Goalie Entertainment owner Edward Wedelstedt pleaded guilty Friday in Dallas to a federal obscenity charge, agreeing to forfeit three adult bookstores in Texas to authorities as part of his plea agreement.
Wedelstedt admitted one count of distributing obscene material in exchange for a 13-month prison term and charges being dropped against his wife and their company, Goalie Entertainment Holdings, Inc., as part of the plea bargain. Wedelstedt's attorney, Hank Asbill, said they came away "pleased" with the agreement considering what was at stake.
"Other than an outright dismissal of all the charges, we’re extremely pleased," Asbill told AVN.com Friday.
“Eddie Wedelstedt for nearly 20 years has operated adults-only bookstores in Texas, and one of those movies out of nearly 200,000 titles has been deemed obscene in the Northern District of Texas (and nowhere else in U.S.). ... Mr. Wedelstedt never personally viewed the movie, nor did he personally send it… But he has taken responsibility."
Wedelstedt will be sentenced in February. He and seven others were named in a 23-count indictment in March for racketeering, obscenity and tax charges. The judge must either accept the terms of the entire plea agreement or reject it, at which time Wedelstedt can withdraw his plea forcing a trial. If the judge accepts, he would likely serve only 11 months in a mininum security federal prison camp.
“With respect to the tax offense, Mr. Wedelstedt conceded that between 1997 and 1999 he gave some employees cash bonuses in which those employees did not pay their own taxes on," Asbill noted. "During each of those three years, the average tax loss to the government was $40,000 a year. During that same time, Eddie and his company overpaid their taxes by many hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not low millions of dollars.”
Asbill continued, “Eddie only owns three adult stores in the Northern District of Texas and agreed to forfeit those three stores and those properties. ... He also agreed to cancel the leases in several other stores he has, and agreed to stop servicing several other stores that he did not lease or own during the period of his incarceration and during the one year of his supervised release."
Of the 23-count indictment, 18 of those counts referred to interstate transportation of obscene material by common carrier; interstate transportation of obscene material for purpose of sale or distribution; engaging in the business of selling or transferring obscene matter; and aiding and abetting those three alleged acts.
The final two counts of the indictment were RICO forfeiture, which asked for the forfeiture of millions in cash, all stock and other interests that Wedelstedt and Goalie have in 53 listed companies, 10 parcels of land and an airplane.
“The bottom line is all of Eddie’s 1,000 employees are out of harm’s way," Asbill said. "His company continues to thrive everywhere except temporarily in the Northern District of Texas, and his foundation Eddie’s Kids will continue to thrive as well. So when the government starts patting itself on the back about this, someone ought to match up the indictment and charges and forfeiture they were seeking against the plea agreement in this case, and you can draw your own conclusion."
He added, "Eddie is a standup guy who was willing to fight this case and do whatever it took whether it meant going to trial at great personal risk to him to get a fair result for his company, his people and his industry."
In June, one of the defendants - 64-year-old Leroy Moore, Jr., of Arlington - pleaded guilty to the one count leveled against him. He has yet to be sentenced in that case. Moore operated four adult bookstores in Tarrant County and also pleaded guilty to tax evasion charges in a separate case.
