ADULT COMPANY OWNER AND OTHERS INDICTED
DALLAS, TX -- After waiting almost 5 years since beginning a tax fraud investigation and after convening a series of grand juries, the U.S. Department of Justice has indicted Edward J. Wedelstedt, owner of Goalie Entertainment, along with 6 others, in a federal court in Texas.
        The 23-count indictment is much expanded from the original allegations of tax fraud. It includes interstate transportation of obscene material and engaging in the business of selling obscene matter as well as charges under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. The allegedly obscene videos named in the indictments are In The Pink # 1, In The Stink #5 (Red Light District); American Bukkake #7 and #8 (JM Productions); Cumshots #4 (Anabolic Video); Gangbang Angels #11 (Elegant Angel Productions) and Tits and Ass #8 (Devil’s Films).
        According to Wedelstedt’s attorney Hank Asbill, the government’s tax investigation went nowhere, and the expanded indictments are an attempt by a new regime at the DOJ to take a swipe at his client.
        “He distributes adult movies to consenting adults in adult-only stores,” said Asbill. “It’s legal.”
        As to the sales tax and IRS charges, the taxable revenues allegedly hidden were receipts from video arcades, which typically accept quarters or tokens, according to Mark Kernes in a lengthy AVN.com report. The government will need to prove that store managers and/or Goalie employees willfully underreported such revenues for federal and state tax purposes, suggests Kernes.
        “When all is said and done, you’re going to find that Eddie Wedelstedt and Goalie overpaid their taxes,” said Asbill, He also said that Goalie had cooperated fully with the federal investigation.
From Mark Kernes, AVN.com, 3/14/05
http://www.avn.com/index.php?Primary_Navigation=Articles&Action=View_Article
&Content_ID=219679
And from Alicia Caldwell, The Denver Post, 3/15/05
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2762873,00.html

