SHORT TAKES : Porn Video Ruled Not Obscene
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CLEARWATER, Fla. — After watching a sexually explicit movie in court, a jury agreed that the X-rated “Spermbusters” may be pornographic, but not obscene.
Walter M. Epler, a clerk at Pussy Cat Adult Bookstore in Largo, was acquitted Thursday on a misdemeanor charge of distributing obscene material. He was charged after renting a “Spermbusters” videotape to an undercover sheriff’s detective. “It’s wasting tax dollars to be trying to prosecute this type of movie,” said Stephen Bennett, a computer consultant who served as foreman of the six-member Pinellas County Court jury.
Epler was one of 15 people arrested last month in Pinellas County Sheriff Everett Rice’s crackdown on X-rated videos, during which deputies also seized 39 videotapes from several adult bookstores. Epler was the first to be tried.
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