TV role costs state worker his job

Monday, Jan. 6, 2003 | 11:06 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A computer specialist has lost his job at the state Department of Corrections because he portrayed a customer at a Nevada house of prostitution for a television show.

James Wood and his wife, Amy, were actors in an HBO program about the Moonlite Bunny Ranch east of Carson City. Wood said he was within six days of completing his one-year probation period at the department when he received notice he would not be retained "for moral reasons."

Glen Whorton, assistant director of the state Department of Corrections, declined to talk about the action, saying, "I can't discuss it with you. It's a personnel matter."

In an e-mail to Keith Munro, the legal counsel to Gov. Kenny Guinn, Whorton said Wood's service was terminated because he engaged in "inappropriate activity."

"I indicated that his involvement was inappropriate because it exploited women, and we incarcerated many women with similar backgrounds," Wharton noted in his e-mail.

"Further, I indicated that by attending the Moonlite Ranch there was a high probability that he would come into contact with ex-offenders, or family members of current inmates."

Wood worked in the central office at the Department of Corrections that oversees the prison system and said he never had any contact with inmates or family.

By failing to complete his probation, Wood returns to his former job at the state Department of Information Technology and sees a salary cut of about 15 percent.

Wood and his wife perform in local theater productions. He said he was contacted by Kent Wallace, a marketing man for the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, to act in the production.

Wood said he and his wife were paid $1,000 from HBO and $500 "from the cat house."

Wood said he and his wife acted as a couple that went to the bordello. In the script, he said his wife did not want him to go alone to the Moonlite Ranch. So she accompanied him. At the bawdy house, they negotiated a price for the services of two women -- one for him and one for his wife.

The Moonlite Bunny Ranch is in Lyon County, where houses of prostitution are legal.

Wood maintains he did not do anything inappropriate. He said he checked with his immediate superior, Darryl Rexwinkle at the prison, and said Rexwinkle did not see anything wrong with the acting bit.