shot to tabloid fame as the then high-flying Spitzer's career crashed and burned after a federal investigation into high end hookers snared Spitzer, who had secretly spent $80,000 on escorts.
The fateful tryst with Dupré, who used the name 'Kristen,' took place Feb. 13, 2008, in Washington D.C.'s Mayflower Hotel. The governor kept his black, calf-length socks on during their encounter.
A month later he resigned, handing power to then Lt. Gov. David Paterson, on March 12, 2008. Spitzer was identified as 'Client 9' in the feds ongoing probe of prostitution ring the Emperor's Club, but was never charged.
Like Itzler, Dupré has stunningly reinvented herself.
In 2008 — the same year she was schtupping Spitzer — she began an affair with married New Jersey asphalt and road construction mogul Thomas Earle.
The two married in 2013 and have three kids of their own.
The former call girl — who briefly ran a lingerie business in New Jersey — now goes by the name Ashley Earle, offering parenting advice and clips of her young kids to her 310,000 TikTok followers. She declined comment on Itzler's latest drama.
Her stepdaughter, 'Hot Mess' podcaster Alix Earle from Thomas' marriage to then wife Alisa, dwarfs her stepmom's social media power with a whopping 7.4 million TikTok followers.
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Italian YouTuber Faces Jail Time for Showing Android Handhelds With Emulated Games
Italian YouTuber Faces Jail Time for Showing Android Handhelds With Emulated Games

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timea few seconds ago

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Italian YouTuber Faces Jail Time for Showing Android Handhelds With Emulated Games

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Surrogacy scandal deepens as 6 women now claim they carried babies for Cali couple caught with 21 tots
Surrogacy scandal deepens as 6 women now claim they carried babies for Cali couple caught with 21 tots

New York Post

time29 minutes ago

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Surrogacy scandal deepens as 6 women now claim they carried babies for Cali couple caught with 21 tots

