Former XPW( Xtreme Pro Wrestling) promoters Rob Zicari and his wife Janet Romano have been sentenced to one year and one day in prison by Federal Judge Gary Lancaster for an obscenity charge that the judge had earlier ruled was unconstitutional. It was a bittersweet decision for the judge, which believed that the couple acted within their constitutional rights to produce their own line of kooky adult entertainment films. By sentencing the couple to one year and one day, they can qualify for good time. Further, the judge refused to levy any fines against the couple which faced up to $5 million in fines and potentially 50 years in prison.

Wrestling promoter Rob Zicari had at one point decided to combine the outrageous theatrics of his professional wrestling business with adult filmmaking, creating a goofy gonzo adult film company called Extreme Associates. Zicari and his wife decided to push the limits of good taste, and the careful legal and artistic customs of most other commercial California adult films, and offered a clear challenge to Christian right oriented Attorney General John Ashcroft back in 2002 on an episode of PBS FRONTLINE to bring obscenity charges against them as a test case to affirm free speech rights in the United States. But like any braggart prowrestler who issues silly threats, Zicari only bought himself far more problems than he ever expected where another Christian right federal official, Federal Prosecutor Mary Beth Buchanan in Western Pennsylvania helped to orchestrate a federal postal sting operation and case against the couple to bring serious federal obscenity charges against Extreme Associates for three films and some film clips posted on their California company website. It became the first federal obscenity case in 10 years, and drained huge amounts of tax money on one hand, and also drove both Zicari and his wife into financial ruin as well, losing both their wrestling and film businesses with endless legal bills for a silly case tied up in the courts for years.

Buchanan is a very controversial figure. As a prosecutor she attempted to put an elderly doctor in prison based on the false testimony of a terrible witness, who later recanted their story that the doctor exchanged drugs for sex with her. The case was later dismissed, but not before costing the doctor substantial legal bills. And Buchanan was responsible for putting comic and actor Tommy Chong in prison for only acting as a spokesman for a company that sold bongs and waterpipes by mail order. Chong wasn't even the owner of the company, and only profited as a company employee. He was hardly the company's principle by any means. It was an outrageous prosecution meant basically to punish Chong for his drug humor with Cheech & Chong. To call Buchanan nasty and vindictive would be an understatement. And as normally happens with the change of new administrations, Buchanan refuses to resign her post so that the Obama Administration can appoint a new federal prosecutor to pursue their own direction and priorities in law enforcement such as pursuing real crimes.

After spending years in court battles, and broke, Zicari and Romano finally agreed to guilty plea to a single federal charge of conspiracy to distribute obscene material to stop their endless legal bills. It was highly debatable whether the films produced by Zicari were much worse than any other California adult film producer. If anything, from the very beginning the case seemed like it was entirely a political payoff by the Bush Administration to the religious right to find someone, anyone, to prosecute for obscenity charges simply to prove something to supporters like James Dobson or others. Out of hundreds of adult film production companies and thousands of adult entertainment websites, Zicari and Romano were selected by a few religious zealots working in the Bush Justice Department just to hang some heads on the wall as a trophy. There was never any real intent to bring down the adult entertainment industry or adult films, but just to prosecute someone for the sake of prosecution just to be able to brag to the religious right that they were tough on porn. It was a pure political payoff and totally stinks.

The case against Zicari and his wife was probably one of the biggest wastes of money as a political boondoggle to satisfy a few political supporters. And Buchanan's case against the couple seemed to be far more about her promoting religious views through law than anything else. Buchanan even used morality terms such as "filthy" to refer their films, which really begs the question whether religion has any legitimate role in policing culture such as film in American society. In most parts of the Western world, government has long ago gotten out of the censorship business and acting as some film policing arm for the churches.

At one point during the trial of the couple, Federal Judge Gary Lancaster had ruled that federal obscenity laws are unconstitutional and struck them down citing the right of privacy allows adults to distribute films to other adults as they see fit. But the Bush Administration appealed that ruling to a friendly appeals court loaded with friendly judges that reinstated the obscenity charges. When the couple ran out of money to continue to defend themselves, then they eventually were forced to plead guilty to the single obscenity charge deal offered by the government who wouldn't drop the case, but appeared unable to win the case as long as the couple continued legal efforts.

The vague charge of conspiracy to distribute obscenity could be used to destroy any entertainment distributor that the federal government wants. Former North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms helped to pass legislation that allows obscenity to be considered as a racketeering offense as well, coupling hotels that offer adult films, record stores that sell explicit albums, and mainstream video rental store with small adult sections, in with major drug dealers or those who trade in murder for hire. As little as two items ruled as obscene by a judge or jury can result in millions in fines, 20 years in prison and government forfeiture of the entire business assets including bank accounts, a home, a car purchased with the proceeds of that business. It is like giving the nuclear bomb to a few religious zealots working as prosecutors.

The three films probably had a retail value around just $60 total, yet the government sought $5 million in fines for such a small amount of material. Yet the federal government and Zicari probably ended up wasting several million dollars on lawyers and legal fights to take a grand total of three absurd and trashy DVD titles off the market because they offended the religious tastes of a few federal officials. If anything, the case is significant in that it proves the huge ongoing problem of religious zealot control over the American media in the United States. Few adult films could be found legally obscene in most parts of the country, so elaborate legal schemes to put some film on trial in some conservative community to bring down some filmmaker must be put together by prosecutors, and even that's no guarantee of success at trial. Many cases end in acquittal. Prosecutor's need to find a few strange quirks in some adult film in most cases to even bring such material to trial. Other court cases have pretty well established that sexual penetration in films, adult or arthouse, are not obscene, but constitutionally protected materials. Prosecutors generally have to lie to a jury that energetic sex in a film is somehow the same as violence. And a jury has to be dumb enough to believe that lie and not see that actors are just role playing. Even adult films have a lot of laughing and joking on the sets, with catering and food to eat, etc. It's hardly some vile exploitative environment like some prosecutors paint to a jury. Buchanan's warped view of the adult entertainment industry and reality aren't even close.

The case against the prowrestler didn't do anything positive for American society other than burning up millions of dollars to remove just three low budget films that few would ever care to see. These three films weren't very popular. Few retailers cared to stock them in video rental stores of any type. They never set any sales records by any means. They were strictly oddball goofy stuff. If anything, it proves the fanaticism of some in the religious community who are willing to spend millions of American tax dollars to remove just three films from distribution that offend their religious or moral tastes. If religious zealot Mary Beth Buchanan wanted to carry around some sign picketing an adult entertainment business, proclaiming "Jesus Hates Porn", that's her option. But she did far more than that by seeking to put Zicari in prison for 50 years, or the equivalent of the death penalty for making dirty movies. That's outrageous. Especially for a country that's supposed to have a Bill Of Rights.

Strangely, even though Los Angeles has as many as 100,000 active gang members and huge problems with drug distribution and violent crime, the Los Angeles Police Department maintain a pornography squad. That's a real handy thing to have around when you have only one obscenity case once every ten years to pursue, but drive-by shootings and robberies related to drugs or gangs every single day.

It seems like prowrestling promoter and adult filmmaker Rob Zicari wanted a real fight. He got it from some in the federal government, hell bent on using law to promote their own religious views. This was one wrestling match that he clearly lost.