The Strange Case of Pink Cross Foundation's Sal Mckvey - UPDATED

The adult entertainment industry has its fair share of oddballs at its fringes, but in terms of pure weirdness, few reach the zenith that the character known as Sal Mckvey aka Sal Amaya has.

Sal Mckvey

Sal's first blip on porno radar came more than a decade ago, in 2005, when the members of adult forum XXXPornTalk (XPT) discovered him...

It was soon discovered that Sal was posting PRs about himself...

Some appeared suspiciously like cribbed news items about actual adult biz personalities, such as photographer Suze Randall.

Suze's daughter, Holly, recognized Sal:

The fantasyland PRs continued...

With that one, it was proven that Sal was cribbing other people's accomplishments and honors and simply changing their name and company to his:

Despite having been outed, Sal kept up this practice for a while...

Here's Sal's 'bio' circa 2006:

I am Sal Mckvey Also Known as Bobby Jones.. I am an Adult Nude Model, Also a new XXX starlet. I have appeared in counntless Adult Videoclips, & in tons of Photoshoots. Like my friend Devyn Devine says, we want to prove to the world that you do't have to be a skinny, implanted woman or be a hot guy to make it in this business. I love sex, and meeting people, and I love to have tons of fun.. I love my fans. I am so thankful to you everyday. Without fans, Sal Mckvey is no one. Thanks for checking out myspace profile! I’m really excited to have a place to keep in touch with all the cool people and people i know for a long time... Sal Mckvey" Bobby Jones" here at my site, thanks for visiting me!!! You guys better come back now, or even just stay for a little while, i have a lot to offer, ill be a good idea if u stick around!! 

From 2007 on XPT:

A 2008 post by Mckvey 

But where were Sal's porn scenes? People on porn forums had been enquiring about them for years.

And therein lay the problem: to date, I remain unaware of any available Sal Mckvey porn scenes or clips. There exists no evidence that he was ever a performer at all.

Sal was clearly a legend in his own mind. He even had, at one time, a site called TheLegendarySalMckvey.wordpress.com. Sal posted there until at least December 2011; through the magic of WayBackMachine, we can still glimpse his vision of himself:

https://web.archive.org/web/20120302142413/http://thelegendarysalmckvey.wordpress.com/

One post read:

hello people this is porn star sal mckvey… Im back!!!!! THE LATIN KING OF EROTICA IS BACK…..IM BACK AND GOING NOWHERE

Correct.

Along came a spider

In the fall of 2012, Sal, having failed conclusively at making a name for himself in the adult world, followed in the footsteps of other personalities on porn's fringe -- he signed on with Shelley Lubben and Pink Cross Foundation.

Ironically, Mckvey's name had been mentioned in a Shelley Lubben thread on XPT in 2008

When Lubben first announced Sal’s endorsement of Pink Cross, Sal told a friend that he’d been out of porn for two years, and his only job was “helping out” at the office of a Los Angeles area church. At that time, however, Sal’s Twitter account still retained mentions of “private shows,” and his Twitter and Facebook both featured pics of him in lascivious poses, sucking on a dildo...

...and in one instance, sucking on a penis.

Online, Sal's photos still featured him in full make-up and dressed (unconvincingly) as a woman — and in fact some of the close-up pics on his Facebook profile were actually stolen shots of female porn star Mercedes Ashley! [NSFW link] 

After Lubben was ribbed about all this online, Sal’s social media accounts were quickly scrubbed.

Although an actual porn career had eluded him, Shelley Lubben had made Mckvey an ex porn star.

Sal and Shelley Lubben. Source: YouTube screenshot

Lubben posted a "testimony" in his name:

I have done photo shoots with some of the world’s most popular female porn stars and they, too, have to do drugs to get through a scene. Behind the scenes they are not happy. All of us adult stars hide behind our persona when we are on camera but when the camera is done filming, we go home and we are miserable.

I’m just really sick of the drama and drugs in porn. I will no longer spread my legs for the porn industry. I want out and I want to live a normal life. I want to find out who I really am without porn. I don’t want to be that porn character anymore. And I really feel if I don’t get out soon, that I will die. 

