DALLAS, TX – The state of Texas appears poised to become the hip new legal venue for anti-pornography forces bent upon obscenity convictions, emboldened by last month’s U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision to uphold the 2003 conviction of Garry Ragsdale, a former Dallas police officer, and his wife Tamara. The couple were found guilty of charges related to shipping simulated rape tapes through the United States Postal Service. The court also rejected arguments that the shipped materials were protected by the First Amendment.The trial against the Ragsdales has been heralded by federal prosecutors as only the first in what they hope will be a long line of obscenity related convictions during the coming years. In fact, many believe that the Bush administration hopes to rival the fervor with which past President Ronald Reagan’s Attorney General Edwin Meese III pursued pornography. The fact that the case attracted prosecutors from the federal government’s Obscenity Task Force as well as the president’s nephew, attorney Neil Bush, as the presiding judge’s clerk, shows that the Bush administration is taking these matters very seriously.
According to U.S. Attorney Richard Roper, a Dallas resident, all that the feds are doing is enforcing laws already on the books. “Essentially,” Roper explains, “for over eight years there was virtually no enforcement of the federal obscenity laws.” So important is this new stage in Bush’s “War on Porn” that Roper claims that the vigorous enforcement of obscenity laws is “part of a directive” to the government’s attorneys.
Toward that end, defense attorneys preparing for pending cases expect Dallas, Texas to be the venue of choice for feds keen to fatten their conviction record by doing legal battle in one of the most socially conservative areas in the nation. Already, the Northern District of Texas has been chosen as the venue for an upcoming trial centering around Eddie Wedelstedt, a Colorado man who has earned the distinction of being the country’s largest operator of adult video stores, with 60 located in about 20 states. Wedelstedt’s bust included the seizure of videos that did not depict sexual torture or rape.
Roper believes that Dallas is a perfect location for obscenity convictions due to its “traditional, strong community values, a strong sense of family, strong sense of community values and decency.” After viewing the material in question, Roper expects jurors to “come back with a strong message, that the distribution of obscene material is illegal.”
Meanwhile, the repercussions of the Ragsdale case continue to be felt in Dallas. Thomas Clarence Gartmen, a Nevada resident who once partnered with the Ragsdales, as well as two other video sellers face trial early in 2006.
