Mother of Sexually Abused Boy Bander Breaks Her Silence, Implicates Disney, CAA, Hollywood Records, LAPD, DA & Industry Elite in Pedophile Ring & Cover-up
by Tiffany FitzHenry, published on January 3, 2024
Hollywood only wants certain stories to be told. The stories where underage kids are plied with alcohol at the homes of glittery celebrities, like Chris Pratt and Anna Faris, and then sexually abused by adults in the industry aren’t stories anyone in tinsel town wants you to hear. Stories about how Disney knowingly allows their underage stars to be surrounded by pedophiles, and that their executives know about, witness, and even partake in child sex abuse aren’t stories they ever want the world to hear.
Tammy Garcia has a story Hollywood doesn’t want you to hear.
It’s the story of a mother, groomed and seduced by powerful dream-makers, whose bright, young, talented son became a Disney Channel star with a Hollywood Records contract, while at the same time he was being ritually sexually abused, and trafficked to Hollywood elite, including managers, agents, executives and others employed by the biggest companies and studios in the industry.
“There are pedophile rings all throughout Hollywood. We stumbled into one of those rings,” Tammy revealed to me, the devastation and pain in her voice palpable.
That her own son became the victim of a well-insulated, Hollywood pedophile ring is a gut-wrenching and heartbreaking reality it’s taken Tammy Garcia more than a year to accept. As a mother, it’s been a humbling, tragic, regret-filled nightmare. A cautionary tale, teeming with villains, and a few truly brave heroes, all culminating in a mother and son’s determination to fully expose and once and for all end the scourge of Hollywood: systemic, institutionalized, pedophilia.
One of the first steps in accomplishing this came on September 11, 2024 when Tammy’s son Ricky Garcia, 20, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court in which he named his ex-manager Joby Harte, 37, Joby’s Hot Rocks Media business partners Paul Cohen and Sheri Anderson Thomas, talent agency APA, former APA agent Tyler Grasham, and manager Nils Larsen, currently employed by Management 360.
The suit alleges that from the age of 12 years old Ricky was groomed, sexually abused and raped on a weekly basis, and that Joby Harte passed him around as a “sexual plaything” to other powerful pedophiles throughout the business.
The day the suit was filed articles appeared in People, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, and TMZ, among others. However, despite the serious nature of the charges and the many and far-reaching implications of the case, not a single outlet pursued the story further.
“The one thing that can fix this is talking about it, but Hollywood doesn’t want to talk about pedophilia,” Tammy says, a reality she quickly figured out the day after the story of Ricky’s lawsuit broke, when everything went radio silent. And, of course it did. This story has the power to bring down giants. The problem is, it’s the same giants who also own the media.
That’s when Tammy Garcia reached out to me instead. Over the course of nearly two months of phone conversations as well as an in-person, sit-down interview, which will be released to the public, Tammy took me through a stunning timeline of events as well as provided me with emails, written witness testimonies and documents compiled for the civil lawsuit, all of which detail the years of torture and abuse her son suffered, the names of those who partook, those who knew, and those who covered it up. The following expose’ is entirely drawn from these documents, emails and witness testimonies.
It all began when Tammy and Ricky attended a talent expo in Dallas, Texas, at which Ricky was scouted by over a dozen Hollywood managers, and subsequently signed with Joby Harte. At Joby’s urging, Ricky and Tammy moved to L.A., arriving in Hollywood in August of 2011 with a dream, the talent to achieve it, and $20,000 of bank-borrowed money.
The grooming of both 12-year-old Ricky and his mother Tammy started right away.
“I was told stories from day one about the momagers and stage moms, that being one of those would hurt Ricky’s career.”
Tammy was instructed over and over, by Joby as well as others, not to be involved in matters of Ricky’s career, to stay in the background. Since Tammy’s husband had just lost his career, and because they’d borrowed money for the move to pursue this goal, everything was riding on Ricky’s success. Thus, at the urging of ‘the Hollywood professionals,’ Tammy took a backseat approach from the start, a choice she would come to deeply regret.
Not long after arriving in L.A., Ricky teamed up with Emory Kelly and Liam Attridge to form the boy band Forever In Your Mind.
