STAUNTON, VA — Despite impassioned prosecutorial pleas that the jury “throw the book” at the defendants in order to preserve truth, justice and the Puritanical American way, After Hours Video, its owner Rick Krial and store clerk Tinsley William Embrey on Friday escaped an obscenity trial with their lives and only two misdemeanor convictions among them. Embrey was acquitted of the two counts facing him, while Krial and After Hours were convicted of one each. Two other charges resulted in acquittal.The jury of four men and three women recommended no jail time and fines of $1,000 for Krial and $1,500 for the store. The judge will accept or reject the sentencing recommendation sometime this fall.
Krial and After Hours were convicted based on the content of City Girls Extreme Gang Bangs, which according to Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Robertson depicted double penetrations and ATM. He described the scenes graphically, even though the jury had watched more than three and one-half hours of the material 24 hours earlier.
“There was a guy having sex with a girl in her vagina and another guy having sex in her anus,” he told the jury during closing arguments. “There were two guys with their penises in the same vagina. Six times a man pulled his penis out of a woman’s anus and put it directly in her mouth. If we’re influenced by what we see, what do you think that does to a town?
“Staunton may be a small light shining in the darkness these days, but don’t put it out. Let it live, and let it maybe be the first domino that reverses this junk.”
The jury evidently decided only a puff was required to encourage Staunton’s light. It rejected the charges predicated on the other title submitted as evidence, Sugar Britches. Defense attorney Paul Cambria speculated afterward the decision may have had something to do with the absence of multiple partners in the second DVD.
“It’s a surprise that [the verdict was] a split,” Cambria told The Hook. “I’ve never seen a verdict like this when the acts in the movies were so close in context. The jury felt that the tape that didn’t contain multiple partners was not obscene. It seems to me that’s a lot of why the jury decided the way they did.”
Robertson tended to agree: “My best guess is they drew a line with Sugar Britches since it was all one-on-one,” he told The Hook.
Neither side was entirely happy with the jury’s decision, but neither was entirely disappointed, either.
“They really upheld the conscience of this community, and I’m proud of this community; I’m proud of the jury,” Robertson told NBC News affiliate WVIR-TV.
Krial declined to comment except to promise an appeal. Cambria seconded that plan.
“We do feel errors were made, particularly that the prosecution brought the child pornography theme into this,” he told The Hook. “That prejudiced the jury, and I feel it’s reversible.”
The child porn angle was introduced in the form of testimony from Mary Anne Laydon, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania who testified that at least one of the performers in Sugar Britches bore no obvious secondary sexual traits like pubic hair and breasts. Evidently her testimony didn’t sway the jury.
None of the defendants is out of the woods just yet. Robertson — who has been criticized for his dogged pursuit of the case — indicated he intends to bring to trial charges that remain outstanding against the store, its owner and the clerk. The prosecution held back 10 DVDs obtained by undercover officers in October 2007, and Robertson previously has said he will break up the stash into as many as four separate trials in an effort to eradicate adult entertainment from Staunton. Under Virginia law, any obscenity conviction after the first one automatically is considered a felony. Even a first conviction could cost After Hours its business license.
“I’m confident we’ll have the same sort of stuff and that the jury will find it equally if not more gross,” Robertson told The Hook post-trial.
Cambria remains steadfast in his belief his clients did nothing wrong.
“This country is all about individual rights in a community in 2008, not 1958,” he told the jury during closing arguments. “If I put a picture from Playboy on a billboard along Route 250, that would exceed community standards. But if I choose to purchase one of these DVDs, take it home and watch it in the privacy of my home, no reasonable adult would say that’s unacceptable under the circumstances.”
Besides, he noted, the City of Staunton issued After Hours a business license, indicating the city believed the business would operate in good faith and sell legal merchandise.
The content is “acceptable because they license it,” Cambria told the jury. “They collect money for that license. If nothing else, that’s proof that the community accepts this material. That’s like you getting your driver’s license, driving home, and then when you get there they arrest you because they say you’re not allowed to drive. What the heck’s the license for?”
On his way out of the courthouse, Cambria told The Hook, “The last chapter in this book has yet to be written, that’s for sure.”
