John Stagliano’s federal obscenity trial ended abruptly July 16 as Judge Richard Leon dismissed all charges against the pornographer, calling the government’s efforts to convict the Evil Angel owner “woefully inefficient.”
Prosecuting a sting operation in which federal agents focused on three videos or trailers they had bought online (“Milk Nymphos,” “Storm Squirters 2,” and “Fetish Fanatic 5”), the plaintiffs were at times caught in lies, confused about the content of their purchases, and thwarted by technology.
It is hopeful to think Friday was a good day for First Amendment rights, highlighting the hubris of an Obscenity Task Force that didn’t care enough to get its act together and underlining the unenforceability of “Community Standards” over the Internet, especially in the case of government agents who purchase material they hope to prove obscene in the name of a public who knows enough to avoid milk enema videos if it doesn’t like them.
Stagliano’s Obscenity trial seemed like an aftershock, a diminished return. It seemed to put the notion of obscenity in the small “o” context it deserves, even as people like Max Hardcore languish in jail based on similar convictions.
The indictment suggested that if Stagliano’s company, Evil Angel, which is considered throughout the porn business to be both hardcore and professionally maintained, could be brought down, then smaller companies would fold under similar or less pressure. Stagliano has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees (and Beltway hotel accommodations), something that many pornographers of lesser eminence can’t afford.
The trial, based on a 7-count indictment, was expected to last several weeks, and Stagliano faced as many as 37 years in prison if found guilty. Instead Stagliano spent little more than a week in the Washington D.C. court.
At an impromptu victory party on Friday, Reason.com reports, guests sipped milk from champagne flutes, both as a tip of the hat to “Milk Nymphos” and as an incentive to Karen Stagliano, the defendant’s pregnant wife, and to his underage daughter, whose short life has already been one unlikely civics lesson after another.
Though Stagliano’s team was doubtless delighted by the implosion of the prosecution, the charges should have never been brought. That their enemies are often head-scratchingly inept suggests that pornographers, whose own affairs are just as often as inefficient, simply dodged a bullet this time.
Stagliano puts a cap on his own enthusiasm in a statement to the Washington Post.
“This is bad for my autobiography,” he said. “I was hoping for a better fight than they put on. {But} the government has bottomless resources and can come after me at any time.”
Here in California, the bigger battle is between the porn industry and Cal/OSHA, and Stagliano will return to that fracas, along with every performer, producer, and (especially) agent, this week.
Previously on Porn Valley Observed: Stagliano trial sidelined by media errors
See also: The Stagliano victory party (Reason.com)
I’d been disappointed with myself for not following the Slagliano case more closely, but now it looks like it would have been a waste of time.
You’re right. It only would have made you regret your Civics classes. But if anything, this botched job hints the DOJ might do it better next time.
Were the charges brought up under the Obama administration? I was under the impression that Holder was pulling away from prosecuting obscenity.
Oops! Put that in the wrong place.