TAMPA, FL — Just like at the stores in which his products are sold, security guards verified the ages of anyone seeking access to the Tampa courtroom where Max Hardcore’s obscenity trial began Wednesday.Minors had to be kept out of the room, because the jury was scheduled to view portions of the videos that led to the 10-count federal obscenity indictment facing Hardcore and his company, MaxWorld Entertainment.
Watch they did. Five graphic video montages representing about 15 minutes of material prosecutors believe to be obscene according to standards of decency in Tampa gave the jury something to consider almost right off the bat. One of the scenes ended with words across the screen: “Acting Lessons (Where Whores Play the Part of Toilets).”
Prosecutor Lisa Maria Freitas apparently intends to use Hardcore’s own words against him. During opening arguments, she told the jury she intended to “present evidence, in the defendant’s own words, of extreme acts.”
According to defense attorney H. Louis Sirkin, however, extreme acts alone aren’t enough to define obscenity. The activity in the videos was performed by consenting adults. Even if the jury finds the material objectionable, he said, Hardcore was the wrong man to charge with the offense. He merely created the content; it was distributed by Jaded Video, with which he is not affiliated.
Sirkin said the owner of the distribution company was given immunity in exchange for his testimony on behalf of the prosecution.
The seven women and five men on the jury were expected to begin viewing the remainder of the charged videos Wednesday afternoon.
Jury selection wasn’t easy. Several potential jurors were dismissed when they said they would be unable to stomach viewing the kinds of material attorneys described for them during voir dire. One was a youth minister who admitted he struggled to overcome a pornography addiction.
At least one selected to serve on the panel, however, said he or she had viewed adult material on the Internet.
The jury includes two nurses, a pawn shop owner, a schoolteacher, a retired loan coordinator and an executive assistant for a personal-injury lawyer.
