STAUNTON, VA — Let it be known throughout the fine state of Virginia that the words “pornography” and “obscenity” are nearly synonymous to Staunton Commonwealth Attorney Ray Robertson – and he’ll do whatever he can to eradicate them both from within his city’s limits, if not beyond.This information is gleaned from Robertson’s enthusiastic defense of his citation of an adult shop cashier on six felony and four misdemeanor counts of obscenity for having rung up the sale of videos Robertson is convinced are not legal. Because they’re pornographic.
“He knew the general nature of the material,” Robertson asserts, “and he’s admitted to the police that he was hired to sell porn.”
Given that there is precious little applicable legal precedent for even the most educated and dedicated scholar of modern obscenity standards, where cashier Tinsley Embrey is supposed to have developed his unique insider’s knowledge is unknown. What is known is that Robertson means business; or at least intends to drive some businesses – and apparently their most humble employees – out of business.
According to Robertson, “It’s not really fair to charge the owner of the store and let the guy who actually sold the obscene material off the hook.” That’s why, after handing After Hours Video owner Rick Krial eight felony and four misdemeanor obscenity counts in December, he felt compelled to share the joy with Krial’s employee in January.
The reasoning behind this evades Kent Willis, executive director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia. “In the obscenity cases we’ve done,” he told The Hook, “I don’t recall any of the clerical staff ever being charged. 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.”
This likely comes as cold comfort to Embrey, the lack-of-decision-making cashier-in-question. Fortunately, his equally decision-making-free fellow cashiers can breathe a sigh of relief because Robertson says he has no plans to indict anyone else in the case. “Nobody else sold the videos,” Robertson points out simply. “On the four occasions undercover agents bought videos, three times they bought them from this guy, Embrey, and the other time it was Krial, himself.”
Help will be extended to Robertson from U.S. Department of Justice Obscenity Prosecution Task Force prosecutor, Matthew Buzzelli, although the DOJ has not issued any indictments of its own.
Robertson tells the press that he’s happy to have Buzzelli’s assistant against the infamous Paul Cambria and says that “The Justice Department called me because this has been getting some national media coverage, and offered one of their attorneys. They’re going after porn on the internet and through pay-per-view, so they’re very interested to see how we do here.”
Given Robertson’s near complete and self-admitted lack of familiarity “with these kinds of cases,” help from the feds might be of use to him – and he knows it; especially after having his failed attempts to block the hiring of Cambria. “The other side is bringing in their A-Team, and having an attorney from the Department of Justice who’s experienced in obscenity cases evens up the odds.”
While Robertson has admitted that racy mainstream theatrical productions such as Hair have “artistic value” and are therefore not obscene, he has no such reservations when it comes to hardcore erotic videos. “In just about every one of these things you’ll see one guy inserting his penis into a woman’s vagina and another guy inserting his penis into her anus – and then that guy puts it in her mouth again and again and again. The message you get from this stuff is that unprotected sex with strangers – multiple strangers, even – is okay.”
That, in Robertson’s mind, is apparently an obscene proposal even within the realm of Adult Industry Medicine tested fantasy.
More to the point, perhaps, Robertson believes that the spreading popularity of pornography is linked to the spreading of sexually transmittable diseases. “There’s a reason Staunton doesn’t have an AIDS epidemic,” he informed The Hook. “We’re not like Las Vegas or San Francisco, where they’ve got these problems. We’re a decent, moral community and when I see this coming, I revile at it.”
Interestingly enough, the “decent, moral communities” of India, China, and Africa also revile a great deal of pornography – yet each is struggling with its own AIDS crisis.
Robertson hopes to have both Embrey and Krial tried together. “I’m convinced this is the right thing to do,” he insists. “He should have to face the music along with his employer.”
