http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/04/18757086-porn-star-mr-marcus-sentenced-to-jail-in-la-for-exposing-female-co-stars-to-syphilis?liteAn adult video star known as "Mr. Marcus" was sentenced Tuesday to 30 days in jail for knowingly having exposed at least two female co-stars to syphilis last year.
Mr. Marcus, 42 — whose real name is Jesse Spencer and who was inducted into the Adult Video News Hall of Fame four years ago — was the main figure in a scandal over the spread of the communicable disease that temporarily halted video productions last year.
Spencer, who admitted having altered documents recording the results of mandatory medical tests all porn actors must take, pleaded no contest in Los Angeles Superior Court to knowingly exposing another to a communicable disease. He was also sentenced 36 months' probation and 15 days of community labor.
The Los Angeles City Attorney's Office said Spencer got a penicillin shot on July 13 after having tested positive for syphilis. After he tested positive again eight days later, he altered a photocopy of the original test form, it said.
Spencer worked on two videos later in July. Two women who appeared in the videos noticed that the form had been altered and turned him into police. They tested negative for the disease, the city attorney's office said.
Heather DeAngelo, who acted in porn videos under the name Lylith LaVey, has sued Spencer for intentional infliction of emotional distress. That case is in the discovery phase in Van Nuys Superior Court.
Most porn producers suspended production for about a month so their actors could get tested beginning in August after Spencer's case and the case of a second infected man who appeared in gay-themed adult films became public.
The positive tests were recorded before Los Angeles voters approved a referendum measure in November requiring male actors to wear condoms in adult films.
In an interview with a trade publication in August, Spencer apologized for having altered the test and said he went ahead with the two videos because his doctor had told him he wasn't contagious.
"I have to live with this. No one else does," the publication quoted Spencer as saying. "I'm sorry. I'm very sorry."
