Arraignment Date Set For Stagliano

WASHINGTON, D.C. - John Stagliano, indicted earlier this week on eight counts of interstate transportation of obscene material, making content available to minors, as well as a forfeiture count, will be arraigned in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday, April 21.

The hearing will take place at the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse, 333 E. Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, D.C., before Judge Richard J. Leon.

"He's just going to enter a 'Not Guilty' plea," Evil Angel's publicist.

According to the D.C. District Court website, Judge Leon was appointed to the U.S. District Court in February, 2002, by President Bush. He received his A.B. degree from Holy Cross College in 1971, where he was a classmate of future Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas; was a full-time law professor for four years at St. John's Law School, and in 1987, he was the Deputy Chief Minority Counsel for the U.S. House Select "Iran-Contra" Committee. In 1994, Judge Leon was also Special Counsel to the U.S. House Banking Committee for its "Whitewater" investigation.

Stagliano will be represented by Allan Gelbard, who last year won a multi-million dollar piracy suit for Evil Angel Productions against Canadian distributor Kaytel, and a reliable source has informed AVN that Cincinnati-based First Amendment attorneys H. Louis Sirkin and Jennifer Kinsley will also be on the defense team. There will probably be a fourth attorney on the defense team as well.

But that's not the only development.

"We're going to be establishing a legal defense fund," Ms. Stagliano said. "We're moving forward with this on our own, but we've been receiving an amazing outpouring of support from fans and others just asking, 'Hey, we want to be a part of this. We want to help you fight this fight. What can we do?'"

"We're going to be talking to the Free Speech Coalition today," she continued, "about setting up the fund such that we will guarantee that any money that we receive that is above and beyond what we would need for this specific case will go to Free Speech or some other legal defense type situation."

Although the fund's Web page has not yet been created - it's expected to go live on Monday, with a comment section and information on how to contact legislators about the case - it will be linked from Evil Angel's home page, evilangel.com.