The man, Gary A. Robinson, was arrested in 2002 for transporting videotapes that depicted bestiality and defecation content from his catalog titled "Susie's Corral." Robinson used the United Parcel Service to transport the tapes.
The investigation was a combined effort of the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the United States Department of Justice, and the United States Attorney's Office.
Robinson faces possible penalties of five years in prison, the Montana office of the Department of Justice (DOJ) stated. He faces a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release, and he will be forced to forfeit all material and property used to commit the offense, the DOJ announced.
According to the Montana DOJ, Robinson has been released on his own recognizance with conditions.
Bill Mercer, United States Attorney for the District of Montana, proved in court that an "average person" applying local community standards as they pertain to Miller v. California found the material patently offensive, and that the video content contained no literary, artistic, political or scientific value of any kind.
Miller v. California was the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that defined the terms of obscene material. The Miller Court also stated that the standard should be determined on a local, rather than national, community standard.