California-born Scott Michael Austin, having already been a guest of the Toronto West Detention Centre, as well as the super-jail in Lindsay, is now booked into the Niagara Detention Centre, months after customs officials at Pearson International ran his passport through their computer and discovered he was no accidental tourist.

After all, if American soldiers who had voluntarily enlisted in the U.S. Army thought it was worth a shot to both extend their stay in Canada as well as avoid going to Iraq, then why would he not give it a try?

What he is, instead, is a porn star who skipped bail in Nevada as he was about to come to trial in a rural desert town on various counts of felony sex assault.

There was, for example, the 2000 Adult Video Nude Award he won for Kid Vegas: Whoremaster. And then a repeat only one year later for ... Kid Vegas: Trenchcoat Pornographer.

And California hairdresser Kathleen Vigil -- mother of Scott Austin, aka Kid Vegas -- has been writing and phoning anyone who will listen, and many who will not, to try to convince Canadian authorities that her son doesn't stand a snowball's chance in the Nevada heat of getting a fair trial in the Dye County burg of Beatty, Nev., Pop. 1,200.

Lieut. Frank Jarvis of the Dye County Sheriff's Office said Dye County and its main town, Beatty, are small enough that "everyone pretty well knows everyone," including the fact that Scott Austin skipped bail on a number of extraditable sexual assaults that had "no relationship" with the pornography business.

According to Kathleen Vigil, her son doesn't stand a snowball's chance of a fair trial in Dye County because the only two defence attorneys in Beatty worth their salt dropped the case because one knew the accuser as well as her mother, and the other knew the accuser's entire family.

As for the judges, she said, one has a niece who is a witness for the prosecution, and the other supposedly has the accuser's mother on the county's payroll.

It is a town small enough, in fact, that when Lieut. Jarvis claimed the charges against Austin had "no relationship" with the pornography business, he was technically correct while perhaps not entirely forthcoming.

Austin's accuser, according to the Las Vegas defence attorney last retained by Austin, was in fact a co-star in Kid Vegas' last porno flick, available only on the Internet.

"The allegation is that the sex he had with her during an escapade one night in Beatty was forced sex," said James Buchanan. "This comes from a girl who appeared with him in a porn movie. And, yes, there were other accusers, but they were all at the same party.

According to Patrizia Giolti, communications manager for the Canada Border Service Agency, 32-year-old Scott Austin's refugee claim was denied on Sept. 23 when he was determined "not to be a Geneva Convention refugee."

"At this point, he can still ask for pre-removal risk assessment," said Giolti, supposedly to ascertain whether going back to Dye County would be dangerous. "Or, he could ask for judicial review at a federal court."

As for bail until any of these options are explored, well, according to Giolti, the Crown argued successfully for Austin's detainment "due to the unlikelihood that he would appear" for any of the proceedings.

Austin's mother, meanwhile, has been adding up the phone calls -- more than a dozen to Ontario Legal Aid, as well as numerous calls to the American Consulate in Toronto.

Elaine Gamble, a spokesperson for legal aid, refused to comment on specific cases, but indicated legal aid assistance is given in certain immigration hearings.

"We have a list of countries where we have dire concerns," she said. "Countries like Iran and Iraq, for example. But the United States is not on that list."

As for the U.S. Consulate, spokesman Mike Schimmel refused, as well, to discuss Scott Austin's case, or even admit that he knew of the case's existence.

He can play the Canadian system like Vegas dice and go for a pre-removal review, or he can request a judicial review at the federal level -- all of which will get him his stall.

Or, he can throw up his hands and give up -- which will lead to him being escorted over the border, and then a one-way trip back to Dye County, Nev., for a courtroom reunion with the porn actress who he allegedly raped and her friends.

Right now, however, he is going for the pre-removal review route. In a collect phone call from the Niagara Detention Centre, Scott Austin -- aka Kid Vegas -- says he is facing multiple life sentences if convicted in Nevada. "It's all corrupt down there," he said. "I'm willing to stay here as long as it takes if I can avoid going back to Nevada."

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