Investigating Sex

I read an Associated Press article today that caught me by surprise, believe it or not. The article concerned the extensive investigation conducted by the FBI of the pornographic movie, Deep Throat. My surprise was not that there was such an investigation, but that two professors are quoted as stating that today this does not happen and investigations of this type are a reflection of times past. Ha! Neither of these professors has met the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI); that is for sure. Both are law professors, which contributed to my shock.

Mark Weiner, a constitutional law professor and legal historian at Rutgers-Newark School of Law is quoted as stating:

"Today we can't imagine authorities at any level of government — local, state or federal — being involved in obscenity prosecutions of this kind. The story of 'Deep Throat' is the story of the last gasp of the forces lined up against the cultural and sexual revolution and it is the advent of the entry of pornography into the mainstream."

Eugene Volokh, a law professor at UCLA is quoted as stating:

"Certainly today, with our broadly socially less restrictive attitude to most pornography and to sex more broadly it may seem odd that the government was spending so much effort on something like this," he said. "But attitudes back then were much different."

I've always stated that living in Orlando is comparable to living on another planet, but I suppose that I also assumed people in other parts of the country were aware, at least on some level, of what goes on here. I wrote the book so that they could be enlightened as to investigative tactics and targets of the MBI. I was not the only target, by a long-shot, and the story is not about me. It is about the War on Adult Business in Orlando. Please – don't allow this agency to convince you that the thousands of targets over the years deserved the pursuit and prosecution. Investigate further, wake-up, and smell the coffee – this agency has ruined many lives.

In relation to porn movies, I bring to your attention the case of Jerry's General Store, but even in my own case an agent asked me, after I was acquitted by the jury, "How does it feel to be a purveyor of porn?" I had a perplexed look as I had no clue what he was talking about as I responded: "Every escort on my website was dressed in more than a bikini covers, and some had party dresses on. I don't know anything about purveying porn." As I walked away I thought what a weirdo. Yes, I'm surrounded by kooks.

The Jerry's case involves a mom-and-pop style store in East Orlando. Jerry Cooper died in 2000 and his daughter, Roxie Hanna, took over the store. Her mother, Diana Cooper, and grandmother, Eileen Hart, helped run the store. Jerry's sold XXX DVDs and videos as announced by the sign in front. In November of 2002, as I awaited trial, these three women were arrested on a variety of charges, including the first degree felony of "racketeering". In that this charge alone carries a potential prison sentence of up to 30 years in Florida, each of the women had high bonds. If the topic is of interest, it's better to read the Orlando Weekly stories as these reporters (several) have in-depth knowledge of the case. The newspaper refers to the MBI as the "Nazi morality police" a term that I used during my own case before the articles on the agency were published. It was also a term that Jerry Cooper used when he was alive, and it's likely that many of the agency's targets have used the same or a similar term to describe these whacks, because that is what they portray. I will state that each of the ladies ended-up pleading to charges, so there never was a trial.

Former Orlando Weekly reporter William Dean Hinton wrote an investigative piece that was so lengthy it covered most of the newspaper on 08/07/2003. It is appropriately titled: The Morality Police. If you scroll down a couple of pages you'll find two photos, with one depicting then-MBI Director, Joe Cocchiarella (he's the agency's attorney now via the State Attorney's office), posing with confiscated erotica in 1989. The other photo was taken in 1933, and is of Hitler's SA posing with confiscated erotica. Scary stuff, but even scarier if you have ever been one of the MBI targets.

It has been 77 months since the day the jury acquitted me on organized crime charges, and still to this day some form of horrified anger takes over when I think about some of the many things the MBI did. I can't even read my own book.