New York D.A. Admits To Past As Porn Star

A prosecutor in Upstate New York has admitted to a rather unorthodox past:

Mark Suben, the Cortland County district attorney, said today he acted in pornographic movies in the 1970s.

In a 3 p.m. news conference today, he admitted

that he lied about his history to The Post-Standard and other news operations in the days before the Nov. 6 election. He was re-elected to a second term.

He said he would continue as district attorney. After he was done, he walked out without responding to reporters’ questions.

Suben is a Democrat. He defeated Republican defense attorney Keith Dayton 9,815-7,507, according to unofficial results.

Speaking from a conference room in his private-practice law office, he read a statement and said he would take no questions. His wife was in the room.

He talked about his time handling the criminal cases of youths “because it has been my experience that they can become productive members of the community.”

He continued:

“I know this firsthand. I used bad judgment myself in my youth. Recently, materials have been circulated alleging (indicating) that I was an actor in the adult film industry years ago in New York.

“Those allegations are true. I was an actor in adult films in the early 1970s. I also acted in other venues, off-Broadway, soap operas.

“A few weeks ago, when asked, I denied this to members of the press. I regret that and I apologize. I was shocked to be confronted by this so many years later.

“I was embarrassed for my family and friends who have stood by me. I also denied my actions to my family, my friends and my staff. After that brief period of my life, I found my calling in the law, particularly in prosecution, and have dedicated my life and my career to doing what I’ve been elected to do – protecting my home community.

“I will continue to do that. I cannot defend my bad judgment, both my involvement years ago and my denial of it recently.”

The issue got forced when someone posted a YouTube video that claimed to reveal Suben’s history, saying that he appeared in porn movies under another name. WSTM, Channel 3, posted to its website today a story based on the video.

Well, everyone had to start out somewhere.

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Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. The titles? “Hard Law, Hard (…)”
    “The DA Was Hung”
    “Prosecute This”
    “The Judge’s Chambers”
    “Driving Miss Trial”

  2. Janis Gore says:

    Don’t be so cynical.

    This is what Michael was talking about threads ago. We are allowed to change. If you’re a democrat, that is.

  3. I look at this and I laugh. I don’t live in Cortland county so I know nothing about this guy. However if he was another high and mighty moralist douchebag (think of the children, porn is evil, etc) then he deserves to be made fun of. It is interesting to see that the guy became a lawyer afterward considering the stories on how sometimes level headed people who enter the industry come out as empty shells of themselves.

  4. al-Ameda says:

    This is shocking, lawyers never have sex!

  5. Rafer Janders says:

    The early 1970s? That’s 40 years ago – well past the “who really cares” point.

  6. JKB says:

    @al-Ameda: This is shocking, lawyers never have sex!

    But they sure do screw a lot of people.

    This guy wasn’t much of a star if no one ever realized his past. But I guess you can’t really call them porn actors with a straight face.

    Interesting tidbit. Had he been a female performer, some man would have recognized her before now. And they say men don’t look at faces…

  7. rudderpedals says:

    These kinds of backgrounds are not unusual, we’re talking youth. Branding what are essentially big children for common indiscretions forever seems to me to be a horrible change over the last couple of decades, not at all merciful in the way older folks were to my generation (13th gen).

    One of my pals from law school came from what he said was a lucrative couple of years as a chippendale-type dancer. He was sharp as a whip and managed not to not leave with a $60K+ tuition loan. Maybe half the class was comprised of older students with professional experience in endeavors from soup to nuts, from high level management to datacomm engineering to exotic dancing. This was 20+ years ago, thus the low tuition.

  8. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @JKB:

    And they say men don’t look at faces…

    Anybody know how he was outed? I mean, what did he do, take a picture of his penis and post it on facebook where someone recognized it from a movie?

  9. Whitfield says:

    How old is guy?

  10. Anderson says:

    Really needs to be some way to remove someone who lies until the election’s over. Can he be impeached?

  11. Rafer Janders says:

    @Anderson:

    What for? Lying about an embarrassing though completely legal incident in his decades ago sexual past? If we’re going to start impeaching people for that, we won’t have anyone left in office. I mean seriously, who cares? Who cares? Grow up, people.

  12. al-Ameda says:

    @Anderson:

    Really needs to be some way to remove someone who lies until the election’s over. Can he be impeached?

    Impeached for having sex on camera over 35 years ago? Is this the most dumbed down and stupid “advanced” country in the world. or what?

  13. Gustopher says:

    Scott Brown posed nude, so both sides do it.

    Also, Vitter patronizes prostitutes.

  14. de stijl says:

    He may be a Democrat now, but since he was a performer during the ’70s, he was definitely a Bush man back then.

  15. Anderson says:

    Impeached for lying about it when asked during the campaign.

    I doubt the facts should’ve made a difference to the voters, but that wasn’t his call to make. He lied, evidently because he thought it might make a difference. So we know now he will lie to stay in office.

    I realize we are supposed to be indifferent to lying politicians, but it’s not a good thing.