NEWARK, N.J. — Two undercover FBI agents over the span of about two years corresponded and placed DVD orders with Torture Portal operator Barry Goldman before he was indicted by a federal jury on obscenity charges, according to a Justice Department brief.
The first order in July 2006 came about after a female FBI agent first talked with Goldman, later emailing him, prior to receiving two movies — “Torture of a Porn Store Girl” and “Defiant Crista Submits” — delivered to an undercover post office box in Northern Virginia from Jersey City, N.J.
In August 2007, another FBI agent — this time a male undercover operative — emailed Goldman an order for “Torture of a Porn Store Girl,” “Defiant Crista Submits” and “Pregnant and Willing.” That order was mailed to an Emigrant, Mont., address.
That same agent again reached out to Goldman, where he was instructed to search for “masters of pain sadistic dommes” on Clips4Sale.com. In March 2008, the agent placed another order for the same three videos that were later received in Billings, Mont.
Goldman last year was indicted by a federal grand jury in Montana; however, the Justice Department moved the case to New Jersey, where Goldman was indicted by another federal grand jury in July.
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.
Justice Department attorneys last month asked a federal judge to exclude references to the prior Montana obscenity case filed against Barry Goldman when the case goes to trial on Oct. 27.
The Justice Department claims 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 assigned U.S. District Judge Joseph A. Greenway Jr.
Goldman, who was released on a personal recognizance bond of $25,000 and ordered to be supervised by a pretrial release officer, pleaded not guilty to eight obscenity counts and has been appointed a federal public defender in the case.
If convicted, Goldman faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 on each of the eight counts.
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].
Assistant federal public defender Lisa Mack, based in Newark, N.J., will represent Goldman.