LOS ANGELES -- The Justice Department on Thursday charged awholesaler of adult films here with violating federal obscenity laws,launching the first of what it promises will be a wave of criminalcases against purveyors of pornography.
The 10-count federal grand-jury indictment against ExtremeAssociates and its executives, Robert Zicari and Janet Romano, setoff a wave of anxiety at adult-entertainment companies inCalifornia's San Fernando Valley, considered the capital of themultibillion-dollar pornography industry in the United States.Attorney General John Ashcroft promised upon taking office that hewould crack down on the distributors of adult-entertainment materialsuch as movies, magazines and Web sites, much as his Reaganadministration predecessor Edwin Meese III did in the 1980s.
"Today's indictment marks an important step in the Department ofJustice's strategy for attacking the proliferation of adultobscenity," Ashcroft said. The department will "continue to focus ourefforts on targeted obscenity prosecutions that will deter othersfrom producing and distributing obscene material."
Officials at Extreme Associates did not return calls for commentThursday. But William Lyon, executive director of the Free SpeechCoalition, a trade group for the adult-entertainment industry,moviemakers and former actresses, said, "This is just another form ofharassment by the government." Thursday's indictment came afterinvestigators with the U.S. Postal Inspectors Service set up a stingoperation in Pennsylvania. Between July 2002 and February, thedefendants are accused of illegally selling allegedly obscenematerial via the Internet, and distributing videotapes and DVDsacross state lines through the postal system.
Extreme produces movies such as "Extreme Teen24" and "Forced Entry-- Directors Cut," which depict the rapes and murders of severalwomen, according to court documents.
Extreme Associates, a relatively small player in the Triple-Xworld, has garnered both financial success and public attention inthe past several years for its line of hyper-aggressive adult films.
The privately held company employees 15 people and has annualsales of between $20 million and $49.9 million, according to the U.S.Business Directory.
Extreme's offices were searched in April under a federal searchwarrant. The unsealed warrant shows that federal and postalinvestigators seized copies of five movies as well as sales records,distribution invoices and an array of other business documents.
On the company's Web site, Zicari posted a statement that said noone was arrested and that the company remained in business. He vowedto fight the government and wrote, "I definitely will not sit hereand cry a bunch of tears."
He also announced that the company was putting what it has beguncalling "The Federal Five" tapes on sale on its Web site.
If convicted, Zicari, 29, also known as Rob Black, and Romano, 26,also known as Lizzie Borden, each could face as long as 50 years inprison and a fine of $2.5 million.
While a steady string of state and federal cases have tackledobscenity issues in the past few years, many lawsuits have focused onconcerns of online child pornography.
"Every time we get a Republican administration, these kind ofcases seem to perk up," said attorney Elliot Abelson, who defendedthe industry in obscenity cases in the late 1970s and mid-'80s. "Backthen, people definitely had a bracing sense that this was coming."
The adult-entertainment industry has grown dramatically sincethen. Annual rentals and sales of adult videos and DVDs top $4billion, and the industry churns out about 11,000 titles each year--more than 20 times as many as Hollywood, according to Adult VideoNews, a trade magazine.
Social mores also have changed, allowing the industry to beperceived as more mainstream. Cable television company Showtime runsa show called "Family Business," detailing the day-to-day life ofpornography producer Adam Glasser. And this week, legendarypornographer Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine, and adultfilm actress Mary Carey began gathering signatures to run inCalifornia's gubernatorial recall election.
Because of such changes, "it's getting harder and harder to getobscenity prosecutions," said Frederick S. Lane III, an attorney andauthor of "Obscene Profits: The Entrepreneurs of Pornography in theCyber Age."
"Ones that would have been slam-dunks are hung juries," he said.
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