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Andy Warhol Sued for Child Porn, Torture

By Robert J. Ambrogi

Artist Andy Warhol died more than two decades ago, but his notoriety continues well beyond the 15 minutes of fame he predicted everyone would someday have. Now, a federal lawsuit claims Warhol and his associate, film director Paul Morrissey, violated federal child pornography laws and engaged in torture when they used a teenage boy named Richard Toelk in a series of films. Filed in federal court in Philadelphia by the children of the deceased Toelk, the complaint names as defendants the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, which owns the rights to Warhol's estate, Morrissey, and two film distribution companies. It alleges that Warhol and Morrissey hired Toelk when he was 14 years old to appear in the film, "All Aboard the Dreamland Choo Choo." The defendants "did abuse the 14 year old by giving him drugs as seen in the film and also torturing him," the complaint alleges. "This film was not the only time that Defendant, Paul Morrissey, utilized the minor individual, Richard Toelk, but did so throughout his teenage years." By continuing to market and distribute the films, the defendants "are profiting on the sexual exploitation" of Toelk, who died at an early age, the complaint...

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on December 02, 2009 (boomark / email).