JOHN HOLMES: His Disco Dolls in Hot Skin figures in Kentucky obscenity case. \nLEXINGTON, KY - The manager of a city-owned movie house was arrested early Tuesday for violating a state obscenity law - hours after police obeyed a judge's order and returned an X-rated film they seized earlier from the theater.
Fred Mills, manager of the Kentucky Theatre, faces a misdemeanor charge of violating Kentucky's obscenity law for showing Disco Dolls in Hot Skin, starring the late John Holmes. Police confiscated the film last Saturday after some complained a city-owned theater should not show X-rated films, the Louisville Courier-Journal says.
Mills faces 90 days behind bars and a $250 fine if convicted, the paper says.
An attorney for the management firm contracted to operate the theater, Don Cetrulo, tells the Courier the film is not obscene by community standards and that police are singling the Kentucky Theatre out. Cetrulo says Disco Dolls in Hot Skin has played in Lexington previously without complaint.
"Our main argument is going to be that this is not obscene," he tells the Courier, "but we'll also look into whether or not this constitutes selective enforcement."
The 1977 film stars Holmes, who died of AIDS in 1988. It's sometimes considered a cult classic, by college students especially, and has played at packed midnight shows around the country, Mills tells the paper.
