Obscenity Trial Stalls Over Witness : Art: Mapplethorpe case defense lawyers finish, but proceedings have halted over the qualifications of a rebuttal witness.

The defense rested its case today, but the obscenity trial involving Robert Mapplethorpe’s photos sputtered to a halt as lawyers wrangled over the qualifications of a rebuttal witness for the prosecution.

“I just wish something would happen,” said Dennis Barrie, who could go to jail if the jury finds him guilty of the misdemeanor charges of pandering obscenity and using children in nudity-related material.

Barrie, 43, is director of the Contemporary Arts Center. A Hamilton County grand jury indicted Barrie and the art gallery April 7 because of seven photographs in a 175-picture exhibit that day.

Five of the photos depict sexually explicit acts involving men, and two show children with their genitals exposed. If convicted of both charges, Barrie could be sentenced to one year in jail and fined $2,000. The gallery could be fined $10,000.

Hamilton County Municipal Judge David Albanese told the eight-member jury that it could receive the case for deliberations by Friday morning, but said he felt no pressure to speed things along.

“If we have to recess over the three-day weekend, we will,” Albanese said. The court will not be in session Monday because of Columbus Day.

Defense lawyers today challenged the credentials of proposed prosecution rebuttal witness Judith Reisman of Arlington, Va. They said she was not qualified to offer expert testimony regarding the seven photographs.

Reisman listed among her qualifications having prepared educational videotapes and slide presentations for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. She said she has also been a consultant for television’s “Captain Kangaroo” show, for former Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III’s commission on pornography and for the conservative American Family Assn.