STAUNTON — The obscenity trial involving the owner of After Hours Video and an employee could be pushed back until late summer, Staunton prosecutor Raymond C. Robertson said Tuesday.

Just last week, it was announced that hearings would begin June 17, but Robertson said he quickly realized that two of the undercover officers involved in the case would be on pre-paid vacation. He said he immediately sent e-mails to all attorneys involved suggesting a new trial date be sought.

“There’s no firm date set,” said Robertson. Proceedings might begin in July or August, he said. “That’s my best guess.”

In October, within two weeks of the opening of the Springhill Road adult business, undercover agents from the Staunton and Waynesboro police departments, along with plainclothes officers from the Virginia State Police, posed as customers and purchased a number of DVDs. Weeks later, a special grand jury convened and charged owner Rick Krial and his company with 16 felonies and eight misdemeanor charges of obscenity. In January, an employee at After Hours Video also was charged with six felony counts of obscenity.

On Friday, the last day for motions to be filed in the case, defense attorneys filed a slew of motions in Staunton Circuit Court, including a motion to dismiss the charges based on the grounds that Virginia’s obscenity statute is unconstitutional. Robertson said it’s a tactic that has been used in the past by Louis Sirkin, a Cincinnati-based attorney who joined the defense team in January. In 2005, a U.S. district judge sided with Sirkin when he used a similar argument, but the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the ruling, Robertson said. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal.

Another motion, one Robertson labeled a “whopper,” involves a questionnaire that potential jurors must answer.

“It’s not done around here,” Robertson said.