Couple Is Arrested in Selling of Pornography : Courts: The Agoura residents are accused of shipping obscene tapes. The U.S. government seeks to seize their house.

The federal government’s continuing crackdown on distributors of pornography resulted in the arrest Friday of an Agoura couple accused of selling obscene videos over the telephone to an undercover agent in Las Vegas.

Elliot and Judith Levinson were arrested without incident at their Ambridge Drive house by FBI agents after they were named in a three-count federal grand jury indictment unsealed in Nevada.

They appeared before U.S. Magistrate Volney Brown, who allowed them to be released on their own recognizance.

Los Angeles attorney Clyde F. DeWitt, who is representing the Levinsons, said his clients will plead not guilty when they are arraigned in Las Vegas. “Included in the plea of not guilty . . . is a denial that the materials involved are obscene, and the government is required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they were.”

The government, which characterizes the Levinsons as major distributors, is seeking to seize the 2,700-square-foot, four-bedroom house where they operated Equs Distributing Inc.

This marks only the second time the government has sought to apply the seizure penalties contained in the 1988 Child Exploitation and Obscenity Enforcement Act.

In addition, the Levinsons could be sentenced to a maximum of 15 years in jail and ordered to pay fines of up to $750,000. Their company, which was their main source of income, could be fined $1.5 million.

The indictment is the third to arise out of 31 searches of the offices of producers and distributors of hard-core pornography conducted since last April by the Los Angeles Police Department and the FBI.

Industry representatives say this is part of the most sweeping crackdown on adult video merchants in years.

The other two indictments also were brought against Los Angeles-based companies and involved the shipment of videos for sale to Broken Arrow, Okla., and Dallas.

Pornography industry representatives have charged that the federal government has sought to put producers out of business by initiating prosecution in conservative southern and rural communities.

The test for obscenity is basically whether the average person, applying the standards of his community, would find that the work appeals to prurient interests.

Industry lawyers say the government thinks it will be easier to obtain convictions outside a liberal urban area such as Los Angeles.

In a statement announcing Friday’s arrests, U.S. Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh attempted to rebut that argument by pointing out that the indictment was handed down in the gambling capital of Las Vegas.

He said the indictment “emphasizes the determination of the Department of Justice to bring obscenity cases in every district in which we find evidence of a violation of federal obscenity law.” “The efforts of pornographers to pollute communities across the country with obscene materials must not go unchecked. We believe the people of America, when given the opportunity to choose, will reject the kind of hard-core pornography being distributed today.”

Justice Department spokesman Doug Tillett added that the government was confident that a jury would consider the tapes distributed by the Levinsons to be obscene.

Among the titles the Levinsons are accused of arranging to sell to an undercover agent were “Bimbo Cheerleaders from Outer Space,” “Kinky Vision” and “Fist Full of Bimbos.”

According to the indictment, the undercover agent negotiated with Judith Levinson, 49, by telephone last February and March to buy those and five other videos for as little as $8 each.

The tapes were then shipped via United Parcel Service to Las Vegas.

DeWitt said the government’s campaign against pornography was an assault on the First Amendment and required the diversion of law enforcement resources from other purposes.

“The FBI agents involved in this could have been spending their time fighting drugs,” DeWitt said. “It’s apparent that those who are causing this to occur feel that such a reduction in the war on drugs is appropriate.”