New Orleans Obscenity Trial Ends in Guilty Verdict

[lawpal]

Just another reminder that the obscenity bandwagon started by Ashhahahahaha is starting to roll through conservative communities, and should be taken seriously. The guy in the article below was convicted for selling "Hustler" barely legal movies. How many New Orleans webmasters are out there selling analogous material?


http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisi...0448129860.xml


Lincoln jury hands over guilty verdict in obscenity trial

The Associated Press
10/29/2003, 5:28 p.m. CT


RUSTON, La. (AP) ? A Lincoln Parish jury Wednesday found Dan Sasha Birman, 23, guilty of obscenity for the sale of pornographic materials at his Lincoln Parish video and adult novelty store.

Defense lawyer John Herbison said an appeal would be filed on Birman's behalf.

The verdict ended a two-day trial. Sentencing was set for Nov. 12. Birman could be sentenced to up to three years in jail with a maximum fine of $2,500.

In thanking the six-member jury, 3rd District Attorney Bob Levy said the jury had "set the community standard where we believed it should have been all along ? that this community does not accept hard-core graphic pornography in the type sold by the defendant."

At issue was the sales of two movies, "Hustler Barely Legal, Vol. 16" and "Ladies Club." State troopers working under cover bought the videos earlier this year at Birman's store, which is housed in a pink cinderblock building on a service road along U.S. 20, just outside the Ruston city limits. The store opened in February 2003.

___

[Fletch XXX]

In case no one noticed, LA is one of the states you are NOT ALLOWED to mail hardcore porn to, so this is no surprise.

[Rinaldo]

wow ... did not know that

[XxXotic]

lincoln parish does not = new orleans, theyre a few hours away from one another... lincoln parish is a small ass place in north louisiana most likely chock full of conservative coonass rednecks

[KRL]

You gotta be crazy to be shipping hardcore videos anywhere right now.

[Fletch XXX]

Originally posted by XxXotic
lincoln parish does not = new orleans, theyre a few hours away from one another... lincoln parish is a small ass place in north louisiana most likely chock full of conservative coonass rednecks

exactly.

New Orleans has had sex entertainment for centuries, things wont stop in new Orleans, but go those small church towns and open a fucking PINK ADULT STORE?

asking for trouble.

[dougeetx]

Originally posted by XxXotic
lincoln parish does not = new orleans, theyre a few hours away from one another... lincoln parish is a small ass place in north louisiana most likely chock full of conservative coonass rednecks

Conservative? LOL! Dude! That's where Grambling St. University is and Louisiana Tech.....2 of the most partying universities in the state! I don't see how they can be that conservative! The only other partying universities that beat them are UNO (Univeristy of New Orleans), Southern University, and Northwestern St. University in Natchitoches.

[Fletch XXX]

Originally posted by dougeetx

The only other partying universities that beat them are UNO (Univeristy of New Orleans),

Give it up for UNO, thats where I went.

Damn near had bars on campus.

hell yeah.

[Carrie]

Because out-of-town college students do not establish nor practice a community's standards. The people who *live* in the community do.

[Rictor]

This is just disgusting. Violence is okay, sex is bad. It's the American way.

[lakeview]

have there been any obscenity cases in major metropolitan cities like LA, miami, chicago, nyc, boston, seattle etc?

[Snake Doctor]

Its very very misleading to title this thread as "new orleans obscenity trial"

This trial was in Ruston, which is practically a different country compared to New Orleans.
There are lots of sex toy/video shops in the french quarter, not to mention the glut of strip clubs and the porn theaters with the stalls where you feed in tokens to watch the movies.
None of those places are going anywhere anytime soon.

[XxXotic]

Originally posted by dougeetx


Conservative? LOL! Dude! That's where Grambling St. University is and Louisiana Tech.....2 of the most partying universities in the state! I don't see how they can be that conservative! The only other partying universities that beat them are UNO (Univeristy of New Orleans), Southern University, and Northwestern St. University in Natchitoches.

dude, college students don't run the parish government. I live in baton rouge, the state capital, southern university and LSU (LSU has more students alone then Lincoln Parish has residents) and baton rouge is still "conservative" This is the bible belt, regardless of college party towns and moron frat boys streaking through some shitty little swamp town, it's STILL run by old conservatives. And I would really hate to bust your little fantasy but LSU is the party school in the state hands down.

