On Friday, July 16, 2010, Judge Richard Leon granted the defence motion Rule 29 on all counts regarding all 3 defendants in the United States vs. John Stagliano, Evil Angel Productions Inc and John Stagliano Inc trial.
The judge ruled that government evidence to show that John Stagliano or any of the defendants committed the specific charges was inadequate to allow the jury to come to a decision beyond a reasonable doubt that any of the defendants committed those acts.
Porn producer John Stagliano faces up to 32 years in federal prison for distributing the adult films Milk Nymphos and Storm Squirters 2: Target Practice and a promo reel for similar material via his website for Evil Angel Productions (adults only). (Full disclosure: Stagliano is a donor to Reason Foundation, the nonprofit that publishes this website.)
As Stagliano gears up for a court case due to begin this July in Washington, D.C., it’s worth asking whether obscenity prosecutions make any sense, especially when dealing with material created and consumed by consenting adults in private. The definition of obscenity is notoriously slippery—works as varied (and sexually inoffensive) as Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Ulysses, and I Am Curious Yellow have all been deemed obscene—and its prosecution is famously subjective and selective. Material is considered obscene only when a jury finds it to be so; the same book, movie, or song can be illegal in one region and totally fine in another. As Stagliano, whose website followed all legal restrictions imposed by federal mandates, notes, “I didn’t know I was breaking the law.”
Despite the liberating technology of the Internet, free expression remains under attack by religous zealots who threaten death to blasphemers and government regulators who threaten jail time. The prosecution of porn is ”another area where the government thinks it should be able to run our lives,” says Stagliano. “They could easily extend that from looking at porn to consuming fast food” and other activities.
“Should Obscenity be Illegal?” is produced by Dan Hayes and Nick Gillespie, who also hosts. Approximately 6.15 minutes.
When I wonder what kind of people feel that it’s necessary to monitor private consensual activity of others and think it’s ok to jail others based on such activity, I go to a site like IllinoisFamily, which posted a news release about the Evil Angel indictment (linked above). Presumably, they are overjoyed about this prosecution, and state several times in the article how upset they are that there have not been many, many more obscenity prosecutions.
BUTTMAN MAG EDITORIAL: (As will appear in Buttman Magazine Vol. 11 No. 3)
THE UNITED STATES VS JOHN STAGLIANO
CRIMINAL NUMBER: 08-093
CHARGE: OBSCENITY
ARRAINGED: 4/21/08
Wow, I never thought I would reach this status in the world. I want to thanks the Justice Department for choosing me for this prosecution, I shall endeavor to not disappoint them.
There is war in America, on the American people. It takes the form of trying to kill pleasure. Perverse as this seems, the government, acting on political pressure from organized forces of evil (real evil, not Evil Empire, fun evil) in this country have made it their mission to see to it that people do not enjoy themselves too much, especially in sexual ways. This thing about ourselves, our sexuality, is something to be proscribed and controlled.
It is a fundamental thing about living, do I go for things that are expansive? That is, do I wish to extend my experience of this world? Or do I seek a narrow range of life, a range that does not include experimentation? They say this journey to enjoying your sexuality will addict you, it will screw up your life. That is for each of you to consider, but do you think someone should be able to control you, to repress you?
I have been called by our country to defend the rights of those who dare to love their lives here on earth, and I so love my life, and my freedom. They are trying to take that precious freedom away from me, and from you.
It is fitting that this issue is the one where I renew my own artistic impressions of ass. I have the stills here from the three scenes of my new release Buttman
I found out about the indictment from a close personal friend, Steve Javors at XBiz. On April 8, 2008, I was at dinner with John and some friends of our family. He had texted me to ask how we were doing, since he had just seen over PR Newswire.com that John had been charged. John and I had no idea what he was talking about, so I called him.
We phoned our lawyer, Allan Gelbard, and our general manager, Chris Norman, to fill them in. Noone from the company had been notified of this before the Justice Department sent out their press release.
On April 8th, an indictment against John Stagliano, John Stagliano Inc and Evil Angel Productions was filed in Federal District Court in the District of Columbia. The indictment includes 7 counts of obscenity and 1 count seeking forfeiture of certain assets from the defendants.
