NEWARK, N.J. — Pornographer Barry Goldman’s obscenity case has been put on a fast track, with a trial date set for Oct. 27, XBIZ has learned.
Miami resident Goldman, owner of Torture Portal among other brands, was indicted by a New Jersey federal grand jury last month on eight obscenity charges for mailing a number of adult films.
This week, Goldman was released on a personal recognizance bond of $25,000 and ordered to be supervised by a pretrial release officer, Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney told XBIZ.
Goldman also must submit to substance-abuse testing, face travel restriction to New Jersey and Florida, and he also must refrain from drinking alcohol.
Goldman, who pleaded not guilty to the eight counts, was appointed a federal public defender in the case. Assistant federal public defender Lisa Mack, based in Newark, will take over the defense.
The case, originally filed in Montana after another federal grand jury indicted him last year, was moved to New Jersey, where he was charged with the eight counts for mailing “Torture of a Porn Store Girl,” “Defiant Crista Submits” and “Pregnant and Willing” in 2006 and 2007.
The Justice Department said it filed a motion to dismiss the Montana indictment “in order to conform with the Justice Department’s policy on venue.” Three of the counts in the New Jersey case relate to the same facts in the Montana case.
As recent as this week, Justice Department attorneys asked a federal judge to exclude references to the prior Montana obscenity case filed against Goldman when the case goes to trial.
The pre-trial motion claimed that “consideration of the prior case in Montana or of internal Justice Department policies are irrelevant to the jury’s task and could seriously confuse the jury in applying the court’s instructions.”
“The court is requested to preclude the defendant, his attorney and any defense witness from making argument, commenting before the jury, or posing questions that touch upon the prior case in Montana or any Justice Department policy,” the Justice Department said in its motion to U.S. District Judge Joseph A. Greenway Jr.
If convicted, Goldman faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 on each of the eight counts charged in the indictment.
The Justice Department also is seeking forfeitures of all copies of the movies, as well as proceeds from the sale of the movies. In addition, they are seeking the forfeitures of domain names MastersOfPain.com and TorturePortal.com, as well as an email address, [email protected].
With the Oct. 27 trial date, Greenaway has scheduled pretrial motions starting on Sept. 14.