Not the Monster

"My phone is tapped," claims guitarist John Pertle of Johnny Love Sound, who pleaded guilty in late November to distributing and possessing child pornography. The 36-year-old had his mother contact me via e-mail. Through her, Pertle explained, "I don't use computers or the Internet anymore, that's one of the conditions of my bail." (The kiddie porn was circulated online via Yahoo! newsgroups.) "I am not the monster that the prosecution has made me out to be," he said.

Due for sentencing this month, Pertle sought me out to inform, "I was sexually abused as a child and addicted to pornography from a very young age; that had a lot to do with how I eventually looked at sex. I'm in therapy now and working on dealing with those issues and with the things I did as a result of what happened to me."