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X-rated video maker gets 4-year prison term

In what's believed to be the only remaining adult obscenity case pending in the federal court system, a California man was sentenced Wednesday to four years in prison for producing fetish pornography videos that he claimed were "shock" art.

Ira Isaacs, 61, was convicted of five felony obscenity charges at a jury trial in federal court in Los Angeles in April. Two earlier trials resulted in mistrial: one due to publicity about the judge and another due to a hung jury.

The Justice Department announced Isaacs's sentence in a press release Wednesday, but the release did not include the customary quotes about the importance of the case or the deterrent the government hoped it would provide.

Anti-pornography groups and some lawmakers have criticized the Obama Administration and Attorney General Eric Holder for failing to pursue adult obscenity cases and for disbanding a small task force the Bush Administration set up to focus on such cases. Holder has acknowledged his priority is on child pornography cases, but he has not ruled out pursuing adult obscenity.

While the Obama Administration does not appear to have filed new cases about adult pornography, it did allow several cases initiated prior to 2009 to continue. Isaacs's case, filed in 2007, is the last of those still working its way through the system.

With pornography ubiquitous on the internet, the Bush Administration focused its efforts on material it deemed aberrant. According to the Justice Department, Isaacs's films involved "human bodily waste [and] sex acts with animals." There were also allegations that the women who acted on the films were high on drugs Isaacs provided, though he was not charged with any drug offenses.

In imposing the 48-month sentence, U.S. District Court Judge George King rejected Isaacs's claims of being an artist protected by the First Amendment. However, he did not sentence Isaacs to the term of as much as seven years that prosecutors recommended.

"I have totally rejected during the course of the trial that he's a shock artist," King said according to the adult industry news website xbiz.com. "He has cloaked himself as a First Amendment defendant. But the fact is that he did it for money. He's not a defender of the First Amendment. He cheapens the First Amendment."

Isaacs, who has pledged an appeal, disagreed.

"Bottom line is the artist determines their art," the defendant told XBIZ. "There is no freedom of speech if you have limitations."

Obama administration officials claim that they've pursued adult obscenity charges in a variety of cases since the president took office. However, experts on both sides of the debate say those cases generally involve a plea bargain to resolve child pornography charges or other offenses.

The only other adult obscenity case known to have gone to trial during the Obama Administration, against video director and performer John Stagliano, ended with a judge-ordered acquittal in 2010.