Robert Paisola and I have a checkered history. In 2007 I reported in a CW cover feature called Conman.com on his cyber-bullying activities. I doubt if Paisola, a registered sex offender, has ever forgiven me.---

That said, in the few phone conversations we have had since then he has displayed little animosity. Rather, he’s always been unfailingly enthusiastic about life and his current projects, his conversation waves of bombast, mixing name-dropping, self-love and self-promotion in equal quantities.  

Paisola was a chapter I considered closed until a bizarre new development had me laughing and cringing at the same time. In December 2008 I penned a CW cover story called Swap Meet. It was about a non-profit hedonist group cum church dedicated to swinging. Paisola read the story and three months ago started attending. He didn’t engage in matters of the flesh, he says, but rather hung out with folk he describes as “a fraternity of friends.”

Cindy, who founded and run Eden House, closed it several weeks ago. She hasn’t got the energy to continue running it. Rumors suggested Paisola wanted to run it as a business venture. My mind boggled. A registered sex offender charging folk to attend a swingers’ club?

He won’t comment on his plans for Eden, except to say, “I’m looking at it from the business aspect on a day to day basis just as I would any other project.” If I understood him correctly – and it’s hard to understand Paisola at times, such is the relentless manner in which he talks – if he does take it over, he will run it as it was run before, as a non-profit place for friends with similar sexual tastes to hang out.

Paisola and Cindy say there’s nothing on paper. She’s waiting for him to respond to questions about member confidentiality before she lets him take over. After reading Conman.com, she says she's "a little concerned." But, she adds, Eden House isn't for everyone. It requires a unique person to take it on. And Paisola is, if nothing else, unique.

Quite what I make of two such disparate stories dovetailing so neatly, I couldn’t say. I await the next installment with some anticipation, if not a little dread.

As a curious side note, I went to the Utah.gov sex offender registry last night only to find the site doesn’t work.