Shortly thereafter, during an overnight ‘songwriting’ trip which was strictly ‘no parents allowed,’ Ricky and his bandmates, were taken to Catalina Island by Joby Harte and several songwriters, all adults.
Once there, the young teens were plied with alcohol including Scotch, tequila, vodka and champagne, purchased and served by Joby and the other adults. Ricky and Emery both drank to excess, to the point of being sick. After which Joby undressed and bathed Ricky, then Ricky blacked out. Ricky woke up the next morning naked in bed with Joby, having no memory of what had happened.
This began a pattern that would go on multiple times per week for four years, steadily progressing to include all forms of sexual abuse, including rape, as well as abuse by others in addition to Joby Harte.
According to the documents, one of the first people in Hollywood to sexually assault Ricky, other than Joby Harte, was Joby’s good friend then-APA agent Tyler Grasham, who has since been fired by APA and has a long list of underage male accusers.
(Chelsea Lauren / Variety)
This particular incident occurred when Joby ubered Ricky over to Tyler’s house. The two adults were already intoxicated when Ricky arrived. While Joby was throwing up in the bathroom, Tyler sexually assaulted Ricky. Joby later drove Ricky home while intoxicated, another regular event.
In April 2015, Ricky started working on the Disney Channel show “Best Friends Whenever,” and in October the band signed with Disney’s Hollywood Records.
According to Tammy, “The band flourished under Disney and Hollywood Records development.” They released several singles and Hollywood Records produced their first album, “FIYM.” They made multiple TV appearances including Good Morning America, performed in concerts, promotional gigs, and continued developing their brand.
As part of the Disney machine, FIYM attended almost every red carpet and music event, such as the BMI Awards in Las Vegas, MTV Awards, Teen Choice Awards, Radio Disney Music Awards, iHeart Music Awards, and countless others.
During this time, FIYM also took meetings with Spotify, iHeart Radio, Instagram, and other influential corporations with the power to elevate their music and profile on a global scale. At this point, Joby was grooming and ritually sexually abusing Ricky on a regular basis.
In April of 2015, after attending the Radio Disney Music Awards, there was an afterparty at the home of Nils Larsen, a manager who represents Big Little Lies and Divergent star Shailene Woodley, as well as Disney Channel and Hollywood Records star Olivia Holt.
According to the documents, an incident occurred involving Tammy’s middle son, who’d been invited to attend the awards with his brother. Nils Larsen aggressively pursued the young man, despite repeated attempts to inform Larsen that he was straight. The message was not being received. Ricky’s brother ended up having to jump the fence and flee on foot to escape Larsen’s unrelenting sexual advances.
Soon after that night, there was a concert at The Roxy in West Hollywood showcasing fellow Disney star and Hollywood Records label-mate Olivia Holt, which Ricky and his bandmate Emery attended with Joby, followed by an afterparty held at the 21 and over bar upstairs, On the Rox, which Ricky, Emery and Joby attended, along with some members of Hollywood Records and Disney, and other underage Disney talent.
That night, according to the documents and witness testimony, Hollywood Records executive Danielle Leonard observed Joby Harte openly kissing Ricky on the lips. Also that night, according to the testimony of Ricky Garcia, Nils Larsen sexually assaulted him.
In addition to the flagrant groping of children by adults, also in the presence of these studio and label executives and under the supervision of Joby Harte, Ricky and Emery were served alcohol to excess. And Joby, who was himself extremely drunk that night, left with the boys, driving them while intoxicated back to his house where they stayed the night. Ricky stayed, as was very often the case, in Joby’s bed, and woke up the next morning next to Joby, naked.
This was a Disney party, after a Disney concert, filled with underage Disney stars, being plied with alcohol, openly. Where child molestation was going on, openly. Brazenly. All under the watchful, knowing eye of Disney employees. And none of it seemed to be a problem, as no consequences resulted. No one, it seems, was looking out for or concerned about the safety and well-being of the kids in the slightest way.
For the general public, it’s hard to imagine anything more “off-brand” for the company that brought you Frozen and The Magic Kingdom than minors being plied with alcohol and sanctioned child sex abuse. And yet, for those in the business, like Ricky, his band and label-mates, this seems to be the reality of the Disney Corporation out of public view. For kids working to make it in Hollywood, attending ‘parties’ where they’re surrounded by predators, openly sexually abused and regularly plied with drinks, all in the presence of studio and label executives, is more than an everyday occurrence. Many would argue it’s expected.
