Jake Schroeder, who married Murphy more than five years ago and has a daughter with the model, was thrown in jail on Jan. 5 — and not released until Jan. 10 — after Internet Commerce Group, the company in talks with Schroeder to market the tape, coughed up his $33,000 bail.
David Gingras, a lawyer for ICG, told XBiz that the extortion charges come as a great surprise. According to Gingras, Marty Singer, Murphy’s attorney, had contacted him in November with claims that she might be willing to release the tape upon reviewing the agreement ICG had with Schroeder. Gingras quickly sent him the agreement.
“Next day he writes back and says he’s concerned that ICG is conspiring with Jake to commit extortion against Murphy,” Gingras told XBiz. “I wrote back and asked him to explain what he was talking about because I have no idea about any of this, but Marty never responded, which I find interesting because you’d think he’d have responded if he had something he could scare us with.”
Schroeder has been in talks with ICG, the same company trying to push the Collin Farrell sex tape through the courts, since October when the tape mysteriously disappeared from Murphy’s home. It allegedly features more than two hours of graphic sex filmed during the couple’s 17-day honeymoon in Barbados in 2001.
Ironically, Singer also is representing Farrell in that case.
Gingras told XBiz the extortion charges may be linked to a private investigator Murphy reportedly hired to follow Schroeder.
“Apparently the investigator met with Jake and said he wanted the tape,” Gingras said. “Jake told me the guy offered $200,000 for the tape and he turned it down, so I don’t know where the extortion is coming from.”
Gingras did say, however, that Schroeder received $3,000 from the investigator for “something related to the tape,” though the details were unclear.
Shortly after Schroeder was arrested, Gingras said Placer Country Detective David Hunt and six Phoenix police officers brought a search warrant to ICG’s headquarters.
“We gave them the original copy of tape,” Gingras said. “They also wanted copies of our agreements with Jake, which is unnecessary because I already sent them to Singer last year.”
Gingras said he plans a “wait and see” attitude for the coming weeks and will be awaiting a ruling on the Farrell case before deciding how to proceed with Murphy.
A ruling on the Farrell case could come as early as Jan. 20.