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SENATOR HOLDS HEARING ON OBSCENITY LAW
WASHINGTON, DC -- The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights recently conducted an abbreviated hearing here -- under an hour -- on “Obscenity Prosecution and the Constitution.” Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) presided and was the only senator participating other than Russ Feingold, (D-WI) the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, who joined the meeting briefly.
        Senator Brownback has expressed strong opinions about the adult entertainment industry and in particular has stated outrage over the recent decision by federal District Court Judge Lancaster in dismissing charges in the Extreme Associates obscenity case.
        This subcommittee meeting, in which no bill was under consideration -- a fact which could help explain the brevity of the meeting and why the members of the subcommittee did not participate -- was rather transparently a forum for Brownback to stir up interest in his cause.
        Those testifying included Patrick Trueman, the former head of the Justice Department’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity unit under Presidents Reagan and Bush; Robert Destro, a law professor at Catholic University known for conservative positions on culture war issues such as same sex marriage; and Frederick Schauer, a law professor invited to testify by Senator Feingold. Schauer contributed substantially to the Meese Commission Report on Pornography in the eighties, by some accounts taking a more moderate position than some of the other commissioners.
        The invited testimony was brief and the opinions expressed widely divergent with little time for clarification. This format provided little substance but served as a backdrop for Brownback to express senatorial alarm over a variety of issues involving adult entertainment. Brownback cited, for example, the trafficking of women into sexual slavery, which was reported in the Los Angeles Times in March (although not in connection with the adult entertainment industry).
         “We’re seeing people trafficked into the pornography industry,” said Brownback.
         On this and on other matters Senator Brownback appears obviously misinformed about the nature of the industry and clearly could benefit from some accurate information. After learning that the hearing was scheduled, FSC offered but was denied the opportunity to provide a live witness for the subcommittee, although FSC was allowed to submit written testimony. (A copy of the submission is available at www.freespeechcoalition.com)
From an FSC press release, 3/16/05
And from Mark Kernes, AVN.com, 3/16/05
http://www.avn.com/index.php?Primary_Navigation=Articles&Action=
View_Article&Content_ID=220014
And from a Woodhull Freedom Foundation press release, 3/16/05
http://www.woodhullfoundation.org/content/pressreleases/
SenateTestimony_WFF031605.pdf
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DATES SET IN EXTREME ASSOCIATES APPEAL
       PHILADELPHIA, PA -- The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has set deadlines in April and May for briefs to be filed from the government and defense in the highly controversial Extreme Associates obscenity case.
       “The quick schedule doesn’t surprise me,” said defense attorney H. Louis Sirkin, “and I don’t know that it means that the case is going to be moved on an expeditious basis. There’s no record to be filed.”
       That is no doubt because, based on oral arguments, U.S. District Judge Gary Lancaster dismissed all charges against Rob Black and Lizzie Borden. Lancaster said the government’s anti-obscenity laws were unconstitutional.
       “The nation’s obscenity laws cannot stand in light of Lawrence,” Lancaster wrote, referring to Lawrence vs. Texas, the case in which the Supreme Court struck down a Texas anti-sodomy law.
       The result of Lancaster’s decision was a firestorm of controversy. The Extreme Associates case had been considered a major test case of federal obscenity law. Social conservatives like Senator Sam Brownback (see above report) were furious.
       The Lancaster decision in the Extreme Associates case turned on privacy rights more than First Amendment rights. Lou Sirkin, commenting as a panelist at a Video Software Dealers event, described comments that Judge Lancaster made to journalists in the courtroom during the case:
       It’s not enough to allow people to have the right to read, said Lancaster -- or that journalists thereby have the right to write to that audience of readers -- but there should also be a law protecting the production and sale of the ink to print the words to read.
From Mark Kernes, AVN.com, 3/14/05
http://www.avn.com/index.php?Primary_Navigation=
Articles&Action=View_Article&Content_ID=219728
And from Tim Connelly, AVN.com, 3/17/05
http://www.avn.com/index.php?Primary_Navigation=
Articles&Action=View_Article&Content_ID=220059
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AUTO VIDEO BILL DEFEATED
SACRAMENTO, CA -- A bill which would have outlawed adult entertainment on vehicle video screens has been defeated in the Assembly Public Safety Committee.
        Assemblyman John Benoit (R-Palm Desert) says his bill, supported by the conservative Traditional Values Coalition and California Family Alliance, was pro-family but not anti-adult entertainment.
        “If you want to play a pornographic film in the privacy of your own home or your own bedroom, that’s your business,” he said. “But when you display it where people can see it while they’re driving, that’s inappropriate.Try to explain to your 5-year-old what he just saw when he wonders, ‘Why was that man doing that to that woman?’ It’s a hard thing.”
        Kat Sunlove, FSC Legislative Affairs Director, opposed the bill and testified on behalf of FSC. She said the bill didn’t restrict only DVDs, and would have improperly required drivers to monitor the reading, listening and viewing habits of their passengers.
        “I want drivers to be focused on the road not on whether a kid half a car length behind them is looking into their car,’’ she said.
From John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable, 3/7/2005
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA509186.html?
display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP
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INTERNET INDECENCY REGULATION CONSIDERED
       WASHINGTON, DC -- Senator Ted Stevens, (R-AK) who has already proposed that broadcast indecency standards be expanded to cable and satellite, is now talking about the possibility of policing content when it is delivered over broadband Internet or by new Internet technologies such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VolP).
       Declan McCullagh, in a CNET article, suggests that Stevens may be worried about the trend of movies and TV shows being offered for downloading through the Internet, which places the material outside the purview of the FCC.
       “We ought to find some way to say, here is a block of channels, whether it’s delivered by broadband, by VoIP, by whatever it is, to a home, that is clear of the stuff you don’t want your children to see,” said Stevens.
       It is unclear exactly what Stevens, the powerful Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, has in mind. (Laws totally banning indecency on the Internet have already been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.) McCullagh speculates that Stevens may be considering requirements for certain types of Web publishers to rate sexually explicit sites through a mechanism like the Platform for Internet Content Selection, which is built into the Internet Explorer browser.
       “It looks like Stevens is talking about some sort of ratings system for the Internet,” said Marv Johnson, legislative counsel for the ACLU. “But you really can’t have the FCC or the federal government be the taste police for the American citizens. It’s just not going to work.”
From The Daily Herald, 2/25/05
From Declan McCullagh, CNET, 3/15/05
http://news.com.com/Senator+suggests+targeting+Net+indecency/
2100-1028_3-5618332.html
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ESCORT SERVICE UNFAIRLY TARGETED, ARGUE ATTORNEYS
       NEW YORK, NY -- A turnabout legal strategy is being employed by the defense attorneys for Jenny Paulino, the so-called “Million-dollar Madam” recently arrested for running a high-priced escort service in Manhattan. Paulino’s attorney, Gerald Lefcourt, says that that cracking down on escort services is unconstitutional because media companies have been allowed to produce adult entertainment unchecked.
       “Promoting prostitution is paying someone to have sex,” said Lefcourt. “Time Warner and the others who have adult channels pay people to have sex so they can film it and show it, but they’re not being prosecuted.”
       Whether this argument will fly in New York is unknown. However, in California, heartland of adult video entertainment, a ruling by the California Supreme Court in the pivotal Harold Freeman case (1988) held that pandering laws do not apply “to the conduct involved in the payment of wages to actresses performing lawful sexual acts in the making of a motion picture that was not determined to be obscene.”
From Barbara Ross, Jonathan Lemire, N.Y Daily News, 3/14/05
http://nydailynews.com/front/story/289826p-248101c.html

UpComing Events

MAR 31-APR 2 – The Phoenix Forum, Tempe, AZ http://www.thephoenixforum.com/

APR 11-13 International Lingerie Show, Las Vegas, NV www.spectrade.com

APR 18-19 – Celebrate Free Speech Lobbying Days, Sacramento, CA, 800-476-7813

MAY 1 – Adult Con 8, Los Angeles Convention Center, www.adultcon.com

MAY 19-21 --  Erotic Expo., Hotel Pennsylvania, N.Y., NY www.Eroticexpony.com

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JUNE 10-12 -- Erotica L.A., www.adultconx.com

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JULY 18-20 – AVN Adult Novelty Expo, Pasadena, CA. www.adultnoveltyexpo.com

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