LOS ANGELES — Just minutes before Ira Isaacs was about to turn himself in to the federal Bureau of Prisons today, the fetish filmmaker and distributor received a call from his attorney.
"He said, 'Don't go, don't go,'" Isaacs told XBIZ. "'Judge King has approved your motion for bail pending appeal. You've been stayed.'"
At about noon today, U.S. District Judge George King gave the green light for Isaacs' freedom while the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals weighs his conviction and sentencing at a future date.
Isaacs was ordered by King last month to begin a four-year sentence on Tuesday, but Isaacs' attorney, Roger Jon Diamond, contended that he could remain free on existing bail until the 9th Circuit ruled on an emergency stay on sentencing.
The 9th Circuit, however, ruled yesterday against Isaacs' motions for an emergency stay pending appeal unless the district court ruled otherwise.
Isaacs, however, wasn't hopeful that the lower court would change course.
But King granted the bail request, and Isaacs will be free for the time being until the 9th Circuit decides on his conviction of five obscenity counts.
"This is an amazing feeling," Isaacs said. "I felt I was saved."
Isaacs told XBIZ that today's events were so surreal he had felt like he was in an episode of the "Twilight Zone" or a Quentin Tarantino movie.
Isaacs said that he traveled to downtown Los Angeles, aiming to turn himself in at the Metropolitan Detention Center on Alameda Street when he got a call at about noon from Diamond, who has worked seven years on the case.
"Last night, I was thinking it would be my last night of freedom," he said. "I really thought that this would be it; that I would be sleeping in prison the following night ... and that would continue for a very long time.
"I became psychologically ready for prison."
Isaacs was found guilty last April on five counts of violating federal obscenity laws over the mail distribution of "Mako’s First Time Scat, " "Hollywood Scat Amateurs #7," "Hollywood Scat Amateurs #10" and "Japanese Doggie 3 Way."
