Legal

Federal Grand Jury Charges Florida Producer with Obscenity Violations

By: Wade Garrett

Posted: 09/17/2008

WASHINGTON - A Florida producer has been charged by a federal grand jury in Billings, Mont., with distributing obscene DVDs through the mail, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division Matthew Friedrich and U.S. Attorney for the District of Montana William Mercer announced.

In a sealed indictment returned by the grand jury on Aug. 20, 2008, and unsealed Tuesday in federal court in Billings, Miami resident Barry Goldman, 58, doing business using the names Torture Portal, Masters of Pain and Bacchus Studios, was charged with three counts of using the mails to deliver DVDs containing obscene films to an address in Billings and one count that seeks forfeiture of certain assets of the defendant. The specific films named in the indictment are Torture of Porn Star Girl, Pregnant and Willing and Defiant Crista Submits, according to a Department of Justice press release.

Goldman was not available for comment at press time.

If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 on each of the three counts charged in the indictment.

The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Kenneth Whitted of the Criminal Division's Obscenity Prosecution Task Force and Assistant U.S. Attorney Marcia Hurd of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Montana. The investigation was conducted by the FBI's Adult Obscenity Squad based in the Washington, D.C., field office, with assistance from the FBI's Billings field office. 

An indictment is merely an accusation. All defendants are presumed innocent of the charges, and it is the government's burden to prove a defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.