PITTSBURGH — Rob Black, Lizzy Borden and their company, Extreme Associates, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Gary L. Lancaster to one count each of conspiracy to distribute obscene materials.
Sentencing is scheduled for July 1.
Black and Borden face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The company faces up to five years probation and a $500,000 fine.
The sentencing range could be lower, depending on what set of advisory guidelines should be used — dating from either 2002 or today — and there also could be enhanced measures because the videos included sadistic or masochistic scenes.
Moments after Wednesday’s 9 a.m. hearing, adult industry attorney H. Louis Sirkin told reporters that plea negotiations in the case began a month ago.
“Concessions from both sides made it in the best interests of all parties [to plead guilty,]” he said. “This has gone on for a very, very long time. Everybody wants to get on with their lives.”
One of those concessions, Sirkin said, is that there will not be a battle to determine how much revenue the company received from the sale of videos, which could have significantly increased the potential prison time.
U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan said, “the materials produced by Extreme Associates were so far across the line between pornography and obscenity, we believe any jurisdiction across the country would have found the materials obscene.”
In 2002, an undercover U.S. Postal Service inspector bought pornographic videos through Extreme Associates’ membership site, ExtremeAssociates.com.
A federal grand jury indicted the couple in August 2003 on 10 counts of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. mailing obscene or crime-inducing matters and transporting obscene matter for sale.
Lancaster originally dismissed the case in January 2005, ruling that the anti-obscenity statutes were unconstitutional when applied to Extreme Associates because they violated an individual’s right to privacy.
The Justice Department appealed that ruling before the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which overruled Lancaster.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Extreme’s appeal from the 3rd Circuit, sending the case back to Lancaster for trial. Upon learning of the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case, Zicari said it was “a big fuck you.”
Extreme Associates owns numerous websites, including SlapHappyGirls.com, DickSuckingCunt.com, AssEaterGirls.com and others.
Its tagline reads, “Hardcore pornography that the government does not want you to see.”