Pornographer Gets 6 Months Under New Law

Hollywood pornographer Gary J. Levinson, the first person to be convicted under California’s tough new obscenity law, was sentenced Wednesday to six months in jail and fined $14,000 for illegally distributing short stories that describe the torture and murder of children.

Levinson, 38, immediately appealed and posted $25,000 bond.

In sentencing Levinson, Los Angeles Municipal Judge Marion Obera said she found “most disturbing” his laughter in court as jurors viewed pornographic videos during his three-week trial.

Levinson’s June 27 conviction, by a jury of seven women and five men, also marked the first obscenity conviction by a Los Angeles jury in almost a decade, according to the prosecutor, Deputy City Atty. Michael Guarino.

The jury convicted Levinson of six misdemeanor counts of distributing obscene material and one count of advertising obscene material in a catalogue for his now-defunct one-man company, Fisher Publications.

Jurors acquitted Levinson of one charge and deadlocked on two other counts.

Under an obscenity law that took effect Jan. 1, 1987, prosecutors no longer need to prove that material is “utterly without redeeming social importance.” Rather, they only have to show that no reasonable person would find the material to have significant literary or artistic value.

Levinson was arrested Jan. 7, 1988, about two weeks after Los Angeles police officers raided his home and seized various materials--including a 1,110-name customer list and a 40-page catalogue that listed stories and tapes such as “Die, Kiddie, Die,” “Human Bedpan,” Suzie’s Slaves,” and “Anal Agony.” The stories and tapes described cannibalism and the killing of children, prosecutors said.