Northridge company faces obscenity trial

The L.A. Daily News reports:

An obscenity case over videos produced by a Northridge company that depict simulated rape and murder is headed for trial after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review it.

Defense lawyers for Extreme Associates Inc. had asked the Supreme Court to review a 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that reinstated the criminal charges. The Supreme Court refused to take up the case on May 15.

Extreme Associates and its owners, Robert Zicari and Janet Romano, both of Northridge, were charged in 2003 with distributing three videos through the mail and six images over the Internet to western Pennsylvania. They were also charged with conspiracy.

A grand jury in Pittsburgh found the images met the Supreme Court's test for obscenity. Pornographers must adhere to the community standards of where products are made and anywhere they might be seen, prosecutors said.

In January 2005, U.S. District Judge Gary L. Lancaster ruled that prosecutors overstepped their authority by trying to block the material from children and adults who did not want to see it.

We wonder if the federal government is going to go after violent movies next because that's simulated murder.