STAUNTON, Virginia — The second person indicted with multiple obscenity charges in connection with After Hours Video has hired Louis Sirkin, a nationally renowned attorney who has handled high-profile cases in the past.
The announcement came at a hearing this morning in Staunton Circuit Court for Tinsley W. Embrey, an employee at the Springhill Road adult business. The hearing was conducted to determine if Embrey has retained counsel.
“He’s got John Hill and Louis Sirkin from Cincinnati,” Staunton prosecutor Raymond C. Robertson told Judge Humes J. Franklin Jr.
Embrey, indicted Jan. 22, is charged with 10 counts of obscenity, six of them felonies.
Sirkin first gained national recognition in 1990 when the director of the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati was found not guilty after being charged with displaying the controversial artworks of Robert Mapplethorpe. Sirkin also has represented Larry Flynt, who opened a Hustler Store in Cincinnati that was raided by authorities.
After Hours Video has been under fire since its opening in October. Within two weeks, undercover agents from Virginia State Police, along with plain clothes officers from the Staunton and Waynesboro police departments, were canvassing the store and posing as customers. On Nov. 2, Rick Krial, the owner of the business, was hit with a multicount indictment charging him and his company with 16 felony and eight misdemeanor charges of obscenity.
Krial has retained Paul Cambria Jr., another nationally known First Amendment attorney out of Buffalo, N.Y.
Robertson tried to have Cambria barred from the criminal proceedings, but Franklin ruled on Nov. 20 that Cambria can represent Krial. Since then, the United States Department of Justice has entered the fray, with obscenity attorney Matthew Buzzelli now serving as co-counsel with Robertson.
A trial date in the case has not been set. Motions are scheduled to be heard March 6.