BARTOW, FL – Florida prosecutors are asking Circuit Court Judge J. Dale Durrance to revoke bail for Christopher Wilson, webmaster of NowThatsFuckedUp.com, claiming that by continuing to operate his website, Wilson has “committed new crimes.”The Florida State Attorney’s Office filed documents this week noting that Wilson is required to “refrain from criminal activity” while out on bail, and the State contends that Wilson’s site is illegal.
Wilson’s attorney, Lawrence Walters, told YNOT that to his knowledge, the state’s request to revoke Wilson’s bail is unprecedented in an obscenity case.
“This kind of post arrest punishment, before there’s even a finding of obscenity on the initial charges, is unheard of in legal circles,” Walters told YNOT, adding that the maneuver “imposes a chilling effect on the publication of any erotic images at all on the site.”
Prosecutor Brad Copley, however, insists that by the simple act of continuing to operate his website, Wilson is breaking the law, and the terms of his release.
“Since the defendant’s release from jail on pre-trial release on Oct. 12, 2005, he has committed new crimes involving wholesale promotion of obscene materials and distribution or transmission of obscene materials, utilizing new and different photographs,” Copley said.
According to Walters, though, as the State has thus far only alleged that his client promoted, distributed, and/or transmitted obscene materials, there is no basis yet for asserting that his client’s site is, in fact, illegal.
“We’re putting the cart before the horse here by trying to revoke his bond for continuing to do something that hasn’t been proved to be illegal,” Walters said. “Adult materials are presumed to be protected by the First Amendment until a jury determines that they’re obscene.”
The case is now drawing some interest from the Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, as well. Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU in Florida told the Lakeland Florida-based newspaper The Ledger that his organization may become involved in the case.
“I must have missed where they (Copley and Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd) were elected to be worldwide censors,” Simon said. “What right do they have to decide what people who live in Berlin and London and Hong Kong and New York access in the privacy of their own homes?”
Simon added that should Wilson’s bail be revoked, “That would trigger the concern and involvement of us and everyone else who has worked to keep the internet open and available as a system of free expression.”
A website, freechris.org, has been set up to generate support for Wilson and his legal battle.