[lawpal]

Originally posted by lakeview
have there been any obscenity cases in major metropolitan cities like LA, miami, chicago, nyc, boston, seattle etc?

Here is one from Fort Worth, Texas. This couple now faces up to 20 years in prison.


http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/7079225.htm

Posted on Wed, Oct. 22, 2003

Fort Worth couple convicted on 3 obscenity counts
By Toni Heinzl
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

A federal jury in Dallas on Wednesday convicted a Fort Worth couple of violating federal obscenity laws by selling videos featuring graphic rape and sexual torture via a Web site.

Legal experts, prosecutors and defense attorneys say it is the first federal obscenity case involving adult pornography in North Texas in at least 10 years.

Former Dallas police officer Garry Ragsdale, 34, and his wife, Tamara, 32, were named in indictments unsealed in June, five years after FBI agents, postal inspectors and Dallas vice detectives launched their original investigation.

A defense attorney suggested the prosecution was pressured politically by officials in the U.S. Justice Department, which has broadened its scope in vice investigations from child pornography to obscene adult pornography under the direction of Attorney General John Ashhahahahaha.

After 5 1/2 hours of deliberations following five days of testimony, the jury convicted the Ragsdales on all counts as charged -- one count of conspirary to mail obscene material and two counts of mailing obscene material.

U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater could sentence the couple to up to 20 years in prison, prosecutors said. Sentencing is set for Jan. 23.

"This case clearly demonstrates that a jury drawn from our community can make a determination that materials containing offensive adult material violate our community standards," U.S. Attorney Jane Boyle said in a prepared statement. "The citizens on the jury clearly rejected the Ragsdales' contention that the materials they sold did not violate community standards."

Garry Ragsdale's defense attorney did not deny that his client sold the tapes through a Web site.

But attorney Clinton Broden argued that people have a First Amendment right to watch such tapes, and that his client was simply selling them to consenting adults.

"We are disappointed in the verdict," Broden said in a telephone interview. "There's other material out there that is far worse, and two of the tapes shown to the jury are currently sold on other Web sites."

The couple was not aware that they were doing anything illegal and took the Web site down immediately when questioned by investigators five years ago, Broden said.

The defense brought in an expert witness, a sexologist, who testified that violent Hollywood-produced movies "are much more dangerous psychologically than adult movies," Broden said.

But Broden failed to convince the jurors that the tapes sold by the Ragsdales were not obscene.

The U.S. Supreme Court outlined the standard definition of obscenity in a three-part test in a landmark 1973 case, Miller v. California. Under the Miller test, jurors are asked to decide:<
Whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest.


Whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable state law.


Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

Investigators first learned of the Ragsdales' business on April 21, 1998, when a computer user in Berlin, Germany, sent an e-mail complaint to the Dallas Police Department, court records show.

Dallas vice detectives checked the tip from Germany and discovered that the Ragsdales' Web site marketed itself as "the real rape video store." They offered tapes for up to $28 apiece, and the couple earned about $60,000 from the rape video tapes, according to court records.

Investigators ordered the tapes from the Web site via credit card. The tapes were shipped in the U.S. mail, with a return address listing an Arlington post office box registered to a business partner of the Ragsdales, who is believed to live in Canada and has not been indicted.

Prosecutors would not say whether the business partner was a target in an ongoing criminal investigation.

The investigation ended Garry Ragsdale's eight-year career with the Dallas Police Department. Dallas police internal affairs records show that Ragsdale was fired Aug. 21, 1998, for conduct unbecoming an officer, Senior Cpl. Chris Gilliam, a department spokesman, has told the Star-Telegram.

Ragsdale's dismissal came after a misdemeanor state obscenity charge was filed July 29, 1998. But Dallas County prosecutors dismissed it almost a year later "in the interest of justice," court records show. Federal prosecutors then took over the case.

On a larger scale, the case illustrates a commitment by the U.S. attorney general to beef up Justice Department resources to target obscenity cases involving adult pornography, Broden said.

Ashhahahahaha recently changed a policy that had required prosecutors from the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section in Washington to seek approval from a local U.S. attorney before filing obscenity cases. Now, these specialized prosecutors in Washington can pursue obscenity cases after simply notifying local U.S. attorneys, although they are encouraged to cooperate with their local colleagues.