I know God has something better for me.

I know God has chosen me to be a better person. 

I hope my story helps you if you are considering doing porn. Porn has done nothing for me except destroy my life and I have nothing to show for my years in porn except a lot of pain.

Lubben added a plea for donations as a tag to Sal's "story":

Sal is now attending ministry school at Victory Outreach. He found a good job. He has never worked a normal job since he was sold into gay porn as a minor. So, please pray God would bless him in his new job. He really needs assistance with rent and living expenses while he heals from porn and attends ministry school and works a new job. He really needs a lap top for school. If you can help Sal, please donate at www.thepinkcross.org or mail your donation to:

Pink Cross Foundation . . . .

Thank you for caring about this precious man!

*Please pray for Sal as he continues to heal. Thank you for caring!

To the extent that Sal was ever in porn, he certainly left without having to be rescued by Lubben. What did Sal say he received from Lubben? Love, support and prayers – no mention of Lubben “rescuing” him out of porn or of having provided any financial assistance or valuable resources. She cheered him on in the "recovery" he undertook on his own.

Santa's little helper

But Mckvey was, in many respects, the perfect Pink Cross spokesperson: a straight-faced liar and delusional fraud who was accustomed to getting his picture taken with adult stars at convention appearances, and pretending they illustrated a close personal "connection".

It was but a short jump from this...

...and this...

...and this...

... and this...

to this:

Lubben saw his potential and, in July 2013, named him leader of a brand new Pink Cross Chapter in the San Fernando Valley.

Aside from a Facebook page, and a booth at a peace march in October 2014, not much was heard about PCF/SFV again.

The return of Sal Mckvey

A suspicious "fan page" for Sal popped up in Nov. 2014 which went out of its way to warn visitors:

THIS PAGE IS NOT RUN BY THE PORN STAR SAL MCKVEY.. THIS IS JUST A FAN PAGE. RUN BY A FAN OF SAL.. WISHING HE CAN COME BACK

Yep.

Sal gives himself away, of course:

Remember, Sal was at this time actively supporting Shelley Lubben's anti-porn group and decrying his [alleged] experiences in and around adult entertainment.

In 2015, The Lubbens relocated to Springville, CA, and her husband Garrett was arrested twice  within 30 days for domestic battery and resisting/obstructing a peace officer. His trial date has been set for February 29, but may be continued until a later date.

In January 2016, a bloated Shelley Lubben announced via iPhone video that she had shut down the Pink Cross Foundation:

The Pink Cross website landing page now directs visitors to her personal website -- through which she is still available for paid bookings.

But what happened to Sal?

Meet Mercedes...

Sal Mckvey, February 2016

Sal, noticeably more svelte, says he is undergoing surgical transition to become a woman, and has selected the name Mercedes.

Sal also says that, although he still speaks to Shelley, he is no longer affiliated with her. According to Sal, Shelley made about $80,000 off of him through Pink Cross, and all Pink Cross paid for was his tummy tuck and the removal of fat from his arms.

Who could think of a better use of Pink Cross Foundation donors' money than a tummy tuck and liposuction for Sal Mckvey?

UPDATE: November 2016

From Sal's Facebook page. Meet Mercedes?

Shelley Lubben pal, anti-porn activist Donny Pauling, pleads no contest in child sex cases, faces 6 years in prison

In addition to a six year-term in state prison, of which he must serve at least three years, Pauling also must register as a sexual offender for life.

From the Appeal-Democrat, Oct 15, 2015

Donny Pauling pleaded no contest Thursday to four felony sex charges involving two minors, a plea deal that would send him to state prison for six years.

The plea marked the end to a dizzying saga of sex crime charges that also implicated the former commander of the Sutter County Jail.

Pauling, 41, acting as his own attorney, admitted to oral copulation and having sexual intercourse with a victim 14 years old in 2012, continuing into 2014. He also admitted to lewd or lascivious behavior with a girl related to former Sutter County sheriff’s Capt. Lewis McElfresh, “motivated by an unnatural or abnormal interest in children,” according to the plea.

