Justice Department Targets Porn Industry

Aug. 27 -- Rob Zicari and his fiancée, Janet Romano, arrived at a Pittsburgh courthouse this morning to face the first major federal prosecution for obscenity in more than a decade. Earlier this month, they were indicted and today they were arraigned on 10 counts relating to the production and distribution by mail of obscene materials. They each face 50 years in prison and a fine of up to $2.5 million.

"We're facing more time than the guy that they just arrested that was trying to sell the surface-to-air missile," said Zicari.

On April 8, law enforcement seized five movies produced by Zicari's California-based company, Extreme Associates, which bills itself as "The Hardest Hard Core on the Web."

One of the confiscated movies, Forced Entry features three graphic scenes of women being spat upon, raped and murdered. Extreme Teens #24 has adult women dressed up and acting like little girls in various hard-core pornographic scenes. We can't even tell you the title of one of the films.

‘There’s Nothing Wrong With What We Do’

Most Americans would probably find the content of the films disgusting. Zicari doesn't disagree — but he says to each his own.

"There's nothing wrong with what we do," said Zicari. "[W]e're not drug dealers or murderers, you know. We make movies. That's it."

But for the Bush administration, that's enough.

"Obscenities have always been a priority of the attorney general," said Mary Beth Buchanan, U.S. attorney for western Pennsylvania. "[A]nd he has asked each U.S. attorney to make that our priority at well."

Los Angeles, or more specifically the San Fernando Valley, produces about 80 percent of American porn. That makes it an ideal target for Attorney General Ashcroft's Justice Department opening salvo in its long-anticipated war on obscenity.

But western Pennsylvania's Buchanan is the lead prosecutor on the case. So jurors in Pittsburgh will have to decide if Zicari's movies fit the legal definition of obscenity.