King of Porn Indicted on Obsenity....

[sarettah]

http://memphis.bizjournals.com/memphis/sto...14/daily29.html (http://memphis.bizjournals.com/memphis/stories/2005/03/14/daily29.html)

Federal indictment includes Memphis porn shops

Several porn shops in Memphis, and their manager, are included in a 54-page federal indictment aimed at one of the world's biggest purveyors of pornography.

The 23-count federal indictment was returned Friday by a Dallas grand jury and issued late Monday by the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs and the IRS. The primary target is Denver's Edward Joseph Wedelstedt, who owns Goalie Entertainment Holdings, Inc., which owns bookstores, strip clubs, peep shows and distribution centers in 18 states.

Though the indictment names 53 different businesses, with names like La Mew, Inc., Hip Pocket and Puck Etc., it's not immediately clear which locations in Memphis are part of the indictment. A Department of Justice spokesman says Goalie uses a vast number of other names to obscure ownership. Memphis is considered a primary market for Goalie, he says, as well as a distribution hub.

................................

Wedelstedt, his wife Vivian Lee Schoug, Martinson, and three others are charged with racketeering, conspiracy in the handling of obscene materials, interstate transport of obscenity and conspiracy to commit tax evasion. The retail stores and video arcades deal primarily in cash; prosecutors are seeking more than $48 million, plus a Learjet and property in Colorado, Iowa, Texas and South Dakota.

Anti-porn forces are delighted by the indictment, says attorney Jan LaRue, general counsel for Concerned Women for America.

"We call him 'Mr. Big of Porn,'" she says. "He took over most of the porn empire of Reuben Sturman, who went to federal prison on the same kinds of charges. Sturman was the King of Porn, and ran the porn industry for organized crime. When you looked at the schematic it looked like IBM, with holdings all over the world."

The grand jury specifically named six videos as obscene. The nature of those videos is significant, says LaRue, who has fought pornography for years.

"The videos are the kind of hard core pornography anybody can buy right off the shelf; they don't involve to sort of bondage, rape and excretory subjects that DOJ has been focused on," she says. "They've gotten the bar down."

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[TheEnforcer]

The IRS I can surely understand and there could be Customs issues but I find it VERY odd that the department of Homeland Security is involved in this in any way.

And the fact that "vanilla" porn is the target validates what people have been saying for quite some time now... that the attack on this biz and the attempted narrowing of obscenity was only delayed by 9-11.

[JR]

Originally posted by TheEnforcer@Mar 18 2005, 07:03 AM
The IRS I can surely understand and there could be Customs issues but I find it VERY odd that the department of Homeland Security is involved in this in any way.

And the fact that "vanilla" porn is the target validates what people have been saying for quite some time now... that the attack on this biz and the attempted narrowing of obscenity was only delayed by 9-11.
Customs, Immigration etc = Department of Homeland Security

[Almighty Colin]

The worse thing about the "community standards" rule is that no one knows what the hell the community standard is. I don't think a nation of laws should have such an arbitrary definition. Tell me if I'm breaking the law or not so I know if I want to live here.

[TheEnforcer]

Originally posted by JR+Mar 18 2005, 10:18 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (JR @ Mar 18 2005, 10:18 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-TheEnforcer@Mar 18 2005, 07:03 AM
The IRS I can surely understand and there could be Customs issues but I find it VERY odd that the department of Homeland Security is involved in this in any way.

And the fact that "vanilla" porn is the target validates what people have been saying for quite some time now... that the attack on this biz and the attempted narrowing of obscenity was only delayed by 9-11.
Customs, Immigration etc = Department of Homeland Security [/b][/quote]
That's right.. my bad.. I forgot many of the departments got rolled into Homeland Security.

[SykkBoy]

Originally posted by Almighty Colin@Mar 18 2005, 10:18 AM
The worse thing about the "community standards" rule is that no one knows what the hell the community standard is. I don't think a nation of laws should have such an arbitrary definition. Tell me if I'm breaking the law or not so I know if I want to live here.
yup, I totally agree

knowing the ass backwards state of Tennessee, one of the titles was probably an interracial title.......

[Far-L]

Originally posted by Almighty Colin@Mar 18 2005, 07:18 AM
The worse thing about the "community standards" rule is that no one knows what the hell the community standard is. I don't think a nation of laws should have such an arbitrary definition. Tell me if I'm breaking the law or not so I know if I want to live here.
I actually think the Rob Black precedent is going to have a greater impact on defining a legal standard of what is or is not obscene and will ultimately have a greater impact on the industry than even Flynt's case, which was not about porn so much as it was about the freedom to make fun of people as a form of social commentary.

The DOJ has been after Eddie W. for years. He is an outlaw to some and a hero to others. I think the porn part is firing from the hip and a distraction for the real goal which is to get him on tax fraud.

I think even in Memphis they will have a hard time proving the material is actually obscene. However, the Christian Right that helped Bush get to the White House need to be appeased since tackling obscenity was waved as a flag of war. Every attack has resulted in disaster though so far.

I am not saying we are out of the jungle here but I was around when Meese and Keating were trying to bring down the industry too. Back then, FBI would set up shop in places like Tennessee, order some tapes from studios in California, bring them to a judge that would conveniently find them obscene, then go bust the poor bloke in Cali for transporting obscenity across state lines.

As I understand it in layman's terms, the Rob Black case challenges that substantially because it says that if a person can choose to watch consensual adult material in the privacy of their home then it must be legal to produce it.

In any event, this is one to watch.

[SykkBoy]

Originally posted by Far-L+Mar 18 2005, 03:52 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Far-L @ Mar 18 2005, 03:52 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Almighty Colin@Mar 18 2005, 07:18 AM
The worse thing about the "community standards" rule is that no one knows what the hell the community standard is. I don't think a nation of laws should have such an arbitrary definition. Tell me if I'm breaking the law or not so I know if I want to live here.
I actually think the Rob Black precedent is going to have a greater impact on defining a legal standard of what is or is not obscene and will ultimately have a greater impact on the industry than even Flynt's case, which was not about porn so much as it was about the freedom to make fun of people as a form of social commentary.

The DOJ has been after Eddie W. for years. He is an outlaw to some and a hero to others. I think the porn part is firing from the hip and a distraction for the real goal which is to get him on tax fraud.

I think even in Memphis they will have a hard time proving the material is actually obscene. However, the Christian Right that helped Bush get to the White House need to be appeased since tackling obscenity was waved as a flag of war. Every attack has resulted in disaster though so far.

I am not saying we are out of the jungle here but I was around when Meese and Keating were trying to bring down the industry too. Back then, FBI would set up shop in places like Tennessee, order some tapes from studios in California, bring them to a judge that would conveniently find them obscene, then go bust the poor bloke in Cali for transporting obscenity across state lines.

As I understand it in layman's terms, the Rob Black case challenges that substantially because it says that if a person can choose to watch consensual adult material in the privacy of their home then it must be legal to produce it.

In any event, this is one to watch. [/b][/quote]
yeah, I have a feeling this is more about other things he's guilty of and using porn to appease the righties...tax fraud, alledged mob ties, etc.

but, I still think Tennessee is a little crazy sometimes ;-)

[Far-L]

Sure, there are plenty of places in Tennessee that are really conservative... but Memphis I would have to say is a town that has been into sex, drugs, and rock and roll since well before Elvis was cutting records there, boning underage girls like Lisa Marie, and pill popping partying with The Colonel.

If these kind of prosecutions couldn't pass the giggle test in Salt lake City then there is probably a bigger gaff coming on those issues in Memphis, at least in my humblest opinion....