The facts of the plea also stated McElfresh masturbated while watching Pauling commit sex acts with that girl, who was then 16 years old.

Furthermore, Pauling pleaded to a misdemeanor charge of massaging a third victim’s genitals in early 2014. That victim was 16 years old at the time.

Sutter County Superior Court Judge Susan Green set sentencing for Nov. 12.

In addition to six years in state prison, of which he must serve at least three years, Pauling also must register as a sexual offender for life. Pauling also agreed to a period of parole ranging from three years to life following his release from prison.

The long fall

A former low-end recruiter of young women for soft and hardcore photography, Pauling became (in his own words) “a Christian speaker [who] shares his story and the truth about the dangers of porn to churches and universities around the country.”

LISTEN: Pauling on WNGL Archangel Radio in August 2014.

As an associate of Gail Dines and Shelley Lubben, he preached regularly about what the alleges are the detrimental impacts of pornography on girls and women, and families. All three were featured speakers at the Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation 2014 Summit in May of that year.

Shelley Lubben, whose claimed prophetic prowess seemingly failed her when it came to this pervert, poses with Pauling in 2013.

However the criminal charges of which Pauling has now been convicted indicate that he was a serial molester all the while.

Gail Dines and Donny Pauling in May 2014. Photo: Screencap of YouTube video / PornHarms

Gail Dines and Donny Pauling in 2014.

Pauling told her he wasn’t like other child molesters because he loved her

Pauling was arrested Dec. 1, 2014 by the Sutter County Sheriff on three felony sex charges, including Unlawful Intercourse (Statutory Rape), after a 16-year-old female told law enforcement that Pauling had ongoing sexual contact with her for the past three years.

In an interview with journalist Meredith J. Graham, Ms. Chopra revealed that the 16-year-old was a relative who had been living with Pauling for several years.

“He was the caretaker of the child—they lived together in Shasta County, then moved to Yuba City [in 2012],” Chopra explained. During that time, she said, Pauling and the girl allegedly had a sexual relationship. She also alleged that he photographed the girl with other young girls in various poses.

According to detectives, the teen had first disclosed Pauling’s actions to both her mother and a friend Thanksgiving week. The Appeal-Democrat reports

She told detectives Pauling had told her that if she ever told officers about the relationship, she should tell him first so he could kill himself. She also said Pauling told her he wasn’t like other child molesters because he loved her.

Sutter County sheriff’s Detective Robert C. Brokenbrough, who has interviewed the teen three times since Nov. 30, testified that

Pauling first made inappropriate comments to the first victim about her lips and bottom. The comments turned into sexual acts, and Pauling first had sex with the girl in the summer of 2014. She said he used a condom until he had a vasectomy…. The girl told him that Pauling bought her lingerie — which detectives discovered in his bedroom — and photographed her in erotic and sexualized poses. She said Pauling uploaded the photos to Reddit.com. Deputy District Attorney Anu Chopra submitted 10 photos of the girl into evidence. Some of the photos included the girl posing topless, exposing her bottom, and some included other minors.

According to Brokenbrough, the teen told authorities that Donny Pauling had once video-recorded her in the shower, which she only realized after she discovered the hidden device. The detective also testified that there were additional witnesses.

He said a mother of a friend of the girl’s once saw a photo of the girl’s crotch on Pauling’s phone. And the girl’s ex-boyfriend disclosed that Pauling told him that Pauling had seen the girl’s vagina and urged the boy to date her.

Other indictments

On Dec. 17, Pauling claimed in a jailhouse interview that then-Sutter County Sheriff’s Captain Lewis McElfresh Jr. had urged him to have sex with another 16-year-old girl. Evidence of the second alleged victim was presented to Yuba City police by a man named Chase Hammonds. According to an officer’s declaration, Hammonds confronted McElfresh about the alleged incident, recorded the conversation and provided the recording to a Sutter County sheriff’s lieutenant.

McElfresh has acknowledged the recording's existence, but claims he admitted to nothing on it.

