Jury to Decide Mapplethorpe Obscenity Case

A jury must decide whether an art gallery and its director broke obscenity laws by exhibiting five sexually graphic Robert Mapplethorpe photographs, a judge ruled Thursday.

Hamilton County Municipal Judge David J. Albanese ordered Dennis Barrie and the Contemporary Arts Center to stand trial beginning Sept. 24 on one misdemeanor charge each of pandering obscenity.

Barrie and the gallery already were scheduled to go on trial that day on one charge each of using children in material involving nudity. Albanese said the trial, which will address the obscenity and nudity charges, could last 10 days.

In his order Thursday, Albanese rejected defense arguments that the obscenity charge should be dismissed because state obscenity law exempts legitimate art displays.

“This argument combines facts, affirmative defenses and issues of credibility. This court will not pretry the case on those issues,” the judge said.

Each charge carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine for Barrie and a $5,000 fine for the Contemporary Arts Center.

Albanese granted a prosecution request to let jurors see only the five photographs that depict sadomasochistic sex acts when considering the obscenity charge. Prosecutors will have to prove that only one is obscene to obtain a conviction, the judge said.

Defense lawyers contend that the 175 pictures in the exhibition--mainly portraits and pictures of flowers--are not obscene when considered as a group.

“I’m disappointed in the ruling. I think the court is incorrect,” said Barrie’s lawyer, H. Louis Sirkin.

The charges were filed on April 7, the day the exhibition was opened to the public. It closed on May 26, after 81,000 people had visited the gallery.

The child nudity charge is based on separate shots in the exhibition of a boy and a girl with their genitals exposed.