The Ragsdale case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Linda Groves of Dallas and trial attorney Richard Green from the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section.

[Fletch XXX]

Originally posted by XxXotic
And I would really hate to bust your little fantasy but LSU is the party school in the state hands down.

you guys have to drive down to new orleans, so thats a big handicap ;)

old rivals never die.

had some kick ass parties in Hammond too, fucking rodeo town. hahah

[Fletch XXX]

Originally posted by Rictor
This is just disgusting. Violence is okay, sex is bad. It's the American way.

in a country that still has places where alcohol is illegal its no doubt hardcore porn is looked down upon in some places.

[lakeview]

thanks, I'll know to stay out of texas and most southern cities, but I was thinking of moving to a new city and wondered where the safest places are to live.

I dont produce content or promote anything nasty.

[jennym]

Originally posted by XxXotic
I would really hate to bust your little fantasy but LSU is the party school in the state hands down.

Geauxxx Tigers!!

[Buff]

Originally posted by XxXotic
lincoln parish does not = new orleans, theyre a few hours away from one another... lincoln parish is a small ass place in north louisiana most likely chock full of conservative coonass rednecks

Wrong. The Lincoln Parish state reps are 2 democrats and 1 republican.

[Buff]

Originally posted by dougeetx


Conservative? LOL! Dude! That's where Grambling St. University is and Louisiana Tech.....2 of the most partying universities in the state! I don't see how they can be that conservative! The only other partying universities that beat them are UNO (Univeristy of New Orleans), Southern University, and Northwestern St. University in Natchitoches.

Loyola and Tulane can outdrink any other 2 school combination in the world.

[crockett]

do the people of Lincoln Parish have Satilite dishes , Ie direcTV or Dish network... what about cable? dose the local cable network not offer porn on TV? Funny I bet their local theaters played Ghost Ship, Black Hawk Down and manny other movies with excessive blood shed.. Guess it's ok to show people getting killed and rent in in you're local Blockbuster video store yet if you want to anything to do with sex it's concidered obscenity..

Go figure christians and every other reglion have been killing people for thousands of years and it's ok, but let them have sex and all holy hell breaks out.. This really is a fucked up country..

[V_RocKs]

[pornguy]

And those conservitive koon ass rednecks were the same people that were buying from him, and most likely have copies of the same videos at home.

Hell Where else do you think they get the idea to do their 16 year old daughter. They want to make sure that she can be in the adult movies.

[Paul Waters]

Originally Posted by KRL

You gotta be crazy to be shipping hardcore videos anywhere right now.

Maybe I should open up a mailorder business in Canada!

[will76]

Originally Posted by V_RocKs

did you wait 2 years just to bump this thread with that picture?? Was it worth the wait ???


Idiot who started this thread NEW Orleans = Ruston, LA LOLOL IDIOT


and this obviously did not receive much media attention but Birman took a plea at sentencing. THe govt KNEW he would win on appeal so they gave him a plea deal if he would close doors, pay $2500 fine, and not appeal. They can get cases won like this by having backwoods goatfuckers on the jury but they know when they have to leave the woods and go to the supreme court there is no way they will win.

Dan Sasha Birman was found guilty by a Lincoln Parish Jury in late November and had been free on $25,000 bond while awaiting sentencing.

At the sentencing hearing Birman agreed to a plea agreement whose terms put him out of the pornography business for at least three years, gave him a suspended three year prison sentence, three years of felony probation, a fine of $2,500 and court costs. Birman also agreed to not appeal his conviction to a higher court.

In return the state agreed to not prosecute Birman on the remaining three counts of his indictment and if he successfully fulfills the terms of his probation, will clear his record of the felony conviction.

Birman opened his pornography business, called Fantasy Video, in a bright pink building on the Interstate 20 Service Road between Grambling and Ruston early this spring, prompting an immediate outcry from local churches. Petition drives, billboards and newspaper ads denouncing pornography and a prayer walk of about 1,200 people did little to slow down the growing business.

That changed in June when videos bought at Fantasy Video by undercover Louisiana State Police detectives were shown to a Lincoln Parish Grand Jury. Birman was promptly indicted on four counts of selling obscenity and arrested.

