Cincinnati's court in Hamilton County will try Larry Flynt, 56, and his brother, Jimmy, 52, for engaging in patterns of corrupt activity, pandering obscenity and disseminating material considered harmful to minors. If Flynt is found guilty, he could find himself behind bars for a very long time.
Flynt is the well-known publisher of Hustler magazine who describes himself as a "smut peddler." Many politicians, analysts and individuals view his methods and tactics with dismay and disdain. Rep. Bob Livingston (who turned down the position as the next Speaker of the House and resigned from Congress after having his infidelities exposed) describes Flynt's methods as "government-by-Larry-Flynt." And in 1978, Flynt was shot and left paralyzed from the waist down by a man outraged over an interracial photo layout in Hustler.
None of this has stopped Flynt. "I've always said if something is not worth going to jail for, it's not worth very much," Flynt told the Associated Press. "I'm not looking forward to it, but I knew the risk involved in the beginning."
It isn't surprising that this isn't Flynt's first run-in with the law over obscenity issues. His 1977 obscenity trial was the subject of the movie, The People vs Larry Flynt, which depicted Flynt as a crusader of free speech rights. Last year, Flynt set himself up as a self-appointed avenger seeking to expose high-ranking officials in Washington of sexual hypocrisy. The dirt he dug up, and paid up to $4 million for, was published in his one-time edition of The Flynt Report.
When Cincinnati's obscenity crackdown prevented Hustler from being distributed, Flynt opened an adult sex store, managed by his brother, near Cincinnati's downtown centerpiece, Fountain Square. This is the location at which prosecutors say a 14-year-old boy purchased a sex video. It is this charge, disseminating material considered harmful to minors, that ups the ante to the possibility of each Flynt getting a maximum of 24 years in prison and $65,000 in fines.
"I would like to win this case more than anything else in the world," said Flynt. "But it would probably be better for the country if I lost. Because if I win, nothing changes; if I lose, the case can be appealed. That's where you change laws, at the appellate level. And that's what I'm attempting to do now is to get the antiquated obscenity laws off the books."
Now Flynt's task is to convince a jury.