For Kayla Elliot, the first red flag should have been the Facebook message inviting her to register with a little-known surrogacy agency in southern California. The Texas mother-of-four had been scrolling through surrogacy chat groups and said she wanted to carry a baby for a childless couple because 'I really enjoy being pregnant.' She found it strange that Mark Surrogacy Investment LLC reached out to her directly, but because she had little experience with surrogacy agencies — which match women with couples who want to have children — she agreed to go forward. 9 Kayla Elliot said she noticed a number of 'red flags' during her experience with Mark Surrogacy Investment LLC. Gofundme She did notice it was a little strange that the organization said they had already chosen a Chinese couple to be the parents of the baby she would eventually sign up to carry. 'I didn't have enough knowledge,' said Elliot in a YouTube interview posted earlier this month by the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network, a California nonprofit whose mission is to inform the public about ethical issues surrounding biomedicine and biotechnology. 'I didn't know [that as a surrogate], you're supposed to choose your family.' Unbeknownst to her, the family she was carrying the baby for was already a large one. A house in an upmarket Los Angeles city was raided by the FBI, leading authorities to rescue 21 small children, many of whom had allegedly been subject to abuse. Guojun Xuan, 65, and Silvia Zhang, 38, were initially arrested in May under suspicion of felony child endangerment and neglect, after a two-month-old baby in their care was brought to a local hospital with a traumatic brain injury. Doctors realized the injuries had occurred around two days previously, sparking a police investigation. 9 Fifteen children, most of them born by surrogate, were found in a sprawling $4 million home that was set up like a hotel, with an attendant at the front desk. The home is in Arcadia, a wealthy enclave known as the Chinese Beverly Hills. AP After obtaining a search warrant, detectives seized security cameras from inside the home which allegedly showed the hospitalized children being hit and violently shaken by a nanny, Chunmei Li, on May 5, resulting in the baby losing consciousness. Other children in the couple's care were abused emotionally and physically by at least six nannies, according to NBC, citing law enforcement sources. Police rescued 15 children from the sprawling 10,000 square foot home in Arcadia, California, an affluent community known as the 'Chinese Beverly Hills'. 9 Kallie Fell, the executive director of the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network, said that the recent rescue of children in Arcadia 'smells like trafficking.' 'We discovered numerous children ranging in ages from 2 months old to 13 years old,' Arcadia police Lt. Kollin Cieadlo said. 'Many of the children were birthed through surrogacy and then the male and female at the residence took legal guardianship of those kids.' One neighbor said the house was set up like a hotel, with multiple ensuite rooms and a front desk run by an attendant, per CBS. Another six children belonging to the couple had been moved out of the mansion but were located by authorities. Police told local outlets Zhang was able to show that she is the legal mother on all of their birth certificates. 9 Police arrested Guojun Xuan (left) and Silvia Zhang after a two month old in their care was taken to hospital suffering a traumatic brain injury. Police later discovered 21 children in a raid on two properties that were under their care. KTLA 'We believe one or two were born biologically to the mother. There are some surrogates who have come forward and said they were surrogates for the children,' said Cieadlo. Seventeen of the 21 are under three, according to local reports. They have all now in the care of the Department of Children and Family Services. The Chinese-born couple said they had wanted to have as many children as possible because of Xuan's advancing age. However, while in their care 'the discipline, both verbal and physical, was severe,' added Cieadlo, who said they immediately called the FBI in to help investigate. Two companies registered to the address of the $4 million property — Mark Surrogacy Investment and Future Spring Surrogacy — are no longer active, according to California business records. Kallie Fell, executive director of the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network, said the situation bares the hallmarks of a trafficking scheme. 'Everyone's spidey senses should go up. The danger of the fertility industry is that it is unregulated. Anyone can open an agency. The problem is way bigger than this small story.' 9 Future Spring Surrogacy, which was shuttered in May and registered at the mansion where police rescued the children, used a testimonial on its web site from Kayla Elliot. 9 The website for Future Spring Surrogacy outlines the steps for women who want to rent their wombs. In China, where infertility rates are high, surrogacy and the sale of human eggs are illegal, which is why many moneyed Chinese couples come to the US to contract surrogates to carry their babies, paying as much as $100,000 to rent a womb, according to a report. Police are still looking for Li, the nanny, who remains a suspect, with an arrest warrant issued, while Xuan and Zhang have been released without charges being filed at this point. A text message credited to Xuan by local media claimed 'any accusations of wrongdoing are misguided and wrong.' Six women have come forward to say they had babies for the couple, according to KTLA news. One surrogate in the Los Angeles area said she gave birth in March, while another had babies in 2022 and 2024 for them. 9 'Perla', 31, said she was was a surrogate for Silvia Zhang and Guojun Xuan, but the baby was, sadly, stillborn. KTLA A third woman in Florida, 'Perla', 31, said she went through a pregnancy for the couple but the baby was stillborn. 'I think what hurt me the most was that I feel like the baby was abandoned—and I was too,' she told KTLA. Shockingly, one surrogate in Pennsylvania and another in Virgina, who both asked to remain anonymous citing privacy issues, are both currently pregnant with children for the couple, according to the station. 9 Kayla Elliot in a picture when she as still pregnant with the baby she was carrying for Silvia Zhang and Guojun Xuan. TikTok/Kayla Elliot For Elliot, there were other red flags involved with the birth of her surrogate baby — a girl born in March in Texas. When she showed up for the embryo transfer in California — one of 15 US states where compensated surrogacy is legal — she was surprised to meet an elderly man who she was told was the father, who had provided his sperm along with eggs from a donor. She was told the mother had 'a stomach bug' and didn't want to infect Elliot. Fell said this is the same story repeated to other women who had acted as surrogates for Mark Surrogacy. Like Elliot, they never met the mother, Fell told The Post Thursday. Another red flag surfaced a few days after the birth of the baby girl when a young Chinese woman showed up to collect her. Elliot found it strange that the woman had no sense of joy and didn't even come equipped with a baby car seat for the child. 'Usually, you are overjoyed to meet your child, but there was nothing like that,' said Fell, adding Elliot's family then 'drove the woman to the airport with the baby, because she seemed totally lost.' 9 The $4m home of Silvia Zhang and Guojun Xuan in Arcadia, California. AP Fell also told how the woman handed $200 to Elliot's and each of her children, who were in the hospital room. 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Uvalde school shooter was fueled by Instagram and ‘Call of Duty,' L.A. lawsuit alleges
Uvalde school shooter was fueled by Instagram and ‘Call of Duty,' L.A. lawsuit alleges

Los Angeles Times

timean hour ago

  • Los Angeles Times

Uvalde school shooter was fueled by Instagram and ‘Call of Duty,' L.A. lawsuit alleges

