LOS ANGELES - Producer/director Max Hardcore and a small entourage including girlfriend Layla Rivera pulled into the parking lot near the building housing the U.S. Marshal Service in downtown L.A. at about 2:45 this afternoon. Max, a.k.a. Paul Little, was supposed to surrender himself to the marshals at noon to begin serving his sentence for interstate transportation of obscene matter and posting obscene material on the Internet, and he was running a little late.
"It's okay," he said as he hurried up Alameda Street toward the Justice Center. "I've got 'em on the phone, and as long as I show up before 4 o'clock, I'm okay."
Stopping just short of the entrance, he turned to the reporters and cameramen who'd been following his progress.
"I'd just like to say, as an American and a guy who really believes in this country and supports it, it's a real disappointment," he said. "I guess at my age I shouldn't be disappointed by these things anymore, but I keep holding out hope that things will change. Basically, we've got a good country and with the new man at the helm, maybe we can get beyond this and adjust the laws to reflect what the public really feels. I think the public has spoken, and I think the public is right. The American people together have spoken, and when they speak, that should be the law. I respect that the law is as it is. I'm disappointed that they found me guilty down there [in Tampa]. But I respect it. I'm here to turn myself in and as a lover of freedom, I'm not too happy about that, but that's the way it is and, well, I'll see you guys later."
"When I come back, when I get out, I'm going to reevaluate things and decide what I'm going to do," he added, "and if things haven't changed for the better, I might just have to move someplace; I don't know. I don't want to; I support my country and I never want to leave here or live anywhere else. This is the greatest country on earth. God bless America."
But while Little was supposed to begin serving his 46-month sentence at the Lompoc Federal Correctional Complex about 175 miles northeast of L.A., adjacent to Vandenberg Air Force Base, it was unclear when or even if he would be transported there.
"He told me that when they assigned him here originally, they did not give him any assignment that he was going to leave here," said photographer Marc Medoff, referring to the downtown Justice Center, "and although this is a temporary facility, 'temporary' means different things. Apparently he was told by the different lawyers he spoke to about this that 'temporary' can be up to like three years, in theory, and he has no guarantee that he's going anywhere else."
However, Little's video editor at Max World Entertainment, Paulie Bussinger, believed that Little would indeed wind up at Lompoc.
"There's some mechanisms available for appealing why he's going to be put here, and they may have plans to send him off to Lompoc and this is just a designation center; there may be some sort of intake and they'll just process him here and they'll eventually shoot him out there. If not, yeah, they actually do have a permanent facility where they can keep him for up to three years here, called Five North."
"Nobody really knows," Bussinger continued, "and the Bureau of Prisons really doesn't answer to anybody, so they want everything done in writing or in person. We're going to stay in touch and we're going to do everything possible to make his stay as convenient and comfortable as it can be. Being that he's here is ridiculous and anybody with half a brain knows it, so we're going to do whatever we can for him and hopefully he'll be out of here very soon."
It appeared that Little would be staying at Five North at least overnight, as the small assemblage watched a federal marshal escort Little from the intake center across the entrance to the building's parking lot and toward what was believed to be the Five North area.
According to Little's brother Pete, who accompanied him into the Justice Center, wherever Little winds up serving his time, he could be out in as little as 32 months, if he obeys all the rules and participates in an alcohol treatment program. And of course, if Little's appeal to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals is successful, he could be released much sooner than that.
"All I know is that the appeal is in process," Pete Little said. "I'm told by the attorneys that once they get their briefs filed, the Eleventh Circuit could hear the case in as little as two months, but it's more likely to be six to nine months before they hear it, and even longer before they decide it, so he could serve half his sentence and still be found not guilty."
Both Pete Little and Paulie Bussinger said that they would keep fans apprised of developments regarding Paul Little's imprisonment, including a mailing address for him once he gets settled.
