Friday, Jun 13, 2008    Text size: 

LOS ANGELES — The obscenity trial of fetish filmmaker Ira Isaacs has ended in mistrial with the recusal of federal appeals court Judge Alex Kozinski.

"In light of the public controversy surrounding my involvement in this case, I have concluded that there is a manifest necessity to declare a mistrial," Kozinski told the Los Angeles Times. "I will recuse myself from further participation in the case and will ask the chief judge of the district court to reassign it to another judge.”

The trial was placed on a 48-hour hold after the Times broke the story that Kozinski had been maintaining a website that showed pornographic images.

Kozinski admitted to the Times that he was aware of the material on his site, but later shifted partial responsibility for the images to his adult son.

Attorney for Ira Isaacs, Roger Jon Diamond told XBIZ that the “case is over, but the government has indicated that they will retry my client.”

Stolen Cars Films and LA Media owner Ira Isaacs was charged with two counts of using a common carrier and interactive computer service for interstate commerce in obscene films, and two counts of distributing movies without the required statement describing where age documentation records could be located.

Kozinski, a judicial conservative and noted advocate of free speech, is considered a possible candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court. He is famous for personally disabling filters for three appellate circuit court offices because administrators had blocked access to pornographic sites.