Reality bites for modeling hopefuls

After the camera crew walked off the job, Gemase Simmons managed to move what was left of his modeling reality show cast the from the San Antonio Ranch to a luxury condo building in Houston.

The building management had donated three apartments in exchange for publicity.

In Houston, Gemase told the group that new camera crews would be arriving soon.  Meantime, the contestants say, he insisted that the show could go on.

Chris Hansen, Dateline correspondent: The activities continued?

Female contestant: Right.

Hansen: Without cameras?

Female contestant: You go it.

How was he going to shoot a reality show with our camera crews? Well, the contestants we interviewed say Gemase told them new apartments were wired up with hidden cameras, recording their every move.

But as you'd imagine, by now they'd begun to question nearly everything he said.

Griffin: We were told that we were constantly mic'd. We were constantly under surveillance. I was, honestly, very scared. I wasn't sure what was a lie and what with the truth. 

This big-time reality show was clearly falling apart.  There wasn't even money to buy food.

Unsure what to do next, the aspiring models began to act more like aspiring investigators. 

They quietly asked the building manager if there were hidden cameras in the walls and were told that wasn't true.

And one contestant called home, asking a family friend in law enforcement to run a background check on Gemase, and that's when the other shoe finally dropped.

Female contestant: And they found several counts of -- 

Hansen: A laundry list --

Various voices: Yes.

Female contestant: ...A long list.

Video   Not quite the end for Gemase The cast members now had to face the fact that their short-lived reality show careers were over. But this wasn’t quite the end of Gemase Simmons productions. Dateline NBC

In his hometown of San Antonio, police say Gemase Simmons has ten outstanding arrest warrants. He's currently wanted on charges ranging from evading arrest to stealing a rental car.

And, our research also turned up four criminal convictions.

Two case of "theft of services," one involving a bad check to a video store. For that incident, Gemase's mugshot shows him apparently dressed as a clergyman.

He's also been convicted of giving false information to a police officer, and he has as one conviction for lewd conduct.

Griffin: Huge charges that were on there and, you know, everything just started to unravel after that.

The cast members now had to face the fact that their short-lived reality show careers were over. One by one, they began heading home.

Most were now behind on their school work and bills, after putting their lives on hold for a dream that turned out to be a disaster.

Phillip Doubek: My self-esteem and everything was just real low. I felt bad, didn't wanna do anything. I felt so let down. 

Sabrina Griffin: And it just makes you question everything, you know, when you go through something like that.

Jose Garcia: I lost my dream at the end.

Garcia: It crushed me so hard, man.  It hurt so bad that I thought I would never get back up again. 

So was this the end of Gemase Simmons productions?  What would he do next? Leave town? Get a real job?

Not at all.  In fact, he began casting a new set of models almost as soon as the first group fell apart.

Witness the spin-off series, of the series that never was.

We got access to video of a new audition he held while he was still living for free at the Houston condos.

The camera crews who shot that audition, and like the others, say they were never paid.

But despite the reality show's serious lack of funds, Gemase had now doubled the potential prize money!

The second cast of the second reality show didn't stick around for very long.

Aside from the audition, no cameras showed up to tape anything, and soon management at the luxury condos asked Gemase to leave. He then briefly brought his new models to a Houston office building but management there says he never paid the rent. So it seemed, Gemase's days as a would-be reality show host were finally over.

It seemed Gemase Simmons had fooled dozens of people: from the unpaid camera crews to the hopeful young people who had believed this could be their big break.

Hansen: Was this guy that slick? Or were you guys just a little bit naïve?

Sabrina Griffin: It was a little bit of both. We wanted it bad. We really wanted it.

Doubek: We had that faith, like, like, somehow, some way there'll be some opportunity for us to, like, make something out of this, like—

Griffin: It wouldn't have worked if we didn't want it so bad.

And there's at least one more person Gemase Simmons fooled, at least for a little while —Jaqueline Christine Foster.

Jacqueline Christine Foster: I told him I don't want to have sex with him, he tried to get on top of me, all that.

Foster is a college student who hopes to get into medical school. She tried out for the reality show at that first nightclub audition, along the  other contestants we interviewed, though she says she was less interested in modeling than in making easy money to pay for school.

Foster: If there was a chance I could win $50,00 dollars. I could use $50,000.