Tess Mata's parents were once enthusiastic about social media. The 10-year-old from Uvalde, Texas, wanted to be TikTok famous. She used to dance, sing and imitate popular trends on her videos, with mom Veronica and dad Jerry keeping a watchful eye on her online habits. But then Tess was gunned down at Robb Elementary School in 2022, one of 19 children and two teachers killed by a former student. Since then, as details of the shooter's personal life have become public, the Matas and a handful of other Uvalde families have come to believe that his exposure to gun content online and in video games led to the tragedy. They are now suing three companies they allege profited off the violent fantasies that led to their children's deaths. The defendants include the maker of 'Call of Duty,' a first-person military shooter game where they say 18-year-old Salvador Ramos encountered a virtual version of a Daniel Defense-branded AR-15 he used in the attack. They are also suing Meta, alleging Ramos encountered ads for the gun that promoted violence on Instagram. The Matas and three other families from Uvalde will travel more than 1,200 miles this week to confront the companies in L.A. County Superior Court, where they have filed claims for negligence, aiding and abetting and wrongful death. 'They glorify these weapons. They made it enticing for young kids to want to purchase these guns, and kids that young are so receptive to these types of things,' Veronica Mata told The Times. Activision, the Santa Monica-based video game developer, has filed for dismissal, arguing that the 1st Amendment protects 'Call of Duty' as a work of art. Meta has also fought to have the case tossed, pointing to well-established case law that shields social media platforms from liability for third-party content posted by users and advertisers. Whether the case proceeds could be decided at a hearing Friday in downtown L.A. The families allege 'Call of Duty,' one of the top-grossing video game franchises in the world, encouraged violence by catching Ramos in a repeated gameplay loop with real-world weapons. And they claim Instagram equipped him with the knowledge of how, when and where to buy the gun he used. 'To put a finer point on it: Defendants are chewing up alienated teenage boys and spitting out mass shooters,' the complaint claims, noting that the three most deadly K-12 school shootings in American history — Uvalde, Parkland and Sandy Hook — were all committed by young men who played 'Call of Duty' and used an AR-15. 'Call of Duty is a simulation, not a game. It teaches players how to aim, reload, and fire accurately, while habituating the teenage nervous system to inflict repeated, graphic violence. And though the killing is virtual, the weapons are authentic,' the complaint alleges. Ramos' choice of the Daniel Defense AR-15 was intentional, the lawsuit said. The small weapons manufacturer has a market share of less than 1%, but a specific rail displayed on a popular 'Call of Duty' gun made it easily identifiable to players online despite a lack of branding inside the game. 'It is the Defendants who gave Daniel Defense a direct line into children's homes and heads, who wrote a playbook for how to peddle firearms while circumventing parents and the law, and who created a simulation with real-life weapons and applauded children for their proficiency at killing,' the complaint said. Meta did not immediately respond to The Times' request for comment, nor did Daniel Defense, another defendant in the lawsuit. Courts have long rejected the idea that violent video games like 'Call of Duty' are responsible for the actions of those who play them despite the moral panic surrounding the issue, and have also overturned efforts to restrict minors' access to them. Most modern 'Call of Duty' games are rated for mature audiences over 17 by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, but are available to minors through online marketplaces that don't meaningfully verify someone's age before purchase. 'Any adolescent that wants to download Call of Duty can do that,' Josh Koskoff, a lawyer for the Uvalde families, told The Times. A 2011 Supreme Court case, Brown vs. Entertainment Merchants Assn., struck down a 2005 California law that banned the sale of violent video games to minors. There was 'no tradition in this country of specially restricting children's access to depictions of violence. ... Grimm's Fairy Tales, for example, are grim indeed,' the late Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in the 7-2 majority opinion. Activision has long defended its games as protected artistic expression despite criticism of its extreme violence, which sometimes involves players killing other combatants — almost never allowing civilian casualties — in combat simulations, sometimes in public arenas like airports and urban sprawls. 'Call of Duty tells complex stories that explore the real-world combat scenarios that soldiers face in modern warfare. There can be no doubt Call of Duty is expressive and fully protected by the First Amendment,' the company said in a court filing. The families still mourning their children say challenging the institutions that failed to protect them has been an ongoing fight. The new case is another chapter which feels like taking on giants, Veronica Mata said. The city of Uvalde approved in May a $2-million settlement for a flawed police response to the shooting, and a Texas appeals court Wednesday ordered the release of documents from the school board and county about the shooting, local news reported. 'We can step forward, and we can make that change and make them understand that what they've done and what they continue to do is not benefiting them or anybody else,' Mata said.

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