He was sentenced to 90 days in jail, a fine, and community service, but video pirate Truong Van Tran will remain a free man while he appeals his conviction and sentence.
Tran's attorney, Ronald Talmo, tells the Orange County Register his client's arrest was "convenience," a way to end almost two months of protests outside Tran's Hi Tek Video store.
Those protests were sparked when Tran displayed Vietnamese Communist images in the store, including a portrait of Ho Chi Minh and a Communist flag. Many Vietnamese living here are former political prisoners and those who fled the Vietnamese regime.
Two days after Orange County's district attorney appeared at one of the protests supporting the anti-Communist demonstrators, Tran was arrested when authorities - checking into the theft of the Ho Chi Minh photograph and the flag - discovered linked videocassette recorders and some of the illegal tapes.
He was accused of counterfeiting thousands of videos illegally - mostly Asian soap operas. In addition to the jail time, Tran was sentenced to 80 hours community service and a $200 fine. Those, too, will not be served pending the appeal, which the Register says could take up to fifteen months.
Tran says he felt his case was closer to a political than a criminal case. "I still feel I'm not guilty," Tran said after he was sentenced, the Register says. "I feel unhappy. Every Vietnamese video store in Orange County does the same thing, but they don't put them in jail. This is dirty politics."
But Orange County Deputy District Attorney Dan Wagner says this is only a case of Tran blaming others while getting caught red-handed.
Tran could have been sentenced to up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine in the case. And reports indicate many in the community believe he was let off too easily.
Westminster police say video piracy is a growing problem in the area, with the police chief citing at least eleven cases of videocassette counterfeiting in the past five years. Indeed, merchants seeking to open video stores here are required first to sign documents saying they understand video piracy is illegal.
Police Chief James Cook says his department knew as far back as 1996 of illegal activity at Tran's store, but such instances are so common the department feels compelled to work first on "the major" cases.
The VCRs Tran used to make his counterfeits will be donated to schools and charities.
