NOVANWS
LOS ANGELES (AP) — An adult film producer is expected to be sentenced after he was convicted of violating federal obscenity laws by selling movies depicting bestiality and extreme fetishes.
Ira Isaacs could face a sentence ranging from probation to 20 years in prison.
The Wednesday sentencing caps a five-year legal saga that led to two mistrials. A 2008 trial was halted after the Los Angeles Times reported Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, had sexually explicit material on a personal website.
Kozinski, who presided over the trial, recused himself and was admonished by a special committee of his colleagues.
Isaacs was indicted as part of an effort by a Bush administration task force to crack down on smut in the U.S.
Ira Isaacs, Defecation Porn Shock Artist, Sentenced 4 Years In Prison
Ira Isaacs, a self-proclaimed “shock artist” notorious for integrating feces-eating into porn, was sentenced on Wednesday to four years in federal prison, three years of supervised release, and a $10,000 fine, LA Weekly reported.
The 61-year-old South Bronx filmmaker was found guilty last April of violating federal obscenity laws by selling pornographic movies featuring “bestiality and extreme fetishes,” according to The Associated Press.
The jury found that his videos were legally obscene, in that they lacked “literary, artistic, political or scientific value.”
One video,The New York Daily News reported, depicted two women having sex with Isaacs while eating feces.
The shock artist, however, maintained that his films were protected under the First Amendment.
“The whole thing was a farce. They put artists on trial for their work. So what if I stepped over the line, artists take risks,” Isaacs told the Daily News.
His lawyer, Roger Diamond, argued that the videos were “way off mainstream porn” but that the First Amendment still protected them. “There are no children involved here,” Diamond said, “and the movies were sold to consenting adults.”
“I feel like I just won the Academy Award. If an artist can offend so many people that he has to go to prison to protect society, that’s really saying something,” Isaacs added.
“Most shock artists dream of this kind of attention, without the prison part.”