On Dec. 18, the Appeal-Democrat reported, the Sutter County District Attorney charged McElfresh with five felonies: two counts of felony child molestation, willful child cruelty, burglary and misdemeanor charges of annoying or molesting a minor and indecent exposure. McElfresh is accused of masturbating while, allegedly, watching a minor being sexually violated by Pauling. McElfresh, is being held with bail set at $5 million.

According to statements made in open court on Jan 14, additional victims were identified in the criminal investigation of Pauling.

A second criminal case was filed against Pauling on Jan. 28. According to the Appeal-Democrat

Chopra filed a nine-count criminal complaint naming Pauling in [connection with McElfresh]. The charges alleged four incidents of unlawful sex with a minor…. Investigators are in the process of interviewing eight minor girls as potential victims of Pauling, according to a declaration filed by Sutter County sheriff’s Lt. James Casner. Some of those girls live in Glenn and Butte counties. Chopra said she will ask for a bail enhancement for Pauling, which, if granted, would increase his bail from $500,000 to $1 million.

The second criminal complaint against the anti-pornography activist includes eight sex crime-related counts — including several instances of sexual intercourse; oral copulation and penetration with a foreign object on a minor — as well as one charge of first-degree burglary.

On May 19, Judge Aronson heard testimony for two of the cases from law enforcement officers who conducted or examined interviews with the minor victims. After evidence was submitted to the court, Aronson ordered a trial for Pauling.

According to a published report:

Immediately after Donny Pauling had sex with a 16-year-old girl, he threatened to post nude photos of her online, kill her boyfriend and hurt her family if she told anyone, a sheriff’s detective testified Tuesday.

The girl later allegedly told Lewis McElfresh, then-Sutter County sheriff’s captain, she wanted to have sex with Pauling. McElfresh then watched the two have sex as he masturbated, an officer testified.

…

Testimony detailed the way Pauling approached the girls, who were friends with his minor relative, with whom he is also accused of having an ongoing sexual relationship.

During separate interviews, the girls told officers of Pauling’s actions, which included nude massages. One girl said she attended class at Yuba College with Pauling, he drove her home, and while they were studying together, he gave her root beer that made her feel weak and dizzy.

She alleged he took off her clothes and had sex with her, told her he took nude photos of her and threatened her.

She reported he had sex with her three more times.

McElfresh has pleaded not guilty to felony charges for his alleged role in one of the incidents.

McElfresh, like Pauling, is calling into question the credibility of a witness against him. McElfresh’s $5 million bail was based in part on the affidavit of Yuba City police Sgt. Brain Baker. According to the Appeal-Democrat, McElfresh’s attorney, Jesse Santana states in a Notice of Motion that he believes Baker has a history of fabricating probable cause.

On September 24, the Appeal-Democrat reported:

Donny Pauling won his first motion representing himself Thursday when a Sutter County judge agreed to postpone his trial to give him more time to prepare.

Judge Susan E. Green pushed back the Sept. 29 trial date to Dec. 1.

The possibility of a plea deal was also discussed, and Pauling rejected a no contest plea requiring a seven-year prison sentence. However, the two sides indicated that they planned to continue plea negotiations.

At his felony pre-trial conference, Thursday, Oct. 15, Pauling took the modified 6-year plea deal.

Lewis McElfresh, although tied to Pauling’s case, is being tried separately.

McElfresh is charged with five felonies, and most of the charges involve the single incident with Pauling.

Although Pauling’s plea did not include any stipulations to testify in McElfresh’s trial, that doesn’t mean Pauling won’t testify, Chopra said.

McElfresh is scheduled for a felony pretrial conference on Nov. 9.

UPDATE: On November 12, 2015, Pauling was sentenced to 6 years in prison. 

Sutter County Superior Court Judge Susan Green called Pauling a lying and manipulative sexual predator and told Pauling, "We don't molest people we love."  

Sutter County Superior Court Judge Susan Green told Pauling,
"It it was in my control, I'd order you to have no contact
with any girl under the age of 18 for the rest of your life."

