[Pittsburgh-Tribune] A graphic video of a woman performing a sex act flashed for less than a minute on video monitors inside a federal courtroom Monday.

There could be much more next year when a California couple accused of breaking the nation’s obscenity laws go on trial.

Robert Zicari and his wife, Janet Romano, are charged with 10 counts of obscenity-related crimes for making pornographic films through their company, Extreme Associates, depicting rape and murder and then distributing the work over the Internet.

A trial is slated to begin March 16 before U.S. District Judge Gary L. Lancaster.

Yesterday marked the first time since a grand jury indicted the couple in 2003 that their hardcore pornography was played in court, said defense attorney Warner Mariani.

“The clips we’re talking about in this trial are the ones you buy, right?” Lancaster asked James Fottrell, a computer forensics and Internet investigator with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Fottrell briefly demonstrated how the Extreme Associates Web site functioned at the time Zicari and Romano — also known as “Rob Black” and “Lizzie Borden” — were charged.

All six videos being used in the case came from the members-only portion of the site, Fottrell said. The Web site used an outside company to process customers’ credit card payments, he said.

“Does Extreme Associates know where their movies are going when someone orders them?” Lancaster asked.

Lancaster met behind closed doors with lawyers for the government and both defendants for more than an hour during an evidentiary hearing before reconvening in the courtroom for the brief video demonstration.

Among other issues Lancaster must decide before trial are which videos — and how much of each — jurors should see and whether the court will be open to the public when the pornography is played.

Lancaster dismissed the case in 2005, finding that the obscenity laws were unconstitutional. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that decision.

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[Pittsburgh Post Gazette] A federal judge yesterday got his first look at the pornographic Web site that led to obscenity charges against a California company.

U.S. District Judge Gary L. Lancaster held a hearing yesterday so a forensic examiner from the Department of Justice’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section could walk him through the Extreme Associates Web site.

The company’s owners, Rob Zicari and his wife, Janet Romano, are charged with conspiracy and mailing and transporting obscenity.

They sell graphic pornography, which features women being tortured, defecated on, raped and killed.

The demonstration included how to join the site and how to move through the videos and various pages. The judge wanted to look at the site to aid him in deciding motions still pending in the case.

The trial is scheduled to begin March 16.