NATIONAL BRIEFING / PENNSYLVANIA
The owners of a California company that distributed videos depicting deviant sexual conduct pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute obscene material.
The pleas from Robert Zicari and his wife, Janet Romano, in federal court in Pittsburgh come after a nearly six-year battle over whether the First Amendment protects such videos, which included scenes of simulated rape.
Advocates for the couple accused prosecutors of filing the case in western Pennsylvania because the area’s “community standards” -- which govern what is obscene, according to the U.S. Supreme Court -- are more conservative than those in California.
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