Extreme Obscenity Case Debated Tonight On Nightline

Tonight on ABC’s Nightline U.S. District Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan, Robert Zicari and Janet Romano, better known as Rob Black and Lizzie Borden, and AVN president Paul Fishbein will appear on a segment about the first major federal obscenity case in nearly a decade.

Rob Zicari on Nightline

A preview of the show was given during the regular nightly news broadcast on ABC tonight.

"We're facing more time than the guy that they just arrested that was trying to sell the surface-to-air missile," said Zicari, who along with his fiancee Romano, was arraigned this morning, having been charged with nine counts of trafficking in obscenity and one count of conspiracy to traffick in obscenity. They were released on their own recognizance, with a bail figure set at $100,000 for each.

Zicari and Romano produced three videos in particular for Extreme Associates that were ordered through the Internet and delivered by mail to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.

"They're horrible, unwatchable, disgusting, aberrant movies that I'd have to vote were not obscenity because the First Amendment is pure and has to remain pure," Fishbein said in reference to the videos in question which include Forced Entry and Extreme Teens #24.

Zicari suggested at one point that his work taught viewers the horror of rape.

Legal experts have said that Western Pennsylvania was chosen as the location for the trial by the federal govenment because they think that is where they will have the best shot of conviction the couple under the loosely defined "community standards" rule that is part of obscenity trials

For her part, Buchanan warned the adult industry that the Extreme case was just the beginning. "The current prosecution of Extreme Associates should put the pornography industry on notice that the U.S. Department of Justice is vigorously enforcing the federal obscenity laws," she said.

ABC News correspondent Jake Tapper will present the segment and Ted Koppel will host the half-hour show that will air tonight at 11:35p.m.

"We've had a tough time editing all this so we can actually show it on network television," quipped a promotianal email for tonight's show.