Teen Models Posed At Seabird Sanctuary

By MARK DOUGLAS News Channel 8

Published: Aug 24, 2006

In an ongoing investigation, Eight On Your Side discovered that for the past year-and-a-half, The Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary has been the site of revealing photo shoots involving teenage models as young as 15.

A dozen underage girls posed on the sanctuary grounds in g-strings, lingerie and sometimes topless with only their hands as cover.

It's all for publication on a website called True Teen Babes.

The sanctuary's president Ralph Heath now says he made a bad decision.

In June, photographer James Steven Grady, his crew, and models wrapped up a photo session at a warehouse junkyard owned by the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary. These photos later were posted on a website called trueteenbabes.

And this was by no means the first time.

Grady runs that subscription web site under the stage name Jimmy Stephans.

The site features dozens of photos of underage girls as young as 13 in thongs, lingerie, and sometimes covered by little more than their own hands.

Stephans calls the pictures on True Teen Babes glamour photography and says its perfectly legal.

Elle Coley, a teen model, says Stephans paid her $75 an hour to pose at the sanctuary when she was 17. "It's mostly like bathing suits and lingerie and at first I was no, I can't do that and they are like come on, just come in for an interview," Coley said.

There's no age requirement to buy access to photos of Coley and other models on the True Teen Babes website for $30 a month.

For more money Stephans sells videos featuring two topless girls posing next to the sanctuary warehouse covered from the waist up with nothing more than their own hands.

Stephans says these models are 15 and 16 years old.

During her sessions at the warehouse, Coley posed in one scene covered only by mud from the waist up, and wearing see-through lingerie in another:

“That's a really large cage. I don't know what he used it for at the sanctuary but it was a really cool prop," Coley said.

She remembers meeting sanctuary founder and president Ralph Heath at the warehouse. " I think he went by once and he had a duck when he was going by and talked to him for a little bit,” Coley laughs.

Stephans says he met Heath through a mutual acquaintance. "I had dinner with him a couple of times and asked him if he could use his place,” Stephans said.

Stephans confirms he's used the warehouse junkyard a number of times as a background for True Teen Babes photo shoots.

And with Ralph Heath's permission he also used the charity's world-renowned beach headquarters.

Stephans posed a girl - identified as 16 on his website - sitting on a sanctuary memorial bench.

Heath's name and the sanctuary address are clearly visible on the mailbox behind her, and so are the names on the memorial plaque for anyone who subscribes to True Teen Babes.

Two other teens are shown posed in a hot tub located in Heath's private tower on sanctuary property.

And at least two more posed in or around the million-dollar beach house Heath lives in and leases from the sanctuary.

The charity purchased the beach house for $300,000 nine years ago to keep it in friendly hands.

Stephans says the teenager in one of the photos taken at the beach house is 16 years old and she's posing in the bathroom. When asked if this was the inside of the beach house, the photographer confirmed it. “Uh...I asked, simply asked him can we use the beach house and work on the beach," Stephans said.

Since January, Heath has declined to answer Eight on Your Side’s questions about sanctuary spending and business practices on camera, but he did respond to this story with a written apology which says in part:

"...the choice I made in this situation was not thought through and I made a bad decision. I was wrong. I apologize to the personnel, volunteers, and members of the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary and to the public."

The corporate secretary and lawyer for the sanctuary, Keith Ringelspaugh sent us a letter saying he didn't know about the True Teen Babes modeling sessions until we raised questions, and he doesn't approve. He says whatever happened with Ralph Heath's permission should not be held against other sanctuary staff and volunteers.

Ringelspaugh worries that bad publicity from this story will hurt the charity.

And says he's speaks only for himself because he's resigning his position with the sanctuary next week after spending 33 years as a volunteer.

Ralph Heath did not respond when asked if he or the sanctuary get anything in return for his granting access for the teen photo shoots.

Keith Ringlespaugh says he doesn't know about any such business arrangement.

The photographer tells the reporter he made a couple of donations for the birds to show his appreciation for gaining free access to the sanctuary properties.

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