The Grim Details

So, now that we know more about the Obama adminstration's first obscenity prosecution, let's see if anything we predicted turned out to be wrong.

Here's a short, straight account of the case so far from USNewswire:

Master of Pain, Barry Goldman Indicted in Montana; Faces Five Years

--press release

WASHINGTON -- A Florida producer has been charged by a federal grand jury in Billings, Mont., with distributing obscene DVDs through the mails, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division Matthew Friedrich and U.S. Attorney for the District of Montana William Mercer announced today.

In a sealed indictment returned by the grand jury on Aug. 20, 2008, and unsealed today in federal court in Billings, Miami resident Barry Goldman, 58, doing business using the names Torture Portal, Masters of Pain and Bacchus Studios, was charged with three counts of using the mails to deliver DVDs containing obscene films to an address in Billings and one count that seeks forfeiture of certain assets of the defendant. The specific films named in the indictment are "Torture of Porn Star Girl,""Pregnant and Willing" and "Defiant Crista Submits."

If convicted, Goldman faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 on each of the three counts charged in the indictment.

The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Kenneth Whitted of the Criminal Division's Obscenity Prosecution Task Force and Assistant U.S. Attorney Marcia Hurd of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Montana. The investigation was conducted by the FBI's Adult Obscenity Squad based in the Washington, D.C., field office, with assistance from the FBI's Billings field office.

An indictment is merely an accusation. All defendants are presumed innocent of the charges, and it is the government's burden to prove a defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.

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So, content involves BDSM porn, specifically using he T-Word. Apparently, the new administration hasn't quite made up its mind on the subject of torture itself, but it knows just where it stands on the use of the word.

And then there's the matter of where the case originated: the FBI's Washington-based obscenity squad. And the matter of where the actual proceedings are being brought: in D.C. by our old friends at Obscenity Prosecution Task Force, home base of Bruce Taylor and enabler of Mary Beth Buchanan.

So far, so utterly predictable. For a cold case left in the freezer by the outgoing regime, this one seems to be defrosting rapidly.

Later, we'll get to the bad news.