Author of 'Pedophile's Guide' Arrested on Obscenity Charges

Dec. 20, 2010— -- The Colorado man who sparked a firestorm of controversy with his self-published "pedophile's guide" on Amazon has been arrested on obscenity charges.

Officials with the Polk County, Florida, Sheriff's Office said today that they worked with law enforcement in Pueblo, Colo. to arrest Philip R. Greaves II, 47, author of the electronic book, "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover's Code of Conduct." The book, which went on sale in late October, ignited intense online protests and was ultimately pulled by Amazon in November.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said his office obtained a warrant for Greaves' arrest after the author mailed a signed copy of the book to undercover detectives, giving them jurisdiction. Greaves has been charged with distribution of obscene material depicting minors engaged in conduct harmful to minors.

"I thought the book was outrageous," Judd said. "That someone would pen a how-to manifesto to sexually batter very young children."

He said Florida has a very clear obscenity statute prohibiting the depiction of children engaged in sexual conduct and two real-life stories in Greaves' book violated that statute.

Greaves will be booked in county jail in Pueblo, but Grady said his office is seeking extradition to Florida. If Greaves waives extradition, he could be in Florida as early as Monday night. If he fights it, officials could wait as long as a month, Judd said.

"My goal is for him to eat processed turkey in the Polk County Jail on Christmas," he said.

Amazon Pulled Book After Customer Complaints

Greaves' book first set-off controversy when it surfaced on Amazon in late October. After customers, parents and others complained online and threatened to boycott the company, the book was removed from the online retailer's website.

At the time, the author told ABCNews.com that his critics are misunderstanding the point of his book.

"They're accusing me of wanting to hurt children. They're accusing me of encouraging pedophilia and all these other things. But that's not why I wrote the book," he said.

"I wrote the book to establish guidelines so that people would behave in a manner that is non-injurious to each other, for one, and, for two, to communicate the fact that these people who are so different in maturation, etc., that when they develop relationships, they use certain principles that regular people, adults, would be well to attend."

Author Said He Did Not Write the Book From Personal Experience

Greaves, who was a nurse's aide until he retired because of a disability, said he was not encouraging pedophilia through his book, but, pointing to the case of Mary Kay Letourneau, the Washington state teacher who had an affair with her student, said he believed it was possible "to have a loving, sexual relationship with a child."

While the book was written from the perspective of an adult, he emphasized that he was not speaking from personal experience as a pedophile.

Before Amazon removed the book from its store, more than 3,000 customers left comments on Amazon's site, most protesting the controversial book.

"As a mother of a child who has been molested, shame on Amazon for allowing such garbage to be sold on its site," wrote "thirtysomething." "The author of this book is a predator and should never have been allowed to write or promote this trash that is called a book of information."