Local News in Brief : 2 Men to Stand Trial for Felony Pandering
Two men accused of producing sexually explicit videotapes in a Santa Clarita Valley home have been ordered to stand trial for felony pandering.
Charles Brickman, 40, of Woodland Hills and Thomas Ingalls, 22, of Van Nuys are scheduled to be arraigned in San Fernando Superior Court on May 7. Brickman and Ingalls each face 14 counts of felony pandering.
They face maximum prison terms of 11 years if convicted, and could also be fined up to $140,000.
They were arrested by Los Angeles police and Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies who raided a home in Sand Canyon on June 18, 1986, after several performers had finished a day of filming.
It is the fifth case in which the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has charged makers of sexually oriented films or videotapes under the state pandering law, which mandates a prison sentence of three to six years for hiring a person to engage in a sex acts.
State and county authorities have launched drives to suppress the sex-film industry by using the pandering law, arguing that, since performers are paid to perform sex acts in the films, they are in effect prostitutes and their employers are pandering.
The California Supreme Court agreed recently to consider whether the state pimping law can be interpreted in that fashion, accepting for review the conviction of an Encino sex-film producer who faces 90 days in jail and a $10,000 fine.
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