Porn Valley- I spoke at length with Max Hardcore Monday night. Max, who’s up for sentencing this Friday for an obscenity case which was held in Florida a couple of months ago, tells me he could get between 11 1/2 to 14 years and a $35M dollar fine.

In all this, Max also says he’s not happy with the Free Speech Coalition. He went to them for help and was told that his case didn’t have enough “national” stature. Let that sink in.

Max, when I spoke to him, was watching Pirates II and thought it was a “goddamn good movie”.

“Those guys put some money and effort into this thing and the acting was pretty good.”

Max had attended the premiere at the Orpheum Theatre Saturday night.

“I love old theatres,” Max says.

But regarding his sentencing, Max admits, like an old movie theatre is disrepair, it’s “not looking too good”.

“I can’t believe I was convicted or that the case was even taken,” he says.

“It goes to show you anything can happen. They’re obviously cherry picking the districts now, and they have the latest case with the guy [Barry Goldman] out of Florida that they’re prosecuting in Billings, Montana.”

Max says it’s a matter of the government now making it totally inconvenient for someone to defend themselves in accessible venues.

Max also says there will be a hearing on the arguments which his defense has presented “to counter the absolutely outrageous pre-sentence evaluation by a sentencing specialist.”

“They consider all the relevant facts and put points together,” he explains.

“Then they recommend to the judge as a proper and fitting sentence for what you’ve done.”

According to Max, the job of the sentencing specialist also takes into consideration the amount of money made.

“I don’t know how they arrive at this conclusion but they figure all the money I made on my website and my movies for what appears to be a three year term is to be calculated into what I pay as a penalty.”

In all, Max says they really “jacked” his sentence up by adding “sadistic treatment of the actresses”.

“The activity was pretty calm,” he thinks. “And the girls were generally worked over pretty hard but nothing spectacular. There’s no crying. Some of the girls looked distressed but a lot of times it’s hard to tell whether a woman’s distressed or in agony or ecstasy when she’s having sex, that’s for sure. But it’s a judgment call and that adds a fairly significant amount of time to the recommended sentence.”

“He [the sentence specialist] came up with a formula to jack up the amount of money they’re estimating,” Max continues. “The time is 11 years 4 months to 14 years in prison and a $35M fine.”

“Obviously we [Max and his defense team] had a few things to say about that. We all jumped on this and fired back when I saw that these guys are truly out of their fucking minds.”

In Max’s mind, obscenity hasn’t been proven. Other than that, the only monetary gain is from the five videos purchased by agents of the Federal Government in Tampa, not his entire catalogue.

“The government made a lot of mistakes but they had a sympathetic jury,” says Max of his case. “The ones that weren’t sympathetic were bowled over pretty easily and didn’t stand their ground.”

“The government figured you had to go inside my website to view the trailers and make a purchase of a membership. But you don’t, and that should not be included as a monetary gain for me. The trailers were available on the free site.”

“The judge [Susan Bucklew] will evaluate all this, but we have no idea what she will decide to do. She can vary widely from the sentence. She could give no time. She could give more time than what’s recommended. It’s completely discretionary.”

Max says he could be remanded to “the big house” right then and there. Or he could be allowed to remain free for a given period of time. Then he’d be notified by the Bureau of Prisons which ultimately makes a decision when and where he’s to report and be assigned.

“From where I could see the best place would be Lompoc,” he says. “It’s about 150 miles from LA up the state in the direction of Santa Barbara. It’s a multi-purpose facility and medium security.”

With no legal allegations of violence against him, Max says he could qualify for a satellite camp.

“They have little or no fencing, and fairly low security. You sleep in dormitories or in rooms that have unlocked doors. You do a lot of work which would suit me just fine. That would be the best case scenario I could think of.”

Max notes that Boron has since been closed and featured such porn illuminati at the time as Reuben Sturman.

“I would hope that they’d give me some time to return to California and turn myself in,” he continues. “That way I could take care of the final details and avoid a most unpleasant journey across country courtesy of Uncle Sam.”

“But the judge doesn’t make the decision where- just on the length of sentence. Based on the decisions she’s made so far, I don’t get a very good feeling about her understanding of the obscenity laws or that she’s very sympathetic to my situation.

