LOS ANGELES—AVN senior editor Mark Kernes will be appearing on Fox News affiliate KTTV today at 5pm PT to talk about the Los Angeles obscenity trial of Ira Isaacs, which is currently awaiting the verdict from the jury.
Kernes has been covering the Isaac's obscenity prosecution story since it first broke in July 2007. In the intervening years, the case has taken on a life of its own, including the extremely rare instance in which "Alex Kozinski, the Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, absented himself from that lofty post in order to relieve District Court Judge George E. King and preside over Isaacs' trial on charges of mailing obscene materials."
The case then took a surreal turn when Kozinski recused himself after the Los Angeles Times published a series of articles that, according to Kernes, alleged that "a website owned by Kozinski contained 'images of masturbation, public sex and contortionist sex' as well as 'themes of defecation and urination.'"
Kernes further commented at the time, "In fact, the material was clearly not prurient, as anyone familiar with the far more explicit material produced by the adult industry can attest."
Isaacs tried to claim double jeopardy after that debacle but was denied by the Ninth Circuit in 2009, and in 2010 his attorney, Roger Jon Diamond, filed a petition for certiorari with the United States Supreme Court, seeking to halt proceedings against Isaacs.
"The basis for the petition," wrote Kernes, "is that the former judge in the case, Alex Kozinski, whose primary job is as the Chief Judge for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, improperly recused himself and improperly declared a mistrial in the Isaacs obscenity case..."
Isaacs' trial finally took place in downtown Los Angeles last week, and Kernes as usual was there, reporting on the daily proceedings here and here.
Kernes is on KTTV Fox News 11 at 5 pm today.
