ESCAMBIA COUNTY, Fla. - Circuit Court Judge Ron Swanson ruled Tuesday that the community standards of a four-county area will be used in determining whether videos Ray Guhn produced are obscene.
While Swanson rejected the grounds for the case's dismissal, which were brought by Guhn's attorney Larry Walters, the judge granted Walters' request that jurors use the community standards of Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties, instead of those of only Santa Rosa County. The effect of this ruling was to nullify the prosecution's earlier transfer of the case from Esacambia to Santa Rosa County.
This will benefit the defense, Walters said.
"This is a victory and an important ruling for our case," Walters told AVN Online on Wednesday. "We are slowly chipping away at this concept that county standards are appropriate for the Internet. While we believe it should be the nation or the state, at least we received a larger area than just one county. We argued that it would be too small of an area without enough diversity."
In a 1973 case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that in order for material to be deemed obscene, it has to offend community standards. While courts usually have applied a local or state community standard, Walters argued for national community standards to be used because of the universal nature of the Internet.
"Community standards can be proved by a lot of different methods," he said. "One that is common is to show the kind of materials that are being sold openly in the community within adult bookstores, video stores and such. We may be looking at Internet materials available in the county. Other than the Internet, we might be looking at cable and satellite television, [and] we might be looking at what is available on pay-per-view in hotels. All kinds of these materials, which are available openly in the areas of these counties, is similar to what is being shown on Guhn's site."
Walters said he strongly believes that Florida's obscenity law does not cover online material. He said the court found that, because the law uses the word "transmit" in the definition, it is intended to cover online materials or it is, at least, a jury issue.
"It very well may be that the
jury will have to decide whether or not online materials are covered by the
statute, so we will be looking into that and some other issues for trial,"
Walters said.
Ray Guhn and five others are accused of producing obscene videos in Santa Rosa and Escambia counties and distributing them online to paying customers. Each defendant faces two charges of racketeering, conducting a criminal enterprise by engaging in prostitution, and manufacturing and selling obscene material. Guhn also faces money-laundering charges.
The trial is set to begin May 5, 2008, and is expected to last three weeks.
