JM Productions and Five Star DVD have released a joint statement regarding last week's Federal obscenity indictments in Arizona. Their statement follows:
“The Federal indictment unsealed recently in Phoenix, Arizona, charges three individuals and three corporations exclusively with obscenity related offenses. JM Productions of Chatsworth, Calif., is represented by H. Louis Sirkin of Cincinnati, Ohio. JM Productions’ principal, Mike Norton, is represented by Alan Gelbard of Encino, Calif. The principals of Five Star DVD (fivestardvd.com), Christopher Ankeney and Kenneth Graham, are represented by Richard Hertzberg of Phoenix, Ariz. and Jeffrey J. Douglas, of Santa Monica, Calif.
“The four titles which the Federal Government is attempting to ban are all manufactured by JM Productions: American Bukkake 13, Gag Factor 15, Gag Factor 18 and Filthy Things 6.
“This prosecution represents a pointless and arbitrary waste of scarce investigative, prosecutorial and judicial resources. Instead of protecting Americans from actual crime, the government is trying to make criminal the offering of movies which only willing adults can see. These are films made by and for consenting adults. Somehow President Bush believes that it should be a crime to distribute photographs of sexual acts which are perfectly lawful to engage in.
“All those charged and their lawyers are confident of acquittal and a complete repudiation of this abuse of Federal power.
“Obscenity is the only Federal crime for which there is no definition. No one knows whether a film is 'obscene' until a jury convicts the sellers of a serious felony. Although the government has guidelines which defines with precision which sexual acts the government considers obscene to depict, the government keeps these guidelines secret. In other words, obscenity is a crime but the government keeps the definition of that crime a secret. If convicted, the victims of this censorship effort face years in prison classified as a sex offender and forfeiture of virtually everything they have earned, purchased and saved.
“The only reason that such a situation is not the subject of widespread public outrage is that the government uses this brutal power so rarely. Yet this makes the exercise even more arbitrary and outrageous. In the six years of this administration, only two manufacturers of commercial titles (such as these titles which are available nationally in retail video outlines) have been indicted.
“How much safer do you feel? Knowing that this is where F.B.I. agents, Justice Department lawyers, Assistant U.S. Attorneys and Federal Court resources are being expended, do you think bank robbers, embezzlers, drug dealers and terrorists feel more or less vulnerable?”
