BILLINGS, MT – A federal judge sentenced Sanford Wasserman of Florida to five years in prison for conspiring to distribute obscene videotapes on Friday, handing down what prosecutors described as one of the stiffest penalties in recent years for obscenity.Wasserman, a 65 year-old Floridian, derided his attorney as ineffective and maintained that he was innocent at the hearing. A rabbi and Wasserman’s wife appeared on his behalf at the hearing, and described him as God-fearing and kind.
“I’m just angry about this,” Wasserman said to U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull, complaining that he was being made a “poster child” for the Bush Administration’s “crusade” against pornography.
Cebull said that he would appoint a new attorney for Wasserman, to preserve his right to appeal.
Wasserman pleaded guilty earlier this year under an agreement that allows him some appeal rights, and later tried to withdraw the guilty plea, but his request was turned down by the judge.
Prosecutors assert that Wasserman conspired with another man, Thomas Lambert of Montana, to distribute obscene videos. In court filings, prosecutors described some of the tapes, which were made available via mail-order catalogs, as depicting bestiality and violent sex. Lambert pleaded guilty and was sentenced in June to 2 years in prison.
U.S. Attorney Bill Mercer called Wasserman the “kingpin” in the distribution business, and argued for a longer sentence than Lambert’s to act as a deterrent. Mercer said Wasserman’s five-year sentence may be one of the stiffest imposed in a recent obscenity case.
Prosecuting obscenity cases has been a priority for the Justice Department since 2001 under the Bush Administration. According to a Department of Justice internal newsletter entitled the “Obscenity Prosecution News” published this summer, the DOJ has “significantly increased its obscenity prosecutions,” and there have been 40 obscenity convictions Department-wide since 2001.
In an interview in September, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said he has encouraged federal prosecutors and the FBI to focus on obscenity cases. Gonzalez defended the Administration’s anti-obscenity measures, saying that he is just doing his job as Attorney General and addressing concerns raised in Congress.