According to a report on the sentencing hearing in the Appeal-Democrat:

The mother of one victim wrote a letter to the court, saying she could not face Pauling without having a physical reaction. The letter was read aloud by Stephanie Cooper with Victim Services.

The victim of the ongoing sexual abuse has been in and out of the hospital with intense stomach pains, which doctors say is stress-related, the letter said. Some days the girl cries and screams all day.

"I doubt if in the future she will ever be able to know what a normal relationship with a man is like," Cooper read....

The second victim confronted Pauling directly with a statement to the court.

"I've been called many things in my life," the girl said. "Yet, the most imprinting titles I was given were a liar and the victim."

She said she's run away from homes, slept under bridges, lost her privacy and her self-esteem.

"This past year I've been interrogated, I've been the gossip, I've been moved from foster home to foster home, I've been rejected and abandoned. Yet, when this all began, I never felt like a victim. It wasn't until his statement that he made accusing me of being a liar, the comments made about me on Facebook, news articles and as I walked by. That's when it all sunk in," she said.

Her helplessness was answered, she said, when she was placed in a foster home with a loving family. With their help and the help of her boyfriend, she is discovering her "strength and ability to recover and the power of forgiveness."

"I will do good things in my life, and that's because beyond fear lies freedom," she said.

McElfresh, his bail dramatically reduced, was released on bond in September 2015. He is due back in court April 15, 2016 for a trial readiness conference.

UPDATE (April 15): McElfresh's trial has been postponed until November, apparently after the deputy district attorney assigned to the case was placed on administrative leave.

UPDATE (Nov 11): Although accused of being present while a 16 year old was raped by pornographer-turned-pastor Donny Pauling, in 2014, Lewis McElfresh is enrolling in sex offender counseling and will be on probation for five years. He will serve no jail time and will not have to register as a sex offender after pleading 'no contest' to felony child endangerment. Visiting judge James Garbolino handed down the sentence. The victim, 16 at the time of the incident, also requested and was granted a ten year restraining order against McElfresh, who was in Sutter County court for the sentencing but has relocated to West Virginia.

Slashing Prices! Shelley Lubben Desperate To Sell Her Bakersfield McMansion

Anti-Porn scammer Shelley Lubben -- who once claimed having "favor" with the Lord -- and her businessman husband are set to take a financial bath as they drop the asking price for their Bakersfield McMansion yet again — with hubby Garrett’s mom acting as their real estate agent.

The last time we saw Shelley Lubben, the disgraced "rebel prophet" of anti-porn, she had placed her Bakersfield, Calif. McMansion on the market, and purchased a new home on 13.73 acres in Springville, Calif. at the very same time that she launched a GoFundMe drive in order to supposedly "continue to help those affected by porn" (whatever that means).

We have urgent financial needs and need YOUR help. This amount is a fraction of what is needed but we trust God to provide and pray those who have been helped by Pink Cross will donate even the smallest amount. ANY gift over $15 will get a FREE Pink Cross bracelet sent to them (continential [sic] U.S. only)  as a thank you. These are brand new never seen before [sic] bracelets.

We have girls waiting to receive services that we cannot afford to give. PLEASE help. $20 would help get the resources in the right hands of 2 different girls.

Now maybe the timing doesn't sound suspicious on the face of it… until you realize that a veritable swarm of survivors of Pink Cross Foundation (a group with no trained professionals that has accomplished absolutely nothing in terms of inhibiting the adult business across the globe) have gone on record to reveal that Shelley Lubben does not spend donations in any significant way on anything but her own and her family's needs. (For instance, see here, here, here and here.)

The author with Shelley Lubben, January 2011

After nearly five years research, and I have yet to find a single person who can show that the Lubbens ever bestowed them with anything of value. On the contrary, the consensus is that Shelley's charity drives are designed to benefit only Shelley Lubben. The group’s tax returns certainly seem to bear this out.

Here’s a shot from Shelley Lubben’s new GoFundMe page:

Note: unlike Shelley and Garrett Lubben, we blur out the faces of minors

Not exactly an outpouring of support.

