U.S. Department of Justice United States Attorney District of Montana
P.O. Box 1478 Billings, Montana 59103406/657-6101
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact:William W. Mercer
United States Attorney for the
District of Montana
(406)247-4639
MONTANA MAN SENTENCED TO ONE YEAR IN PRISON FOR TRANSPORTATION OF OBSCENE
MATERIALS
Bill Mercer, United States Attorney for the District of Montana, announced
today that during a federal court session in Billings, on July 7, 2004,
before U.S. District Judge Richard F. Cebull, GARY ROBINSON, a 63-year-old
resident of Billings, appeared for sentencing. ROBINSON was sentenced to a
term of:
*Prison: 1 year and 1 day
*Special Assessment: $100
*Supervised Release: 3 years
*ROBINSON was sentenced in connection with his guilty plea to charges of
transportation of obscene matters. In the fall of 2002, while doing
business as "Suzie's Corral," ROBINSON used the United Parcel Service to
distribute obscene videotapes. ROBINSON shipped the videotapes in response
to orders placed by customers who received the "Susie's Corral" catalog
through the United States mail. The videotapes depicted bestiality and
defecation.
*The Supreme Court's decision in Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973),
stated that material which appeals to prurient sexual desire, is patently
offensive, and contains no serious literary, artistic, political or
scientific value falls outside the protection of the First Amendment right
of free speech. The Miller Court also stated that the standard should be
determined on a local, rather than national, community standard. An
average person, applying local community standards, would find that the
videotapes provided by ROBINSON specifically appealed to prurient sexual
desire, were patently offensive, and contained no literary, artistic,
political or scientific value of any kind.
*Because there is no parole in the federal system, the "truth in
sentencing" guidelines mandate that ROBINSON will likely serve all of the
time imposed by the court. In the federal system, ROBINSON does have the
opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for "good behavior." However,
this reduction will not exceed 15% of the overall sentence.
*The investigation was a cooperative effort between the United States
Postal Inspection Service, the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of
the United States Department of Justice and the United States Attorney's
Office.
###
_______________________________________________
Politech mailing list
Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Wed Aug 11 2004 - 05:43:08 PDT