LOS ANGELES, CA – The wife of the federal judge who declared a mistrial in the Ira Isaacs obscenity case said Monday the allegations that her husband kept sexually explicit materials in his personal Web directory are distortions and “outright lies” perpetrated by the Los Angeles Times.Marcy Jane Tiffany, who is married to 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, said the material stored in her husband’s directory — which he thought was private and not accessible by the public — may have been “raunchy and juvenile,” but very few files had a “sexual aspect” and none of them were pornographic.
“Alex is not into porn — he is into funny — and sometimes funny has a sexual character,” Tiffany wrote in a lengthy post at Patterico.com.
Tiffany confirmed with the Associated Press by phone that she authored the nearly 2,000-word defense of her husband.
The Times, on the other hand, defended its reporting.
The paper’s coverage “raised important issues on a matter of significant public concern,” California Editor David Lauter said in a prepared statement. “The judge was presented with the facts… and was given a full opportunity to respond.”
Adult filmmaker Isaacs’ U.S. District Court trial on charges of distributing criminally obscene videos was set to begin June 11th, the same morning the story about Kozinski’s Web space broke in the Times. On June 13th, Kozinski declared a mistrial in the case due to the overwhelmingly negative publicity produced by the news about the images and videos.
According to the Times, Kozinski’s spot on the Web server contained an “extensive” collection of adult material, “including images of masturbation, public sex, and contortionist sex. There was a slide show striptease featuring a transsexual, and a folder that contained a series of photos of women’s crotches as seen through snug-fitting clothing or underwear. There were also themes of defecation and urination, though they are not presented in a sexual context.” The directory also reportedly contained images of naked women painted to look like cows and a video of a partially clothed man pursued by a sexually aroused donkey.
Oddly enough, Isaacs’ was to be tried on allegations his adult movies contained scenes of “obscene” bestiality and defecation.
Kozinski now faces a judicial ethics review. U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday assigned the review to the Philadelphia-based 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. Chief Judge Anthony Scirica and four other judges will accomplish the task.
