U.S. District Chief Judge John Bailey also ordered Adams to serve three years supervised release and to forfeit his domain name and all copies of the indicted movies.
Adams, who operated Hard2Find Videos and L & J and L and J, used the U.S. mail to ship the videos from Martinsville, Ind, to Martinsburg, W.Va.
“Unfortunately, this case is another in a line of victories for the government in recent obscenity cases,” First Amendment lawyer Lawrence G. Walters told XBIZ after Adams’ conviction. “The nature of the content was not widely publicized, but apparently included some fisting material. That activity, on its own, has not been the focus of obscenity prosecution for a number of years now. However, West Virginia is generally a conservative Bible Belt area, so federal obscenity cases can be difficult to defend in that kind of jurisdiction. Since this case involved the mailing of DVDs, it does not appear that this conviction will be tremendously precedential for the adult Internet industry.”
Adams had previously been convicted of selling and distributing obscenity (bestiality videos) in 2002 in Marion County, Ind. He appealed the conviction, but the Indiana Supreme Court upheld it. Evidence from his previous conviction was used during this federal trial.
The Justice Department’s Obscenity Prosecution Task Force prosecuted the case.