And Jacqueline-Christine says she was further enticed when, soon after the audition, Gemase offered her something extra, a big-time modeling job with the fashion company Juicy Couture.  She'd be paid $2,000. 

But first, she needed one of those so-called “cosmetic exams.” 

Hansen: And what was this cosmetic exam supposed to entail?

Foster: Before I went to Juicy Couture, I was supposed to get my skin checked out so that they'd be able to match the make up. Yeah, that kind of made sense to me.

The night before the job, Jacqueline Christine drove four hours from Houston to San Antonio to stay at an apartment she was told had been rented for the filming of the show.

She says she knew something was wrong when the accommodations turned out to be a dirty, empty flat with Gemase Simmons sleeping on an air mattress on the floor.

Foster: Once I got to the apartment I knew, like “This is foolishness. This is baloney. I cant believe I am here. I'm afraid.”

Hansen: Why didn’t you just get the hell out of there?

Foster: Because I wanted to get paid in the morning. I wanted at least wanted my gas money.

Hansen: So, he does the cosmetic exam that night.

Foster: Yes.

Hansen: The so-called “cosmetic exam.”

Foster: Yes.

Hansen: And how are you dressed at this point for the cosmetic exam?

Foster: I just have my bra and panties on. And that's it.

Hansen: And you're laying there on the air mattress.

Foster: Yes.

Hansen: Which is on the floor.

Foster: Which is on the floor.

Hansen: In this dirty apartment.

Foster: Indeed.

Hansen: And he's doing what to you for this “cosmetic exam”?

Foster: Well, he's like kissing on my neck and like feeling my legs and stuff like that.  And I'm just like laying there like, “Just get off of me.” Heebie-jeebies.

Hansen: Did he touch you inappropriately?

Foster: Yes. Yes.  He tried to put his hands between my legs and I kept my legs as tight as I could. I just like laid there. 

Hansen: Did you ever say to Gemase "don't touch me"?

Foster: Yes. I said, "Look, I'm not having' sex with you.”

Hansen: And you were very clear?

Foster: I was very clear.

It was already the middle of the night and against her better judgement, Jacqueline-Christine stayed ‘till morning so she could go with Gemase to that supposed modeling job.

But, as if to add insult to injury, she says she had to drive the alleged super-model there in her own car.

Foster: I'm pissed off. You're supposed to be this big time model for 20 years and you don’t even have a car? C'mon, even I had a car and I don’t have any money.

But the $2,000-dollar modeling job turned out to be just a shopping trip to the local mall.

Hansen: So, after all this rigmarole, you end up at Juicy Couture?

Foster: Yes.

Hansen: And it's just a store with nobody there--

Foster: It's just a store.

Hansen: So, he's playin' you this whole time?

Foster: Yes.

Hansen: Start to finish?

Foster: Yes.

Hansen: I gotta tell you, if I'm your father (laughter), you know, I am so mad at my daughter right now. 

Jacqueline Christine says she left embarrassed and furious, but also determined to do something.

Remember how some of the models said they were confused by how few people actually showed up for the taping? 

Well that's in part because, before the taping began, Jacqueline Christine got on MySpace and tried to warn any contestants she could find-- telling them she thought Gemase and his show were a complete fraud.

Foster:  I was like, “I’m just trying to warn you… I'm not doing it, I wouldn’t do it if I were you.”

The contestants who made it to the taping obviously never got the message.

And now, we were going to give Gemase Simmons his real network TV debut.

These young people say Gemase Simmons wasted their time and shattered their dreams... but if he was really just a con artist, what was his angle?  It didn't appear to be money...

Foster: What do you think this guy was really up to?

Joslyn Pennywell: I feel like he wanted to feel powerful, feel like he served some kind of purpose. And at the same time, he wanted to be able to use and manipulate all these people to get money and get things free and to get his way.

Griffin: It was a power trip. 

Izzy Cardoza: I think he does it for the feel of being a star.

And by playing the part of a star, some think Gemase is really just after something else...

Contestant: It had to be that he was trying to sleep with people.

Hansen: So, you think this whole modeling show was a way for Gemase to try to have sex with young women and quite possibly, young men...

Foster: It does.

Hansen: ...quite possibly young men?

Foster: To be honest, that has to be it.

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