BARTOW, FL – Attorney Lawrence Walters has filed motions for dismissal on behalf of Christopher Wilson, webmaster of NowThatsFuckedUp.com, who last month was charged with over 300 counts of obscenity in connection with content on his amateur adult site.Among Walter’s arguments are: Florida’s obscenity law is both too vague and unconstitutional; it’s the federal government, and not the state which has jurisdiction over the internet; when the Judge Angela Cowden of Polk County was shown images from the site, she was shown a selected few images, rather than the entire website (obscenity statutes require that a work be considered “as a whole”); and Florida’s laws violate constitutionally guaranteed rights of privacy and due process.
“With the advent of internet communications, the determination of the relevant community in obscenity cases has become exponentially more difficult,” Walters said.
This won’t be the first time Florida’s obscenity statutes have been challenged; in 1988, Circuit Judge Randolph Bentley ruled that the state’s obscenity statute was unconstitutional in a case involving the Varsity Theater, an adult movie theater that has since closed.
In April 1989, though, the 2nd District Court of Appeals in Lakeland reversed Bentley’s ruling, and asserted that there was no constitutional problem with Florida’s obscenity statutes.
The reversal of Bentley’s earlier decision doesn’t phase Walters, though. “That was the ‘80s, this is now,” Walters said. “There have been changes in technology, in societal norms, in human interaction. In the 1980’s, gay sex was illegal. Two years ago the Supreme Court changed that.”
Walters added that the cases are quite different; one involved an adult movie theater physically located in Polk County, whereas Wilson’s case involves a website, with no “physical” location, as such.
“The obscenity laws apply to many different types of media,” Walters said. “They can be unconstitutional in some cases and constitutional in others.”
Chip Thullbery, assistant to the state attorney in Polk County, said he had not read the motions Walters submitted yet, and therefore could not comment on the motions in detail.
“We believe that our case is justified by the law and we will prevail on the motions to dismiss,” Thullbery said.
Meanwhile, Wilson is free on bail, and his next court date is a status hearing scheduled for January 6th, followed by a pretrial hearing which is slated for Feb. 7th. No date has been set for the actual trial yet. No date has been set for the dismissal motions to be heard, either; the motions will be heard by Circuit Judge Dale Durrance, who will also be the judge at Wilson’s trial.