Such was the case once again during the fall of 2016, when Joby Harte and Ricky attended yet another party, this time at the home of Anna Faris and her then-husband Chris Pratt.
According to Tammy and Ricky’s testimonies, as well as the lawsuit documents, at the home of this powerful, famous Hollywood couple, Ricky was again served alcohol openly and excessively. And at one point during the night, Marketing and PR veteran Lisa Delcampo, the long-time “right hand man” to Lance Bass of NSYNC, and yet another good friend of Joby Harte’s, took Ricky, a minor, into one of the bedrooms and sexually molested him after being granted permission to do so by Joby Harte in what one could conclude amounts to nothing less than child sex trafficking.
Lisa Delcampo was in her mid-30s at the time.
Many will recall how Chris Pratt, star of Disney’s lucrative Guardians of The Galaxy franchise, came to the defense of director James Gunn after his thousands of truly confounding pedophile tweets surfaced.
Also, worth remembering, that Lance Bass revealed that he too was sexually abused in Hollywood as an underage star.
One honestly has to wonder, is this how tinsel town actually works? Is Hollywood little more than an exclusive club made up of pedophiles, child traffickers, and pedophile protectors?
Then, according to the documents and witness testimonies, there was Sara Espiritu, the 28-year-old Walt Disney Studios employee, who cultivated a sexual relationship with the teenager after Ricky had been groomed, sexually abused and passed around to adults in the industry for four years.
Disney was made aware that their adult employee was having a sexual relationship with their talent Ricky Garcia, a minor, as Joby Harte discussed the matter with Hollywood Records Senior Marketing Manager Michelle Alexander. However, not only did no one tell Ricky’s mother, Tammy, but the Disney Talent Relations employee was not investigated for having sex with a minor, nor was she fired from the supposedly family-friendly behemoth.
The Disney Corporation handled the situation by transferring Ms. Espiritu out of Talent Relations to another department within the company.
At this point, an incredibly disturbing pattern is emerging, one which gives new context to Bella Thorne’s recent comments regarding the years of child sex abuse she too suffered while starring on a hit Disney Channel show.
Former Disney star Bella Thorne: "Getting molested from [the age of] 6-14… being abuse all the time…I was being molested….people have no idea the type mistreatment I was dealing with [while a Disney star] that everyone around me saw and did nothing."
Yes, Pedowood is real. pic.twitter.com/cOcMVtWHLG
— Tiffany FitzHenry (@Tiff_FitzHenry) June 29, 2024
The similarities in their tragic experiences are uncanny.
It’s easy to see the echoes of Ricky’s story in Bella’s haunting words, “everyone around me saw, and did nothing,” as Ricky endured the very same thing.
On February 11th 2017, Joby brought Ricky to the CAA Grammy party, which took place at Hyde Sunset on Sunset Blvd., in Los Angeles.
“You want to go to the CAA party. The CAA Grammy party, that’s a big one,” Tammy recalls, trying to make sense of how all of this happened to her son right under her nose, reminding herself of the seduction and the constant hustle of ‘trying to make it’ in tinsel town, and yet ever-frustrated by her own naivety.
“The night before … until the morning of,” read the official invite for the private party CAA hosted for its music clients.
The agency represents clients such as Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Bruce Springsteen, Katy Perry, Kanye West, John Mayer, Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood and countless other global mega stars.
At the 2017 CAA Grammy party, in the presence of arguably all the most powerful stars and executives in the business, Ricky was again openly served copious amounts of alcohol although, of course, he was well underage.
On this night, according to Ricky Garcia’s testimony and lawsuit documents obtained by Tammy Garcia, CAA agent Janet Kim, another woman in her 30s, took a turn with Ricky, as Joby Harte once again trafficked him to the high-level industry executive, employed by the most powerful agency in Hollywood. With Harte’s permission, Kim sexually molested and abused the young boy he’d been grooming, abusing and passing around town since he was 12 years old.
Janet Kim would later go on to represent the band on behalf of CAA as their music agent and coordinate their 2018 Euphoric tour.
