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'HORROR-PORN' SUIT TOSSED FEDERAL JUDGE DISMISSES INDICTMENT IN CLOSELY WATCHED LEGAL CASE.


Byline: Andrea Cavanaugh Staff Writer

In a case closely watched by the adult entertainment industry, a federal judge threw out an obscenity obscenity, in law, anything that tends to corrupt public morals by its indecency. The moral concepts that the term connotes vary from time to time and from place to place. In the United States, the word obscenity is a technical legal term. In the 1950s the U.S.  indictment against the owners of a Chatsworth company that produced a ``horror-porn'' film.

Federal obscenity laws are unconstitutional in the context of the case against Extreme Associates, U.S. District Court Judge Gary L. Lancaster ruled Thursday.

Extreme Associates owner Rob Zicari Robert D. Zicari a.k.a. Rob Black (born August 5 1973 in Rochester, New York) is a U.S. pornographer and former professional wrestling promoter. Together with his wife Janet Romano (a.k.a. Lizzy Borden) he owns the porn company Extreme Associates.  hailed the dismissal as a victory for civil liberties.

``In no way does the court condone condone v. 1) to forgive, support, and/or overlook moral or legal failures of another without protest, with the result that it appears that such breaches of moral or legal duties are acceptable.  pornography - what they're saying is that adults have the right to view what they want in the privacy of their own home,'' Zicari said.

``It kind of restores my faith in the system. There are still judges that care about our rights and our freedoms and aren't afraid to make controversial decisions.''

Mary Beth Buchanan, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, said Friday that she may appeal the decision.

``We continue to believe that the federal obscenity statutes are valid and constitutional,'' Buchanan said.

The case centered around the film ``Forced Entry,'' a film starring and directed by Zicari's wife, Janet Romano, under the name Lizzie Borden For other persons named Lizzie Borden, see Lizzie Borden (disambiguation).
Lizzie Andrew Borden (July 19 1860 – June 1 1927) was a New England spinster who was the central figure in the axe murders of her father and stepmother on August 4 1892 in Fall River, Massachusetts,
. The company's Web site bills the film as a ``stunningly disturbing look at a serial killer serial killer Forensic psychiatry A person who commits serial murders Prototypic SK White ♂ age 30; 97% are ♂; 80% are sociopaths. See Dahmer, Depraved heart murder, Ice Man. Cf Megan's law, Son of Sam law. , Satanic rituals, and the depths of human depravity.''

``It's horror-porn,'' Zicari said. ``At least it has a plot.''

Zicari and Romano were indicted INDICTED, practice. When a man is accused by a bill of indictment preferred by a grand jury, he is said to be indicted.  in Pittsburgh in 2003 in what was considered a major test case of federal obscenity laws. They argued that federal obscenity statutes violated their constitutional right to liberty and privacy.

Members of the adult entertainment industry have followed the case closely, viewing the outcome as a barometer of the anti-obscenity effort pursued by Attorney General John Ashcroft John David Ashcroft (born May 9 1942) is an American politician who was the 79th United States Attorney General. He served during the first term of President George W. Bush from 2001 until 2005. Ashcroft was previously the Governor of Missouri (1985 – 1993) and a U.S. . The $7 billion adult-film industry is centered in the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley

Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills.
.

``Hopefully, this will encourage the government to leave the adult industry alone,'' said attorney Roger Jon Diamond, who has successfully represented a number of clients in the adult entertainment industry.

``What we want here for American adults is freedom, the same freedom President Bush says he is fighting for in Iraq. It makes no sense to fight for freedom abroad and restrict it here.''

But Bill Margold, who acted in and directed adult films for more than three decades and serves as an activist for the industry, said producers of explicit adult films should use common sense and keep a low profile.

``We've dodged a huge bullet, but this is not a license to go nuts,'' he said. ``Society does not have to have their noses rubbed in our business.''

Andrea Cavanaugh, (818) 713-3669

andrea.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com
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Publication:Daily News (Los Angeles, CA)
Date:Jan 22, 2005
Words:438
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