LOS ANGELES — Maintaining that Ira Isaacs continued to sell obscene material even after he was convicted on five federal obscenity counts last spring, federal prosecutors have asked a judge to consider his post-conviction conduct in a sentencing hearing that takes place Monday.
Prosecutors, according to defense attorney Roger Jon Diamond, referenced to the court Isaacs' comments during a KFI-AM broadcast with talk show host David Cruz.
During the in-studio show, Isaacs noted that he continued to sell videos of a same scat variety after he was found guilty by a Los Angeles jury.
In April, the fetish filmmaker and distributor was found guilty on five federal obscenity charges for the distribution of four films — "Mako’s First Time Scat," "Hollywood Scat Amateurs #7," "Hollywood Scat Amateurs #1" and "Japanese Doggie 3 Way."
And just yesterday, U.S. District Judge George King made a preliminary order ruling Isaacs to forfeit all of his websites — ScatMovies.com, VeronicaJett.com and ToiletJasmine.com, among 40 others — and copyrights, as well as the movies deemed obscene.
The Thursday order goes even further: Isaacs also must forfeit all computers, servers, props and video equipment as well.
On Wednesday, federal prosecutors recommended to King that Isaacs must order a term of up to seven years and three months in prison for Isaacs, as well as a three-year term of supervised release and a $10,000 fine.
But Diamond, who represented Isaacs in each of his three trials (two were mistrials) over the same materials deemed obscene by the government, said that the court shouldn't consider any post-verdict activity and that Isaacs should be given a reduction in his sentencing.
Diamond said that Isaacs objects to consideration of any movie that was not the subject of the indictment in relation to post-conviction conduct.
"Isaacs does not concede that any movie he might have sold after the verdict was obscene," Diamond wrote in objections to a pre-sentencing report. "Moreover, Isaacs states that at the time of the verdict he only had $200 in cash and he was concerned about starving before sentencing."
Diamond has asked the court to grant full probation or, alternatively, a split sentence to the 60-year-old Isaacs, who has never spent time in prison.
"At every moment from the time of the initial execution of the search warrant until the jury verdict [Isaacs] accepted responsibility," Diamond wrote. "He told the FBI that it was his business and that he was responsible for distributing the material. He never once denied anything."
Federal prosecutors also argue in a pre-sentencing report that Isaacs deserves a four-year enhancement to sentencing because he played a "leadership role" in a criminal activity that involved five or more participants.
Diamond told XBIZ Thursday evening that he is concerned with the government's "aggressive" behavior after winning convictions against Isaacs, who is the last adult entertainment figure to be prosecuted under what he calls "Bush administration tactics."
The Justice Department just this week added a third government attorney to the case, despite the case now boiling down to sentencing.
After seven years of defending Isaacs for the obscenity violations, Diamond said one good thing has come out of the case for the adult entertainment industry — that it creates a bright line against future prosecutions on federal obscenity charges.
"It's ironic that the Isaacs case has served to strengthen the mainstream adult entertainment business," he said. "We sort of forced the government to make a concession — that mainstream adult, and I mean hardcore sex, can't be determined obscene.
"It would be inconsistent for the government to go after adult companies that just produce hardcore sex. [Prosecutors] seemed to look at Ira as unique, way beyond the pale."
Isaacs' sentencing will be held at U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Monday at 11 a.m.
