TAMPA — Jurors deliberating in the federal obscenity trial of a Hollywood filmmaker sent a note to the judge today say they are unable to reach verdicts in half of the charges.
“If we make a decision on 10 of the 20 counts, but are unable to reach a decision on the other 10, will the 10 counts that we decide on stand,” the jury foreman asked in a note sent to U.S. District Judge Susan C. Bucklew just after 3 p.m.
Bucklew told the jurors their decision would count, which prompted a second note from the jurors, saying:
“There are people on both sides of the issues, and we do not believe we’ll be able to reach a unanimous decision. How long must we delibverate?”
The judge read the jurors an instruction urging them to try again.
“I’m not going to tell you how much time to deliberate, but I am going to ask you to deliberate again,” she said.
The jury foreman then asked the judge if they could take a break first, saying that emotions were running very high.
Bucklew gave them permission to pause, and asked the attorneys to stay in the courthouse, to give the jurors time to talk again and see if they can reach a decision, or will opt to go home for the evening.
On Wednesday, jurors asked the judge to clarify the meanings of several words and phrases in their jury instructions, including “morbid and degraded,” “unhealthy interest in sex,” and “candid interest in sex.”
Bucklew declined their request to use a dictionary and told them to rely on their common sense. Soon after the judge’s response, jurors decided to return Thursday to continue deliberations after spending more than four hours today discussing the case.
They will decide whether the films produced by Paul F. Little and MaxWorld Entertainment Inc. – which include scenes of urinating and vomiting – violate local community standards.
Prosecutors charged Little and MaxWorld with five counts of using a computer server to sell or distribute obscene matter and five counts of using the U.S. mail to deliver obscene matter.
Little performs in his films as Max Hardcore, whose Web site was housed near the federal courthouse in downtown Tampa for three years. McAndrew said that connection was why the case was tried in Tampa.
The defense says prosecutors charged the wrong people. It says Little never knew his site was hosted in Tampa and therefore could not have considered whether his work was violating community standards in Tampa.
His attorneys said Little sold his films to an adult film distributor, Jaded Video, in California. It then sold the videos to an undercover federal agent and shipped them to a Tampa post office box.