Wednesday, August 25, 1999
Video seller pleads no contest
BY DAVID ECK
Enquirer Contributor
HAMILTON — Butler County's latest obscenity trial ended quickly Tuesday with Millville Video Inc. being found guilty of pandering obscenity.
A jury was seated and a prosecution witness was called Monday, but before the trial could resume for its second day Tuesday, the corporation pleaded no contest to pandering obscenity, stemming from selling the videos Agony of Arianna and Man Maid.
Butler County Common Pleas Judge Matthew Crehan found the corporation guilty and fined it $5,000.
Defense lawyer Louis Sirkin said the plea agreement made sense for the county and for his client, but he didn't elaborate. He said he expected to appeal.
The judge's finding of guilty is significant, said Butler County Sheriff Harold Don Gabbard, because “now we know there's a type of videos that has been ruled to be obscene, and we're certainly going to keep our vice operators looking for them on the shelves of these stores. Now we have teeth.”
Tuesday's action came after a lengthy meeting outside the courtroom, before the videos were to be shown to the jury.
In obscenity cases, jurors are instructed that material must meet a three-part test to be judged obscene:
• Would the average person conclude the material appeals to prurient interests?
• Does the material depict, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct that is offensive to community standards?
• Does the material, taken as a whole, lack serious artistic, literary, scientific or social value?
Butler County Assistant Prosecutor Dan Gattermeyer said the case “sends a message that Butler County does not want that stuff here. We don't want this sold here.
“We think this is a big victory,” he said. “It's been a long, hard process that we've gone through.”
In another obscenity trial in the county earlier this month, Peter Tomaino, owner of VIP Video stores in Hamilton and Millville, and two store clerks, Billie J. Doan and Caroletha Geter, were acquitted of three counts of pandering obscenity.
Protesters have been picketing VIP Video on weekends, and pornography opponents have attended the obscenity trials. Several opponents in Judge Crehan's courtroom for the Millville Video trial were clearly pleased with Tuesday's outcome.
“The judge knows the truth,” said Phyllis Stewart, 61, a Hamilton woman who is a member of the group Citizens for a Safe Community. “When he said it's obscene, I just wanted to jump up and down. That's our belief.”
Janice Morse contributed to this story.
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