ShareThisKNOXVILLE, Tenn. - A one-time "Big Brother" reality show contestant whose name wound up on a mailing list for gay sex publications is trying this week to convince a jury to punish the publisher because his then-12-year-old daughter got an unwanted eyeful sent to his home.
Jurors in U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan's courtroom will decide a civil lawsuit filed by Kent Blackwelder against Specialty Publications Inc., a California firm that publishes sexually explicit material including the gay magazine "Freshmen."
Blackwelder was cast in the second season of "Big Brother" in 2001. The show forces contestants from disparate backgrounds to share a house. Blackwelder was the token conservative. He was voted out midway through the season.
At issue in his lawsuit is the five seconds his daughter perused a mailer featuring photographs of naked men in erotic poses in May 2007 and its impact. He also accuses the publisher of violating regulations on how sexually explicit material should be packaged.
Blackwelder's attorney, David Burkhalter, insists Blackwelder did not solicit the mailer, which promised a free copy of the "Titan Men's Fresh Farm" DVD with a subscription to "Freshmen" magazine, and has no idea how his name and address wound up on the mailing list.
"Mr. Blackwelder didn't ask for this advertisement," Burkhalter told jurors. "He didn't solicit this. He's not gay -- not that there's anything wrong with that."
But the publisher's attorney, Richard Hollow, said it was no mystery how Blackwelder's name and address wound up on the mailing list.
"In 2005, Kent Blackwelder entered an online contest sponsored by the magazine known as 'The Out Traveler,'" Hollow said. "This is a gay publication."
The contest, which the married Blackwelder denies entering, offered up an all-expenses paid trip for two to a "gay-friendly" destination.
Two years later, Madison Blackwelder plucked from a basket on the kitchen counter a plain white envelope addressed to her father and promising on its cover a "free new DVD offer."
She told jurors she thought it might be a Disney movie offer so she opened the envelope.
Inside was a tri-folded brochure. On its cover, it carried a warning label of sexually explicit material, her father's name and address, and the name of the magazine and free DVD. The girl, now 16, said she didn't notice the warning label.
Madison Blackwelder, a talented athlete and honor-roll student, said she was "embarrassed, just really confused" about what she saw and ran to her room. She said it made her fearful of "being kidnapped," and, after her father filed the lawsuit, she sought counseling.
Hollow showed jurors an array of photographs from her Facebook page in which she is laughing with both male and female friends at the beach, posing with a professional surfer, attending her ninth grade prom and visiting China.
"Does this look like someone who's been traumatized?" Hollow asked jurors.
But Madison Blackwelder told jurors she and her father were pursuing the lawsuit, not for her sake, but for others.
"I didn't want what I saw to let other kids see that," she said.
Jamie Satterfield is a reporter for The Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee
