BARTOW, Florida– Prosecutors are asking a judge to revoke bail for Christoper Wilson because his adult pornography Web site continues to operate.
Wilson is required to “refrain from criminal activity” while out on bail and his Web site is illegal, the State Attorney’s Office alleges in court documents filed this week.
Prosecutor Brad Copley is asking Circuit Judge J. Dale Durrance to send Wilson back to jail, and a hearing has been set for Dec. 16.
After Wilson’s Oct. 7 arrest on 301 obscenity charges, Wilson moved out of Polk County, according to his lawyer, Lawrence Walters.
Wilson’s parents paid $30,000 to a bail bondsman and agreed to be liable for his $151,000 bail to get Wilson out of jail Oct. 12.
His Web site, hosted by a server in Amsterdam, has remained in operation since then and was still operating Tuesday night.
Copley maintains that by continuing to operate the Web site and by allowing new images to be downloaded, Wilson is breaking the law.
“Since the defendant’s release from jail on pre-trial release on Oct. 12, 2005, he has committed new crimes involving Wholesale Promotion of Obscene Materials and Distribution or Transmission of Obscene materials, utilizing new and different photographs,” When Wilson was arrested Oct. 7, Copley said that even though the Web site was hosted outside the United States, the fact that Wilson lived in Polk County while running the Web site meant that he is subject to Polk County’s interpretation of obscenity laws.
Although Wilson no longer lives in Polk County, the State Attorney’s Office thinks that running that Web site is illegal and therefore Wilson is violating his bail conditions, according to Chip Thulberry, the state attorney’s spokesman in Polk County.
But Wilson’s lawyer said there has been no legal determination that the Web site is illegal.
“We’re putting the cart before the horse here by trying to revoke his bond for continuing to do something that hasn’t been proved to be illegal,” Walters said. “Adult materials are presumed to be protected by the First Amendment until a jury determines that they’re obscene.”
“Asking that his bond be revoked for activity that’s occurring when he doesn’t live in Polk County any more is somewhat unusual,” Walters added. “My law office has never seen anything like it in an obscenity case.”
Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Florida, said his organization might get involved in the case.
“I must have missed where they (Brad Copley and Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd) were elected to be worldwide censors,” he said.
Simon said that Polk County has no right to prosecute what someone in another county does, and what people all over the world view on the Internet.
“What right do they have to decide what people who live in Berlin and London and Hong Kong and New York access in the privacy of their own homes?” he said.
If Wilson’s bail is revoked, he said, “That would trigger the concern and involvement of us and everyone else who has worked to keep the Internet open and available as a system of free expression.”
Wilson’s Web site features nude pictures and video clips sent in by Web site members. For the past eight or nine months it has offered soldiers serving overseas free access in exchange for pictures proving they were serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. Many of the pictures were gory, and featured sarcastic comments underneath. The site has generated worldwide controversy.