Obscenity and Ira Isaacs

Fetish porn producer and distributor, Ira Isaacs, has been sentenced to 48 months in federal prison and fined $11,000 at federal court in Los Angeles. After serving his sentence, Isaacs will be subject to three years of supervised release.

Isaacs attorney Roger Jon Diamond indicated that his client will appeal the ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Isaacs was found guilty in April 2012 on five counts of violating federal obscenity laws over the distribution of Mako's First Time Scat, Hollywood Scat Amateurs #7, Hollywood Scat Amateurs #10 and Japanese Doggie 3 Way.

It was the third obscenity trial for the distributor and producer, who all along contended that the works he had been charged with have artistic value and can't be deemed obscene. The first two ended with mistrials.

Update: Appealing

29th January 2013. See  article from  xbiz.com

The attorney representing Ira Isaacs has filed an appeal on behalf of the fetish filmmaker and distributor with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Attorney Roger Jon Diamond filed court papers with the 9th Circuit claiming that Isaacs is entitled to an appeal to have his convictions and sentencing tossed because the jury in his case was improperly instructed, his own testimony was restricted and thus a violation of due process, and because he faced double jeopardy after two earlier trials on the same offenses ended with mistrials.

A Los Angeles jury has just found Ira Isaacs guilty on all five counts in his obscenity trial.

The jury began deliberating the charges of producing, selling and shipping the four charged movies:

• Mako's First Time Scat,
• Hollywood Scat Amateurs 7 and 10,
• Japanese Doggie 3 Way

Isaacs looked pensive as the jury filed into the courtroom, and was visibly shaken as the jury foreman read the guilty verdicts on the five counts, each of which could net him five years in (likely) a minimum security federal prison.

Isaacs' attorney Roger Jon Diamond told AVN that he felt his client had several grounds for appeal, but a final decision as to whether Isaacs will appeal the verdicts has not yet been reached.

Offsite Comment: If Porn Isn't Art, Does It Still Have a Right to Exist?

Ira Isaacs basic defence was that hi work was art.

3rd May 2012. See article from thedailybeast.com , thanks to Nick

Obviously Hollywood Scat Amateurs #10 was never intended to be art, and that's the real problem with the art argument: it covers up what's truly valuable about these films, which is that they allow us to critique of the notion of obscenity itself.

The California obscenity statute defines prurience as a morbid, degrading, unhealthy interest in sex. But this sells all sexual minorities down the river. Is it more degrading to see a representation of your desire, or be deemed perverted by the state? In 2012, should the state still be passing judgment on the consensual sex lives of others?

In the end, the jury pronounced Isaacs guilty on all counts and got home before rush hour. That's not surprising, given that they'd been instructed not to consider what a deviant subset might find normal, or even what they themselves might find normal, but instead to imagine the values of the community at large. Even in Central District of California---the home not only of the nation's porn industry, but also of bedroom communities from San Luis Obispo to Orange County---that leaves a lot of room for sexual missteps.

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