Editor's note: This story contains graphic language that may offend some readers.
TAMPA - A panel of jurors saw an extreme hard-core pornographic movie today and is expected to see many more as it weighs whether a California porn producer, who uses the name Max Hardcore, has violated criminal obscenity laws.
Today, U.S. District Judge Susan Bucklew decided federal prosecutors can show excerpts of the movies, rather than the DVDs in their entirety, as they put on their case. Defense lawyers for Max Hardcore, whose real name is Paul F. Little, argued that jurors need to see the entirety of the movies because the repetition of the acts is a necessary component.
"Over a period of time, the shock is blunted," defense lawyer Jeffrey J. Douglas said. "That is part of the presentation. That is part of the DVD."
Federal prosecutor Lisamarie Freitas argued that the defense is trying to "desensitize" jurors.
Defense attorneys decided they will show the jurors the remainder of each movie as part of its cross examination.
Little and his company, MaxWorld Entertainment, face five counts each of distributing obscene materials over the Internet and five counts each of distributing obscene material through the mail. If convicted, each charge includes a maximum punishment of five years imprisonment.
A federal indictment alleges that Little, through his entertainment company, distributed pornographic films to post office boxes in Tampa. It also alleges that Little and MaxWorld promoted the films via a Web site by transmitting over the Internet five obscene video clips as promotional trailers.
The prosecutors were flown in from Washington where they work for the U.S. Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenities Section.
To determine whether the material is obscene, jurors will have to use a test set up by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972.
Jurors must determine:
Whether "the average person applying contemporary community standards" would find the work, as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest
Whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by state law.
Whether the work, as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value."
For about 40 minutes Wednesday and for more than an hour this morning, the entire DVD "Max Extreme 20" was shown to jurors.
As the DVD began, the jurors sat mostly stone faced. Two women blushed and smiled slightly. One woman sat wide-eyed.
The DVD progressed, and the smiles vanished. Hands often covered mouths. Men and women fidgeted in their seats.
Expressions turned to concern as women onscreen screamed in pain during some scenes.
In one scene, Little slaps a woman repeatedly, curses at her and urinates on her. She vomits.
"That's OK," Little says in the film. "You look better with puke on your face."
As the rough sex continues, they discuss her fictional 12-year-old daughter. Little, playing the role of Max Hardcore, tells the woman he had sex with the "preteen."
In another scene, a younger woman says she is a virgin. The Hardcore character gives her a modeling job.
He grabs her neck and the back of her hair, and forces her into a sex act. The girl vomits.
Several of the jurors wince. One man rubs his closed eyes for several seconds.
During a sex act, the young woman begins to scream.
"I've got to move," she says. "Ow, ow, ow."
Hardcore slaps away her hands.
"Stop, stop, stop," she says. "Can we stop for a minute? Can we have a break?"
The scene ends abruptly but begins again and lasts for several more minutes.
At the end of the movie, Little interviews the woman, now clothed.
He asks her whether she did anything she didn't want to. She smiles and says she did not.
She says it was a difficult scene, but she thought it came out well.
"I'd love to work with you again," she says.
The screen fades to black.
-Edit-
Smart move on the Defense, the initial shock of watching the video is working against the case, it's best to let them absorb more before they make a judgment.
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