One of the dorm dudes featured at Cocodorm.com

Cocodorm.com, a male sex Web site that brags it’s “the only live Black and Latino dorm!,” has Web cast its last porn show from a two-story Miami residence.

On Monday, after several hours of discussion, the city of Miami’s Code Enforcement Board decided to shut down the sex house, ruling 5-2 that the live, on-camera sex taking place inside the brick colonial midtown home violates the city’s ban on adult entertainment businesses in residential areas.

“We’ve found the hottest and horniest Black and Latino boys, moved them in together and turned on the cameras,” the Cocodorm.com Web site says. “Cocodorm is filled with the hottest action, fucking, sucking and whatever else these sexually uninhibited boys can think of. Live action 24 hours a day 7 days a week. We never turn the cameras off.”

The city alleges that this house of on-camera sex, located at 503 NE 27th St., has been making big bucks right under code compliance’s nose, charging Internet viewers $34.95 per month to watch sex acts live or previously videotaped, and selling DVDs immortalizing the action.

Cocodorm hires its sex stars from postings on its Web site, according to Assistant City Attorney Victoria Mendez, advertising “Models wanted: Under 25, like being watched and want to make $1,200 in 30 days in South Florida?”

The performers have names like Sonic, Cuban Redd and Smooth, Assistant City Attorney Mendez told members of the Code Compliance Board as she showed photos of some of the featured stars from Cocodorm’s Web site. In fact, the bulk of Mendez’s evidence against Cocodorm was in the form of printouts of the porn site’s Web pages.

“Dorm dude” applicants must fill out an online form, verifying that they are black or Latino and meet Cocodorm’s requirements for extremely virile physiques. The sex stars also must be between 18 and 25 and have valid, government-issued IDs. In exchange for $1,200 cash, food and shelter, the porn stars agree to stay for a month and have live sex on camera around the clock.

The Web site informs all applicants that they are required to perform two solo sex shows per week, and two weekly group safe sex shows. Cameras are in every room of the house, capturing the action for live and taped feeds, broadcast on the Internet.

Judging from the dates on Cocodorm’s vast archive of streaming sex videos, the house of porn shows and its Web site have been operating for quite a while, perhaps as early as May 2003.

The investigation began on Sept. 21, 2006, when Miami Officer Michael Ali, who testified Monday evening, was called to handle a disturbance by a man, Renol Ratchford, who said he was a manager of the property at 503 NE 27th St. Ali said Ratchford complained a young man named Michael Anthony was “drunk, irate and throwing rocks.” Anthony told the officer he was visiting from Washington but was staying at Cocodorm, where he was paid to have sex for a month. Ali said he also saw several black males in their early 20s entering the house by punching in a code.

Investigators realized this was no ordinary residence after a neighbor sent them printouts of the Web pages, showing that everything caught on camera was happening right there in the house down the street.

Mendez alleges it was a full house too, with up to seven men living there at a time and fresh talent arriving every 30 days.

James Benjamin, the lawyer representing Flava Works Inc. and Cocodorm.com, the Web site it owns and produces, argues that the sexual activities are only seen online. He says since there is no storefront at the building, or any way for customers off the street to get inside Cocodorm to watch or participate in the shows, or to come in to buy videos, his client isn’t violating city codes.

“It was no different than any other home to the outside world, and that’s why the zoning ordinance doesn’t apply to it,” he told the board. “No one would have found out if someone hadn’t downloaded Cocodorm from the Internet.”

Benjamin’s client, Phillip Bleicher, the president of Flava Works Inc., refused to answer any questions from the assistant city attorney during the code hearing, invoking the Fifth Amendment.

Flava Works holds occupational licenses from Miami-Dade County, the city of Miami, as well as a business license from the state for graphic design and audio and visual production services, according to Code Enforcement Director Mariano Loret De Mola.

De Mola testified that he saw the licenses with his own eyes when he inspected the company’s office at 2610 N. Miami Ave. De Mola also told the board he visited the property four times and saw young men going into the house. He says he spoke with a neighbor across the street who was “sitting on her front porch smoking.” She told him she “‘had seen a lot of activity at night, young men going in and out of the house.’”

The code enforcement director was able to identify one of the men he saw going into the house as a featured star from the Web site whose photo is displayed on its home page.

It took the code enforcement officials three acrimonious public meetings between June and Aug. 13 to resolve the issue in sessions going past midnight, the last one during what was supposed to be the volunteer board’s summer vacation.

Mendez believes it was a more challenging issue than usual because the investigation happened so quickly, basically within five weeks, between May 8 and June 14.

In addition, the code board had to grapple with the fact that the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals did not shut down a similar female Internet porn business, Voyeurdorm.com., based in Tampa.

The code board ultimately decided that Cocodorm needs to shut down the Web party and

send the talent home. “Cocodorm is acting like a business. Flava Works is paying out salaries, flying in talent. This is not allowed at this location,” Mendez said.

Benjamin says he plans to appeal the code enforcement board’s decision.

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