WASHINGTON — A D.C. federal judge, saying he hoped “the government will learn a lesson from its experience”, dismissed a major obscenity case against a major porn producer, John A. Stagliano, aka “Buttman”, the Washington Post reported.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon dismissed the case before the Calif.-based Stagliano of Evil Angel Productions could present a defense, the Post reported, calling the Justice Department’s Obscenity Prosecution Task Force case in the four days of trial “woefully insufficient”, the Post reported.
“I hope the government will learn a lesson from its experience,” Leon said, according to the Post.
The Post reported that he cited “difficult, challenging and novel questions” in the case involving decades-old federal obscenity statutes, the Internet, free speech and criminal defendants’ rights.
“I hope that [higher] courts and Congress will give greater guidance to judges in whose courtrooms these cases will be tried,” he said, according to the Post.
The Post reported that prosecutors did not comment.
The Post reported that Justice Department statistics show 361 defendants were charged with obscenity violations under the Bush II regime, nearly twice as many as under Clinton.
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