STAUNTON, Virginia — In the city’s obscenity case against After Hours Video and its owner, Rick Krial, a judge ruled Wednesday morning that attorneys on both sides will be able to verbally question potential jurors beyond the normal set of questions typically asked in a criminal trial.

But Judge Thomas H. Wood ruled against giving the jury pool a written set of questions prior to jury selection, saying he didn’t have authority to do so. Wood said attorneys can submit questions two weeks before the August trial.

The questionnaire issue was one of several motions heard in Staunton Circuit Court as the obscenity trial nears, although it’s still more than two months away.

Defense attorney Paul Cambria Jr. said the questionnaire was to be used to in an effort to expedite the process and to determine bias and prejudice among potential jurors.

“These are unlike any other cases,” Cambria explained. “We know who did it, but we don’t know if it’s a crime.”

Staunton prosecutor Raymond Robertson argued that Cambria’s proposed questions — some seeking church and group affiliations — were one-sided and unfair.

In October, the same month After Hours Video opened for business, undercover agents from the Staunton and Waynesboro police departments, along with plainclothes officers from the Virginia State Police, acted as customers and purchased a number of DVDs from the Springhill Road store. Weeks later, a special Staunton grand jury convened and charged Krial and his company with 16 felonies and eight misdemeanor charges of obscenity.

In January, an employee at After Hours Video also was charged with six felony counts of obscenity.

In another motion, Wood sided with Cambria and his defense team and said Robertson will not be allowed to tell prospective jurors that Matthew Buzzelli, who is serving as co-counsel with Robertson, is an attorney with the United States Department of Justice.

A fourth motion to have the obscenity case dismissed because it violates constitutional due process guarantee was denied.