Around this same time, Joby hosted a birthday party for Ricky. The party was attended by his bandmates, and other friends of Ricky, all ranging in age from 15 to 21 years old. According to the documents, witness testimonies, and Tammy’s eye-witness account, also in attendance were three Hollywood Records employees: Michelle Alexander, Danielle Leonard, and Lyssa Hurvitz, along with Joby’s partners, Sheri and Paul, and other underage Disney talent.
Joby hired a professional bar service for the party, and in the presence of multiple Disney employees and high-level Hollywood executives and gatekeepers, minors were, once again, served alcohol openly and to excess.
I asked Tammy how it’s possible that plying minors with alcohol in the presence of executives from companies and studios doing business with these same children could be going on, and on such a regular basis.
“This is all completely normal in Hollywood,” Tammy explained, realizing, only now that she’s out of it, how truly abhorrent it is, to say nothing of the illegality and incredible liability this opens the corporations up to.
Ricky finally confided in someone about the years of abuse on March 28th 2018, when he told Joby’s former assistant Alli Bohl. Two days later, on March 30th, 2018, Ricky confronted Joby about the abuse, also revealing at that time that he planned to tell his mother what Joby had done to him.
“Joby went white. He was speechless,” Ricky recalls.
On April 2nd, less than 48 hours after Ricky confronted Joby, Joby announced a tour for the band’s second album, Euphoric, which was a surprise to everyone from the band members to their parents.
Joby had manifested the tour out of thin air with the help of CAA and, in particular, Janet Kim, who sprung to action booking dates for what was to be a ‘grassroots, promotional tour.’ Joby promptly began spreading news about the tour all over social media, which angered Alli who felt this was, “a clear manipulation tactic to pull Ricky back in and make it harder for him to escape Joby.”
Ricky had promised Alli that he would tell his mom about what Joby had done to him. But after two weeks passed, and Ricky still hadn’t told her, Alli made the difficult but critical decision to tell Tammy herself.
In what Tammy now calls “a major life regret,” she met with Joby to discuss what she’d been told. At this time, Tammy wasn’t aware of the extent of the abuse nor was she aware of the others involved. As someone who was equally groomed, mentally, emotionally and psychologically by Harte, Tammy listened to and was persuaded by Joby’s explanation, that it was “horseplay.”
“In Joby’s presence, my anger would just dissipate,” Tammy recalls, heartbroken not just by what Joby had done to her child but by her own part in not preventing it as well as her inaction during this specific period of time. After speaking with Joby and the announcement of the tour, Tammy now hoped to handle the situation privately as opposed to going to the authorities.
Understandably, the next year was a tremendously difficult one for Ricky. Though professionally his band toured for their Euphoric album as well as performing as the opening act on the American Idol tour, and Ricky was cast in and filmed a movie, personally and emotionally he was struggling.
In December 2018, after other members of Ricky’s family, including his father, were made aware of the abuse, Ricky finally went to the police, filing a report with Officer Josephina Torres of the LAPD.
According to Tammy the investigation was flawed from the start, to say the least, “Joby was never even interviewed or questioned by the LAPD.”
The other band moms also corroborated the fact that Joby was never questioned by the LADP.
Then, in February, in what was a crushing blow for Ricky, the DA decided not to prosecute, claiming there was not enough evidence, and the case was closed. When Ricky’s attorney attempted to press the issue, Officer Torres did not return his phone calls.
The same month, in February 2019, an anonymous email entitled “Urgent Alert Regarding Joby Harte” was sent to several hundred people within the industry, including people within Disney which spoke directly about Joby Harte being a pedophile and assaulting Disney talent he represented during their minor years.
I obtained the email through Tammy Garcia, below is a screenshot of the message in its entirely.
Disney conducted a brief investigation internally. The Disney Human Resources Department and Head of Security reached out to Alli Bohl.
Alli and Ricky had a conference call with them, in which they confirmed the sexual abuse. Incredibly, however, nothing whatsoever happened as a result of that email. In fact, Joby Harte continues to represent underage Disney talent to this very day. And just last month he was part of a lucrative deal with Warner Brothers and DC Entertainment for Shazam 2 on behalf of Asher Angel, 17, whom he still represents.
“Powerful people were sent that email,” Tammy confirms.
