Cody Castagna, left, and his lawyer, Dave Partovi, met the press Tuesday. They said Castagna has been "falsely accused" by Curtis
Source:
KXLY TV with additional material by seaQwa News
With his lawyer, Dave Partovi, doing most of the talking, Cody Castagna -- accused by Vancouver lawmaker Richard Curtis of extortion -- met the press yesterday afternoon outside the lawyer's office.
Partovi called the case "a real low-level situation that was blown out of control because it involves a state lawmaker." Without naming Curtis, Partovi called him "a person in power who's trying to cover up what did happen and accuse him [Castagna]."
An unedited video of the press conference is available on KREM TV's site and those of its sister Belo stations, KING5 in Seattle, KGW in Porland, and Northwest Cable News.
Castagna said, "He has completely changed what actually happened and turned it around in his favor."
When asked his reaction to the situation, Castagna eyes widen. "What?" he said. "That was my reaction: What?"
He was asked a minute or two later how he's feeling now. "I'm freaked out," he said. "Yeah. I'm freaked." At another point he said, "I feel like I'm being falsely accused."
Neither Castagna nor his lawyer would discuss details of the case at the press conference, but Castagna was more forthcoming in an email exhange with a KXLY producer earlier Tuesday.
In a series of e-mails exchanged with KXLY4 Executive Producer Melissa Luck Tuesday morning Castagna claimed that everything that was being said in news reports was a lie “and got turned around for the media”.
Castagna, 26, met Curtis at the Hollywood Erotic Boutique located in the 9000 block of East Sprague on October 26th. Curtis claimed to police that he gave Castagna $100 for “gas money” while Castagna said that wasn’t the case.
“Well I will say this Richard offered me money to engage in sexual acts I wasn’t into,” he wrote. “[M]y stupid ass agreed and since he was tired he gave me his wallet as collateral until he woke up and could get me the money and I got the feeing he was screwing me and he was not only that he turned the whole thing around in his favor to save his butt and is screwing up my [w]hole life.”
Central to the police investigation was Castagna allegedly blackmailing Curtis for $1,000 in exchange for the return of his wallet and his silence. Castagna told police that Curtis had offered him the money while they were at the adult video store, however in an e-mail Tuesday said, “FYI, I am not an escort.”
The exchange took place over the social networking site MySpace.com where Cody maintains a profile. The e-mails were exchanged during Tuesday morning, but shortly after noon he set his profile to private. Several hours afterward a media briefing was scheduled by Castagna's attorney Dave Partovi.