Ohio – The Anderson Township mother jailed for pandering obscenity, then released when her conviction was overturned, will stand trial again. But not this month. Jennifer Dute’s trial has been continued until at least September 20 due to a high risk pregnancy. Dute is carrying twins.
Dute, 33, was convicted last year of pandering obscenity and sentenced to one year in prison. She was imprisoned Dec. 5 but released June 2 when the Cincinnati-based Ohio First District Court of Appeals ruled she should get a new trial due to an error by Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Patrick Dinkelacker.
Dute, who appeared in the videos having several types of sex with a multitude of partners, agreed following a 1999 conviction on similar charges that she would not sell her videos in or from Hamilton County.
But she did sell them again here, was arrested by deputies for Hamilton County Sheriff Simon Leis Jr and subsequently convicted.
A divided appeals court overruled her conviction, though, noting Dinkelacker erred in not allowing Dute’s jury to view another porn video that a previous Hamilton County jury found not to be obscene. The appeals court found that Dute did not get a fair trial and received too harsh a sentence.
Dute’s attorney, Louis Sirkin, wanted Dute’s jurors to compare that video with the ones she made, hoping to convince them her videos weren’t obscene.
After the appeals court overturned her conviction, Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen’s office appealed the ruling. That appeal was rejected in September by the Ohio Supreme Court.
In January, Judge Norbert Nadel of Hamilton County Common Pleas Court ordered Dute back to his courtroom. He said she would be retried on pandering obscenity charges, denying a motion from her attorney, H. Louis Sirkin, to dismiss the case.
A new trial date was originally set for this month.