Whether Sweet Entertainment and its chieftain Steve Sweet will face a heavy price for alleged obscenity is now in the hands of the trial judge, who will make his decision in the case April 23, according to Sweet attorney Paul Kent-Snowsell.
"I think it went well," Snowsell told AVN.com about the defense case, which took up the first half of March following the prosecution's presentation. "I think the judge certainly listened to it and is taking it seriously. The fact that he's going to take this long to make his judgment, I'm real happy about that."
Snowsell had earlier speculated that the judge might take as long as three months to make his decision once the case was rested and the closing arguments, presented March 19, had been made.
He said today's community standard of tolerance in Canada might prove the key to the decision. "It's moved so far from what was tolerable in 1992 to what's available today, I think," he said. But he also said there was not likely to be a single factor in the judge's final ruling.
"I think it's a building factor," Snowsell said. "It's not just one piece that's going to win the day. It's a piece-by-piece foundation; we built upon that. And, hopefully, it has a cumulative effect."
Sweet was arrested with three others in December 2003, as law enforcement seized computer equipment, files, and videotapes. Sweet was charged with making and distributing online 11 fetish vignettes prosecutors called obscene under Canadian law that prohibits combining explicit sex with violence and cruelty.
The trial began February 16, with the prosecution wrapping its case in just over a week. The defense presentation included a live Internet presentation, with a computer setup brought into the courtroom. "I think, because of the nature of the Internet, you couldn't make nearly as strong a defense," Snowsell said as he prepared the presentation.
The defense also brought in what they considered expert evidence on BDSM's growing popularity, not to mention the "safe, sane, and consensual nature of the acts" the Sweet vignettes depicted. They also brought in selections from mainstream films the defense planned to argue show at least the same level of sex and violence as in the Sweet material.
Sweet could not be reached for comment before this story was posted.
