ACLU to Help Defend Rock Singer in Poster Case

The American Civil Liberties Union will help defend Jello Biafra, lead singer of the Dead Kennedys punk rock band, on criminal charges stemming from the packaging of a sexually explicit poster with the group’s latest record album, an ACLU staff attorney said Thursday.

Biafra, 27, and four co-defendants are accused of distributing harmful matter to minors for having enclosed with the 1985 LP “Frankenchrist,” a 20-by-24-inch reproduction of a painting by an award-winning Swiss artist depicting 10 sets of male and female genitals engaged in sex acts.

Terming the matter a free speech issue, ACLU attorney Carol Sobel said, “The poster speaks for itself: it is art.

‘Protected Expression’

“I don’t think (the law) was intended to go after replications of art that have appeared in legitimate arenas,” said Sobel, speaking to reporters outside Biafra’s scheduled arraignment in Los Angeles Municipal Court. “This, in our view, is a clear, protected expression under the First Amendment. It is a statement about our culture.”

The court session for Biafra, whose legal name is Eric Boucher, was later continued to July 20 to allow defense lawyers time to prepare legal motions.

Although Biafra delayed entering his plea, he later castigated the Los Angeles city attorney’s office for having filed the charges, which carry a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $2,000 fine.

“I have a real deep sense of outrage,” said the rock singer from San Francisco. “(This is) law enforcement as entertainment.”

Yet Biafra, whose recorded works include such songs as “California Uber Alles” and “Religious Vomit,” also took pains to emphasize that he takes the case seriously.

“Some people have claimed that we rigged this ourselves as a publicity stunt, which is absurd,” said Biafra, who was dressed in a trim brown suit. “We aren’t the ones who filed charges . . . we aren’t the ones who had the arraignment the day before the Fourth of July.” The case was filed, said Deputy City Atty. Michael Guarino, as a result of a complaint from a San Fernando Valley mother whose teen-age daughter had purchased the LP in a Northridge shopping mall as a gift for her 11-year-old brother.

“The average adult Californian would find (the poster) inappropriate for distribution to minors,” said Guarino, who is prosecuting the case. “We had no choice but to file this case.”

Since authorities served a search warrant in the case, Biafra’s record company, Alternative Tentacles, has stopped including the poster with the album, which has sold about 40,000 copies.