Raul Quintana skids his silver Mercedes C550 to a stop in the dirt parking lot outside the trailer housing the management offices of Fisher Island, one of the nation's most expensive residential enclaves. Quintana's salt-and-pepper hair is a mess, his green eyes flicker wildly, and spittle foams from the sides of his mouth. The real estate speculator has just been officially informed he is banned from entering the Fisher Island Club — the lynchpin of society here. He is charged with allowing a hard-core porno flick to be filmed in his condo and on the club's golf links, and then threatening the life of the island executive whose office he now barges into unannounced.
C. Stiles
Raul Quintana says a porn company ruined his life.
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Fisher Island Community Association chief executive Mark James, a burly man in a blue sport coat, counters Quintana's frantic hostility with exhausted candor. He tells the intruder there's nothing he can do to reinstate him — and then expresses a sentiment that won't be found in any of Fisher Island's glossy catalogues. "I wouldn't live here for a million dollars," James mutters sympathetically. "They tried to give me an apartment here and I told them I would rather shoot myself in the head. I wouldn't do it because of all the fighting. I guess rich people like to fight with each other."
James has strayed far from the company line, and he certainly would have chosen his words differently if he were aware that Quintana's companion was a New Times reporter. (Indeed, he later denied saying it and threatened legal action.) But many people would feel the same way about living in this status-obsessed community had they suffered Quintana's fate. After unwittingly renting a condo to a porn crew, the longtime property owner has gone from island hero to pariah. He claims he is now unable to rent his three multimillion-dollar luxury condos, which are in foreclosure. He's even contemplating bankruptcy. "When you first hear my story, you think, How could a porno flick really fuck this guy's life up?" says the 42-year-old mortgage lender. "But it did. I feel like killing myself."
"Everybody loved Raul," says Ty, a Fisher Island resident and business owner who asked that his last name not be used. "But he's lost everything. He's been outcasted."
Quintana first began buying condos in the 695-unit millionaires' compound, located just south of South Beach and accessible only by ferry or helicopter, in 1997. The island has been home to A-listers such as Oprah Winfrey, Andre Agassi, Julia Roberts, and Ricky Martin. In the early days, Quintana was among the top investors, buying 15 condos and spending $45 million, by his estimation. Back then, he was the flashy socialite who drove a Ferrari, sponsored polo matches at the Fisher Island Club, and always arrived by chopper.
He sold six units, earning millions before the bottom fell out of the condo market last year. After an early-2008 divorce from his second wife, Maura Barbosa Lopez, Quintana was left with three units. But his troubles really began that October, he claims, when he was called by a woman who claimed to be a representative of a "modeling agency" and wanted to hold a "photo shoot" in unit 5143 — a 3,600-square-foot, three-bedroom, furnished condo with a balcony overlooking Biscayne Bay. At the time, the apartment was worth nearly $3 million. Quintana had previously rented it for $25,000 to $35,000 a month to former Florida Marlins catcher Ivan Rodriguez and visiting relatives of tennis star Anna Kournikova.
The prospective renter offered $600 for a six-hour shoot, which Quintana says is equivalent to a "cleaning fee." His assistant exchanged keys for cash, he says. There was no written contract. "I fucked up," he admits. "I thought a photo spread might help rent the apartment. Who would have imagined that they would come in and film a porno flick?"
It turns out Quintana had rented his apartment to Bangbros.com, an online porn giant based in Miami. Its auteurs produced Sexy Golfing Experience, which sounds like an unauthorized Tiger Woods biography but is in fact a hard-core skin flick starring zeppelin-breasted actress Devon Lee.
The film is no innovation in cinema. In it, Tony, a ratty-looking dude with a thin beard and designer shades, commandeers a golf cart — clearly displaying Quintana's apartment number — to rendezvous with Devon on a Fisher Island golf green. After the dirty-blond porn starlet does some butt-focused putting, the lovers drive to Quintana's condo on a golf cart with a pudgy, bearded dolly grip riding on the rear.
Once in the apartment, they head to the balcony, where, in broad daylight and full view of any neighbor who might glance out a window, Tony applies baby oil to Devon's buttocks for five minutes. They then go inside and run through the usual battery of positions, with only a thin white towel separating their carnal intermingling from Quintana's brown suede couch and matching chaise lounge. Other scenes involve possible staining of one of the homeowner's throw pillows and his carpet. The 40-minute film is viewable for a buck at Bangbros.com, where online connoisseurs gave it a rating of 8.1 out of a possible 10.
