LOS ANGELES - The Free Speech Coalition is seeking a halt to all 2257 inspections following what the trade group believes to be violations of a court-ordered injunction meant to protect secondary adult-content producers who are FSC members. According to FSC Chairman and adult entertainment attorney Jeffrey Douglas, the Federal Bureau of Investigation violated the injunction when agents inspected the records of secondary producers Legend, Pure Play Media, and Robert Hill Releasing.
“This is the third time that we’re aware of that the FBI has inspected the records of a secondary producer,” Douglas told AVNOnline.com. “These appear to be very serious violations of the injunction that Judge Walker Miller issued Dec. 26, 2005, and the FSC deems it to be grave.”
Douglas noted that, after he learned Robert Hill Releasing had been inspected, he drafted a letter for Legend to present to the FBI in case agents came calling. “[The FBI] took the letter and continued the inspection,” Douglas said. “At that point, I brought in the litigation team, who sent a letter to the Justice Department, and we’ve been in negotiations with them since.”
The negotiations, Douglas added, are to put an end to 2257 inspections. So far, so good.
“We believe they are negotiating in good faith,” Douglas commented. “If we’re unable to reach an agreement, we’ll be going back to Judge Miller for enforcement.
“We’re taking it extraordinarily seriously,” he said. “We’ve moving as quickly as the rules allow us to move. There’s a serious possibility that we’ll all get back on the same page, and that this is going to stop.”
FSC Executive Director Michelle Freridge echoed Douglas’ comments, adding, “I think that the Department of Justice puts itself in a very difficult position when it violates an injunction that a federal court has handed down.”
Freridge went on to say the inspections appear to be politically motivated, and it is unlikely any prosecutions will result. “It seems likely to me that the political pressure on the Department of Justice to have done something is what’s pushing this,” she said. “I think that the political pressure to do something is more important than what they do and what the outcome is.”
Douglas said the injunction is likely to prohibit prosecution. “So, even if an inspection violation were to occur as a result of that inspection, I don’t know what [the DOJ] can do about it, because they’re enjoined [from inspecting],” he said.
Douglas also stressed the irony of the situation. “This problem is of the government’s own creation,” he said, citing the injunction’s stipulation that secondary producers are not obligated to list themselves as record keepers. “But…that’s their problem. They’re the ones who created the regulations that were unlawful in the first place.
“The problem is that the injunction does not provide for [the government] to make mistakes,” he continued. “The injunction says ‘You shall not.’ And they are. So, it has to stop, or the judge is going to have to enforce it.”
