Law firm Kerr Simpson announced today that world-renowned adult entertainment star Melissa Hutchison, known by the stage name Phoenix Marie, has filed a lawsuit against the unregulated porn monopoly run by Aylo and Ethical Capital Partners. The lawsuit was prompted by a sexual assault, coverup, and smear campaign reprehensibly centered on the death of Hutchison’s daughter.
According to the lawsuit, Hutchison, believed to be the highest continuously paid adult performer and the only performer to hold every industry Hall of Fame award, has suffered devastating trauma and financial losses from retaliation by Aylo and its affiliates after refusing to be a scapegoat and take a payout to stay quiet following a grossly mismanaged shoot in Barcelona last fall.
The complaint details how during the shoot, led by director and actor Danny D., a fellow performer nearly died of a lithium overdose. Hutchison, who has a medical background that includes EMT training, provided emergency care and helped save the actor’s life. She shares how immediately following the traumatic experience, Danny D. used physical force to prevent Hutchison from accompanying her colleague to the hospital and then forced her to perform a sex scene with him despite her repeated and clear protests, encouraging humiliating and degrading comments throughout.
Per Aylo policy, a second safety camera should have been recording the set at all times to ensure performer safety. This camera would have captured and allowed Aylo to confirm Hutchison’s account of the events. Aylo also could have easily determined who had lithium on set by asking for blood tests from the cast and crew—including the makeup artist, Danny D.’s live-in girlfriend, who confided the previous day that she was self-medicating with lithium and had her pills out on set.
Instead of looking at facts, however, Hutchison says the porn conglomerate launched a coverup; executives made her a scapegoat for the life-threatening incident on one of their sets, using the 2019 death of her daughter to falsely paint her as an unhinged, grieving mother on lithium responsible for her colleague’s overdose—even though she does not demonstrate signs of a psychological disorder and has proactively proven through repeated blood tests that she does not take lithium.
After Hutchison refused to accept a payoff and sign an NDA, she says Aylo took active measures to harm her financially—including canceling shoots and lucrative signing events and burying, removing, and untagging her from videos on Pornhub and other sites they own. Hutchison explains how they have also used the power of their monopoly to isolate her from her friends and colleagues by threatening them for associating with her—to the point that she can’t find a makeup artist willing to work with her due to fear of retaliation.
Hutchison outlines how Aylo’s actions have cost her nearly two million dollars since the Barcelona shoot in October 2023, with tens of millions more in projected losses from the continued manipulation of her algorithm and damage to her brand. Hutchison is also suffering PTSD from the sexual assault by Danny D., which has been both personally and professionally devastating.
This is not the first time Aylo’s brands have come under fire for mistreating talent. In recent years several other directors have been accused of sexual assault and mismanagement on their sets, and the company has also been under scrutiny following a rash of suicides by their former performers.
“Melissa saved a girl’s life on set and was rewarded by Aylo and Ethical Capital Partners with physical intimidation, sexual assault, humiliation, alienation, substantial financial losses, and a smear campaign unconscionably centered on her dead child,” said Preston Sterling Kerr of Kerr Simpson. “We’re looking forward to helping Melissa get justice not only to reclaim her daughter’s memory, but also to hold the Aylo-Ethical Capital Partners Big Porn conglomerate accountable and stop them from continuing to wield their unregulated monopoly power to destroy people’s lives.”