One month after the email, in March 2019, Lyssa Hurvitz, who works for Hollywood Records PR Department, was asked to walk the red carpet for the Kids Choice Awards with ‘In Real Life,’ another Disney boy band formed on an ABC/Disney show, whom Joby currently represents.
While at the Kids Choice Awards, Ms. Hurvitz noted Joby there with the boys, still representing them. Already being aware of the email and ensuing investigation, she once again went to Disney Human Resources to express her concerns. There Lyssa Hurvitz spoke to Soledad Boyle about the situation. According to documents for the civil lawsuit given to me by Tammy, Ms. Boyle told her, “you are not allowed to have an opinion on this matter and need to do your job.”
Ms. Boyle has been with Disney since 2007. Before becoming a Human Resources Manager at The Walt Disney Studios, a role she still currently holds, she was the company’s Internship Program Manager.
The obvious question naturally becomes, is Disney protecting pedophiles?
“Yes, they are. Disney is protecting pedophiles,” Tammy asserts without wavering.
Another important question is why the LAPD phoned in the investigation, never so much as questioning the accused, Joby Harte, on what were very serious accusation of child sex abuse and trafficking, and how and why the DA decided not to prosecute. How engrained is pedophilia within the closed power system of Hollywood? How protected are the perpetrators, and why? Why do the justice and law enforcement systems appear to be designed to protect the abusers instead of the victims of these vile, unacceptable, life-destroying crimes?
It wasn’t until the summer of 2019 when Tammy finally became aware of the full extent of the abuse Ricky had suffered. A complete timeline had been amassed for the civil suit now underway, detailing upwards of 60 specific instances, that this had been near weekly abuse including rape and assault by multiple people whom Tammy now understood were well-insulated pedophiles. She also now began to understand how she, along with her son, had been groomed and manipulated not just by Joby Harte, but by the entire Hollywood machine.
The ‘why’ of systemic child sex abuse is something our society will eventually have to tackle, once we begin to understand what the Garcias’ story teaches us, which is the ‘how’ and the ‘who.’
The Garcias’ story demonstrates how these behemoths not only knowingly allow pedophiles to surround children, sanction and even participate in abusing them, they cover-up their own crimes, not once, but twice. First when they occur, and again when the media buries these explosive stories.
This closed power system of abuse, criminality and near total narrative control is what has provided a breeding ground the Epsteins, Weinsteins and Joby Hartes of the world to exist. And stories, like what happened to Ricky, circulating the globe, have the potential to blow it all apart. To make certain the guilty are held accountable, and ensure the future protection of children. A goal everyone should be behind, and any who aren’t should be called out and scorned.
In a positive turn of events, the world has recently learned that the former Chairman of Disney Studios, Richard Cook, and former President to Disney/ABC Studios Geraldine Layborne flew around with international child sex traffickers Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell on the “Lolita Express,” according to the flight logs. Is it really surprising then to discover that ABC spiked the Epstein story?
Or does it paint a picture of the same type of top down power structure, teeming with pedophiles and pedophile protectors, which Ricky encountered and which both he and his mother Tammy are intent on exposing and destroying.
In one final baffling decision by those who should be concerned with protecting children, the trial in the civil lawsuit, which Ricky filed on September 11, 2019, isn’t scheduled to take place until 2021 at the soonest and could easily be pushed back further.
As for Tammy and Ricky, what Hollywood wants right now is their silence. They’ve been told to keep quiet and be patient. “Let the justice system do its job.” Meanwhile, they must endure watching Joby and the other perpetrators of crimes against children not only walk free but continue to work in Hollywood including with underage kids, and the most powerful studios in the world covering up their crimes and appearing to reward them.
Usually, in these high-profile Hollywood cases, the public is kept in the dark about the real facts, justice is evaded and nothing changes. But there’s something entirely different about Tammy Garcia and her son Ricky. There’s something different about this time in human history. This isn’t twenty years ago. This isn’t going to get buried and go away. Ricky Garcia will not become another Hollywood statistic, and neither will Tammy. Not this time.
These two have been to hell and back, and they’re here to make sure that what happened to them never happens to anyone else ever again.
Be sure to follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Periscope, I will be updating as this story continues to develop as well as premiering my exclusive sit-down interview with Tammy Garcia.
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In Love and Truth,
Tiffany
Article originally published on Tiffany’s official website Tiffany FitzHenry