Real Property

Back in 2012, the Lubbens sold their first home in Bakersfield (which, like all their subsequent residences, doubled as the “offices” of Pink Cross Foundation).

There, on Elias Avenue, Lubben prayed in her inimitable way.

She also enjoyed putting porn star-style make-up on toddlers…

…and issuing heavenly commands in her backyard (her neighbors must’ve loved this):

Ahh, good times.

Came the fall

The house had been purchased for around $300,000, and they made approximately $50,000 or more in improvements to the place, but disgrace soon came to the Lubbens’ door. Lubben lost her ticket to mainstream press attention, Michael Weinstein of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, who unceremoniously dumped Lubben because she had become “a lightning rod for criticism” due to her lies and “outrageous behavior.”

This behavior reached its apex on the night of April 26, 2011. With her husband, Garrett, home in Bakersfield, Lubben attended a Burbank Porn Star Karaoke benefit clad in an extremely revealing strapless dress. Witnesses reported that Lubben, the pupils of her eyes as big as olives, made an inordinate number of trips to the ladies room, and acted intoxicated and manic. She was also photographed having her surgically-enhanced breast autographed by porn legend Ron Jeremy — a man famous for being able to suck his own penis — outside the bar’s toilet. 

So, in 2012 the Lubbens took a bath on the Elias Ave. house when they listed it at $189,000 – which was about 40 grand below its 2010 market value.

Nonetheless, the operators of the nonprofit Pink Cross Foundation still saw blue skies ahead, and moved in to a new, larger “McMansion” home in Bakersfield that they purchased for approximately $480,000.

Here are some photos of that house on Championship Way as it appeared at the time the Lubbens purchased it:

Side view, January 2012

Aerial view, 2012

There’s no question in my mind that one of the reasons the Lubbens moved there was the street name “Championship Way”. Lubben was trained by a mini-Joel Osteen named Kevin Gerald at the Champions Centre in Tacoma, Wash. after she moved there with Garrett, her former drug dealer in the 1990s.  Shelley has (insanely) remarked that her old house sitting on Elias Ave bolsters her claim that she is the reincarnated Prophet Elijah, so there’s no way she could have ignored the symbolism.

Here’s the pool at the Championship Way property under construction in the summer of 2013:

And here are photos showing the property as it currently looks, from their recent real estate listing, and other sources. Notice the many tens of thousands of dollars worth of construction and landscaping, including the installation of a waterfall/fountain, a large pool and spa, and the (rented) solar panels on the roof:

The room of unspeakable horrors

Front of the house

Shelley Lubben at her second Bakersfield address, with an unlucky lop

Then, misfortune struck. Some might call it divine justice. Not long after moving into their big, costly new spread, Garrett was dumped by his long-time employer.

With mainstream interest in her hysterical anti-porn spiel dwindling, the Lubbens attempted teaching sex ed to seniors on the Cracker Barrel circuit to little success. Eventually, the couple oped to sell their Bakersfield money pit.

Their ridiculous original listing price was $815,000:

With no takers, they kept dropping their asking price:

And the asking price keeps a-falling . As of September 2015, it’s dropped by more than another $100,000!

The asking price is now over $20k below the property's 2014 assessment.

And look who’s listed as realtor: none other than Garrett’s mother, “Nuggie” Lubben:

According to Google Alerts, on the same day as the May price drop, the Lubbens signed the deed on their new place in Tulare County’s Springville, Calif., population 1000. Sadly this leaves fewer opportunities for toilet papering nearby homes.

Their new digs also lie about an hour north of Bakersfield — which is to say it’s 2 1/2 hours north of porn valley, the area Lubben has ludicrously called her “mission field”.

As you can see, the Lubbens got the new spread for a song, compared to their most recent digs:

Looks like they’ll be saving a bundle on property taxes too:

Here are some pics from the new property's listing:

I’m guessing another costly remodeling job is coming…

It's quite a different style than the Bakersfield Mcansion! How long until we see remodeling pics from Shelley as fundraisers to help those poor “girls” who’ve been “affected by porn” continue.