Flynt Sentenced to 60 Days for Improprieties

Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt was sentenced Wednesday to 60 days in prison for using obscene language before the U.S. Supreme Court and, in a separate incident, wearing an unauthorized Purple Heart medal.

Flynt, who was also fined $350 and placed on three years probation, pleaded guilty to the Purple Heart charge last October in a bargain with federal prosecutors who agreed to dismiss charges that he desecrated an American flag and assaulted an FBI agent.

The flamboyant sex magazine publisher pleaded guilty last month to a charge that he used obscene language before the Supreme Court during an appearance in November, 1983.

Flynt, 44, a wheelchair-bound paraplegic since a 1978 assassination attempt on him, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Consuelo Marshall in Los Angeles.

In a brief statement to the court before the sentencing, Flynt said: “All I can say is that at the time of these offenses, I seriously needed psychiatric help. . . . I want to extend my apologies to this court and to all the other courts in which I misbehaved.”

Marshall stayed implementation of the sentence until April 15.

Flynt was arrested Nov. 17, 1983, after an FBI agent found him asleep on the floor of a court office wearing nothing but the U.S. flag and a bullet-proof vest.

He had been counting out crumpled dollar bills he brought to pay a $10,000 contempt of court fine. U.S. District Judge Robert Takasugi fined Flynt $10,000 daily--and later raised the fine to $20,000 daily--for his refusal to reveal the source of an audio tape relevant to the John DeLorean cocaine case.

Flynt later said that the tape was a fake.

The publisher allegedly got into a scuffle with FBI agent Jerry West, who found him asleep, and Flynt was booked for the assault on West and for desecrating the flag.

Following Flynt’s November arrest, Assistant U.S. Atty. Percy Anderson said it was discovered that he was wearing a Purple Heart that did not belong to him.

Flynt made obscene remarks to the Supreme Court in an appearance there in a libel suit involving rival Penthouse magazine.

He was jailed in a North Carolina prison in February, 1984, after refusing to reveal the source of the DeLorean tape and was released in July on $110,000 bail pending an appeal of the contempt charges.