“I have a feeling that she’s going to impose a pretty stiff sentence on me. We hoped for less than 36 months, originally, but it could be more than that. I’m keeping my fingers crossed but I’m prepared for whatever.”

Max’s team, of course, will appeal.

“One of the first things is that we made a motion to dismiss based on the fact that I didn’t cause to be delivered in any way, shape or for, these videos. I made the videos but I didn’t cause them to be delivered. It was done by an independent operator [Jaded Video].”

According to Max, with the warnings and age advisories which he posts on his website, the Government broke the law.

“They blew over that shit and broke the law to bust me instead of the guy who sent the stuff,” he says.

“They didn’t play fair at all. I got a raw deal on it. And the judge deferred making a decision on that. She said she’d let the jury decide and we made the motion again to dismiss. Finally, at the end, when they came in with the verdict, we made the motion again. The judge said at that point the jury has made their decision so I guess I don’t have to. She let that blow.”

Max also has other grounds for appeal which could trigger a re-trial.

“My lawyers think so but you never know,” he says.

“It would go over to the 11th Circuit which is out of Atlanta. They wouldn’t rule on the merits of the case. They would rule on matters of law and how they were applied at this particular trial. As I understand it they would send it back to the same trial court for reconsideration.

“Appeals can last a long time and we have a strong case. There’s a slim possibility that I could be allowed to remain free during the appeal but it’s not likely. Obviously we’re doing what we can. I’m ready for whatever comes and I’m going to keep on fighting.”

“I don’t think they’re wrong. I know they’re wrong. I think the law is vague is beyond any reasonable doubt and should be eliminated.”

“Basically what you have in a jury trial is a popularity contest,” Max goes on to say, describing his as a redneck jury that wasn’t used to the ways of modern porn as is most of the country.

Nevertheless, Max predicts pain and suffering for the industry. And he speaks candidly of his opinion regarding the Free Speech Coalition. The FSC has been often thought of as this money-sucking fat goose that collects industry largesse with little to show for it.

“I’m dissatisfied with the lack of assistance I received from them,” Max states.

“And I have it on pretty good authority that they have somewhere in the neighborhood of $300,000 available for legal defenses. They have money available and we’ve been working behind the scenes to get some of this money freed up.”

“Obviously a person of my position, an independent producer, is not in a very good position to spend the kind of funds necessary to mount a vigorous and robust defense. I’ve got five lawyers working for me and you can imagine the bills which are considerable.”

“We asked for help but Free Speech has so far declined because they feel that the case does not have national importance. I feel it does and so does Lou Sirkin.”

It’s Max’s opinion that Sirkin, too, is unhappy as well with the Free Speech Coalition.

“This has very high ramifications for the rest of the business,” says Max.

“If my conviction is allowed to stand, like me or not, the entire industry is more in jeopardy than ever. Once they start getting a couple of marks in the win column, they’re going to be able to justify their position. If we don’t stop them right away they’re going to keep on going and they’re going to come and get people who are reading this article.”

“I can assure you, you don’t want to meet these guys and be sitting in a court while your movies are playing. I don’t care what kind of movies you make. They all can be judged obscene. And that goes all the way up to a nice feature production by Vivid, or a pirate movie by Digital. As long as there’s sex involved.”

Max feels the FSC should put their money where their mouth is and free the funds.

“They have an AC-DC fund- let’s just say I have my sources. The fund is controlled by a committee that’s composed of Mara Epstein, Jeffrey Douglas who would have recuse himself from any decision the committee would make. Which leaves Lynn Swanson from Topco and Al Bloom who I believe is with Cal Exotics.

“From what I understand there’s just one hang up. If one person doesn’t go for it, that person can veto the whole deal. I would prefer not to mention that one person. If I did it’s not going to be real pleasant for them, I would think, from the type of fallout they would likely get once it becomes clear to the rest of the industry how important and vital it would have been had they done the right thing and supported me in my case so I can win and take a necessary step to stop the bad guys, the FBI and Justice Dept from coming after us.”

Max feels that after maybe four or five company executives take a hit that the rest of the industry will wonder why Free Speech didn’t step in when it had the chance before things began steamrolling downhill.