Birman's defense team consisted of A.M. Stroud III, of Tutt, Stroud & Bordelon LLC, a Shreveport firm; H. Louis Sirkin and Jennifer M. Kinsley, of Sirkin, Pinales, Mezibov & Schwartz LLC of Cincinnati, Ohio, and John E. Herbison Nashville, Tenn., who promptly filed a 14 page brief with 23 pages of the recent Supreme Court decision in the landmark Lawrence V. Texas case (the so-called Texas sodomy case) that overturned 17 years of judicial precedent.

The firm of Sirkin, Pinales, Mezibov & Schwartz LLC were the attorney?s that successfully represented pornography king Larry Flynt.

They were faced by Robert "Bob" Levy, a determined 3rd Judicial District Attorney and Assistant 3rd Judicial District Attorney Laurie Whitten, who prosecuted the case.

Birman?s attorney?s claim he has a ?right of privacy? guaranteed by the Constitution; that Louisiana?s obscenity statute violates the guarantee of due process and the recent Supreme Court ruling in the infamous Texas sodomy case, should be applied to Louisiana as well, Levy said in an interview prior to the trial.

?They?re trying to establish a ?right of privacy? via the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and it isn?t there,? Levy said. ?It?s going to be rock and roll time ? this is going to be some real stuff and I?m looking forward to it.?

As Levy predicted the defense flooded the court with motions including a motion claiming a right of privacy.

?Although the United States Constitution does not explicitly guarantee a right of privacy, the United States Supreme Court, in a series of various factual and legal settings, has gradually recognized that the right to privacy is a constitutionally protected liberty interest embodied in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution...,? the defense brief said.

Levy argued the law allows people to own and view pornographic materials in the privacy of their homes but that law does not extend the so-called right of privacy to sellers of the material.

Prosecutors opposed the motion to quash by claiming that even though the defense claimed it was protecting a ?right? or ?liberty interest,? there is no legal authority to back that position and the Supreme Court ruling in the Texas sodomy case was narrow and did not apply to Louisiana?s obscenity laws.

Third Judicial District Judge R. Wayne Smith, agreed with prosecutors and the case went to trial in Ruston.

The three-day trial ended when the jury returned a guilty verdict after 3-1/2 hours of deliberation. The sentencing hearing was set for Dec. 4, coincidentally giving both sides time to negotiate the plea agreement.

?This is a good day for Lincoln Parish," Levy said after sentencing. "I can only hope that we have now discouraged other adult store operators from opening in our community. This case has set a precedent in Lincoln Parish. We will examine carefully the sale of these types of materials, if we find such to be occurring, of similar (materials) as those that were sold at Fantasy Video, I think the operator would be doing so at his peril."

Birman was visibly upset after he was sentenced and announced he was leaving Ruston to open a restaurant in New Orleans.

?The only thing I?m guilty of is assuming that the First Amendment of our Constitution protected my freedom of speech even if some people of this community disagree with me," Birman said. "This case was not about pornography, it was about our freedom to choose for ourselves what we watch, no matter what community we live in because we live in the community of the United States of America. I?m sad to announce that due to this unjust act of censorship imposed upon me and the people of Lincoln Parish with the threat of imprisonment, I have agreed to close Fantasy Video and with that I have unwillingly contributed to a trend of censorship that will deeply hurt the future and freedoms of the people of Lincoln Parish?"

In addition to having to close the store, Birman agreed to numerous other conditions including taking down all billboards and other advertising, taking down his website and agreeing to not transport obscene materials into the parish.

?This case was not about freedom of speech,? Levy said after the sentencing. ?It was, according to the jury, about the commercial sale of obscene materials and the right of the people of the parish to set their own standards as to

[nofx]

Originally Posted by dougeetx

Conservative? LOL! Dude! That's where Grambling St. University is and Louisiana Tech.....2 of the most partying universities in the state! I don't see how they can be that conservative! The only other partying universities that beat them are UNO (Univeristy of New Orleans), Southern University, and Northwestern St. University in Natchitoches.

haha yea, we fucking party it up in Natchitoches

[kernelpanic]

Thats bullshit. I'm glad I neither live in nor do business with Louisiana.

[ADL Colin]

The "Community standards" concept is complete BS. If you don't know if you are breaking the law or not except by a vote of locals how can businesses function normally?