8 in Southland Charged in U.S. Porno-by-Mail Case

Eight Southern California businessmen, accused of mailing “hard-core” sexual advertisements to unwitting families, are among 20 people nationwide charged in what the Justice Department described Friday as the first-ever national crackdown on the lucrative mail-order pornography business.

Justice Department officials insisted that the criminal charges unsealed Friday, alleging violation of federal laws against mailing obscene materials, are a response to a huge upsurge in complaints about unsolicited, “innocuous-looking envelopes” that contain graphic ads for sexually explicit movies and other items. The federal government has rarely prosecuted such cases in the past, leaving them instead to local jurisdictions.

But a First Amendment expert warned that the Reagan Administration, which has made fighting pornography a top priority, is venturing into dangerous and untried legal waters.

‘Very Extreme Action’

“This is really a very extreme action,” Barry Lynn, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer, said in an interview. “The Justice Department is trying to intimidate video dealers away from carrying any sexually oriented material and is losing sight of the fact that Americans have learned to live with a certain level of offensiveness in the name of free speech.”

James Dost of Costa Mesa, an employee of a North Hollywood adult-material distributor and one of those indicted, said: “The government can’t legislate this kind of thing over the First Amendment.” He said the mail-order house he helps to manage, Mail Mart Inc., sends adult material only to those who order it.

Federal prosecutors asserted, however, that the mass mailings from Mail Mart and 13 other firms in seven other states were sending unsolicited obscene material to millions, including minors.

‘Quantity on Increase’

“Both the quantity and the offensive quality of the material has been on the increase,” said Jack Swagerty, assistant chief postal inspector, whose agency teamed with Justice on Project PostPorn.

The mailings garnered in the investigation included graphic photographs that featured themes of “rape, torture, bondage, incest, pseduo-child sexual abuse and bestiality,” officials said.

To win the cases, federal prosecutors will have to prove the materials sent through the mail were obscene or that they were intended to sell material that was obscene.

What Is Obscenity?

Legal rulings have fluctuated historically on the question of what constitutes obscenity, settling in 1973 on the community standard established by the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Miller vs. California. In that case, the court ruled that material is obscene if a community views it as “patently offensive,” appealing on the whole to “the prurient interest in sex,” and lacking serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

Federal prosecutors say they expect more indictments in the case, perhaps involving as many as half of the federal districts nationwide, and predicted that their investigation will have a “dramatic effect” in curtailing the mail-order pornography industry.

Those from Southern California who were charged in the case: David L. Coolidge of Yorba Linda, and Lejay Winkler of Los Angeles, both with Universal Products of Pomona; Richard Nathan of Hollywood, with TAO Productions and Curtis Dupont Video of Hollywood; Irwin Spector of Studio City, Mark Spector of Van Nuys and Dost, all of Mail Mart Inc., Dynamite Distributors and Johnny’s Hardball Selections of North Hollywood; Robert Joe Garcia Easley Jr. and Jacquelyn L. Hunter, both of Van Nuys, of Diverse Industries in Van Nuys.

Coolidge and Winkler have agreed to plead guilty, the Justice Department said.