STAUNTON, VA — Rick Krial fully understands how much Staunton, VA prosecutor Raymond C. Robertson hates pornography. After all, Robertson reconvened a grand jury in November, 2007, for the sole purpose of running retailers of adult merchandise out of town. The move resulted in an impressive 16 felony and eight misdemeanor obscenity charges against Krial and his company. But now Krial thinks Robertson has really gone around the bend; in addition to the company’s owner, he convinced the grand jury to charge one of the After Hours Video cashiers with six obscenity violations and four misdemeanors.“What’s next,” Krial asked the News Leader via telephone, “Customers on the lot?”
According to Krial, who hopes to open a second adult business in Staunton, his shop employees are “outraged,” by the news that their co-worker is being accused of criminal behavior. Fortunately, “they know I’m 100-percent behind them,” their employer assures, explaining that he plans to finance his accused employee’s legal defense.
Krial sees it as one more way that Robertson can attack his financial bottom line. “He’s actually trying to drive a businessman out financially. This is just a circus!”
Although Robertson attempted to use what some believe to be a bizarre form of logic in order to keep Krial from hiring a defense attorney with adult industry experience, the shop owner prevailed and has been permitted to hire Paul Cambria, Jr, who captured the country’s attention after defending the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati in 1990 when it exhibited the often homoerotic works of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Krial also hopes to entice Cincinnati-based attorney Louis Sirkin to join the fight in defense of Tinsley W. Embrey, his accused cashier. Sirkin is most famous for his defense of Hustler Store owner Larry Flynt.
Big guns like Cambria and Sirkin are an excellent investment in Krial and his employee’s future, given that Robertson recently announced that the United States Department of Justice have gotten involved in the adult retailer’s case.
Embrey’s alleged offenses took place when he sold 10 DVDs to adult undercover police on a mission to confirm obscenity accusations. Pretrial motions will be allowed on March 6th at 8:30am, three weeks after Krial’s case goes to court at 1:00pm on Valentine’s Day.
Robertson justified the charges against Embrey to the News Leader by insisting that “He knew what he was selling,” an insinuation concerning knowledge of what is and is not obscene that would likely put the cashier light years ahead of any jury ever convened on the subject.
Kent Willis, the executive director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia is baffled by the decision to indict Embrey. “In the obscenity cases we’ve done, I don’t recall any of the clerical staff ever being charged,” he explained to The Hook blogger Lindsay Barnes. “If you target the owner of the store, then the store goes away. If you target an employee who has little to no decision-making power over what items are for sale, it just means more work for the prosecution to achieve the same goal.”
Willis is equally confused by why the Department of Justice has become involved with the case. “I don’t know why the federal government would be involved, unless they’re making this a higher priority and inviting themselves.”
Krial intends to stand firm, however, vowing, “I’m not going to fold up my tent and go away.”
Indeed, while he awaits his trial date, the shop owner is also looking at property in Staunton and August County, while anticipating the opening of his second retail location, which will take place soon in Harrisonburg.
