from www.news.cincinnati.com – Larry and Jimmy Flynt appeared in a Greater Cincinnati courtroom Wednesday for the first time in more than a decade and wasted little time attacking each other.

Instead of defending the Hustler pornography business together as they have in the past, the brothers fought over who should control the company that has been part of their lives for 40 years.

The feuding brothers and their lawyers went after each other early and often Wednesday morning during the opening of a trial in U.S. District Court in Covington that will decide the fate of the Hustler empire.

Jimmy Flynt claims he was a full partner from the company’s early days in Dayton and Cincinnati, when the brothers ran strip clubs and published a Hustler newsletter.

His attorney, Bob Hojnoski, said the liquor licenses and ownership of the early clubs and newsletter all were in Jimmy Flynt’s name and that the brothers shared responsibility for running the family business.

“They had an agreement that they would be partners, that they would be equals,” Hojnoski. “Everything was in Jimmy’s name during the foundational years of Hustler.”

Larry Flynt scoffed at that notion and said his brother was never more than an employee.

He wasn’t even a very good one, Flynt said. “He stole from me every chance he got,” Larry Flynt said of his brother. “He didn’t have the experience or ability to do anything.”

He said some early legal documents were in his brother’s name because his brother had a clean criminal record while he did not. Larry Flynt said he always ran the business and Jimmy always worked for him.

“I controlled everything,” he said.

The trial is the culmination of a partnership battle that began several years ago when Larry Flynt fired his brother’s two sons and then attempted to evict his brother from the Hustler store in downtown Cincinnati.