Jury watches porn preview

TAMPA -- Jurors sat red-faced in federal court today as they watched previews of graphic and violent pornography in the obscenity trial of a Hollywood filmmaker and his company.

They could begin watching hours of full-length scenes as early as this afternoon.

U.S. District Judge Susan C. Bucklew has said she will take frequent breaks once the films begin playing in their entirety.

Producer and director Paul F. Little, also known as Max Hardcore, and MaxWorld Entertainment Inc. are facing five counts of using a computer server to sell obscene matter and five counts of delivering obscene matter through the U.S. mail. The Justice Department, which announced its case against Little in May 2007, won't say why it decided to try the case in Tampa.

But prosecutors said today in court that Little's Web site was hosted on a server in Tampa and investigators purchased MaxWorld DVDs and had them sent to a Tampa post office box.

In his films, Little inflicts pain or humiliation on women. Movie scenes include urinating, vomiting and defecating, often on adult actresses made up to look like young girls.

The judge spent Tuesday night watching portions of the films before requesting that prosecutors display the entire 8-1/2 hours of five pornographic DVDs prosecutors plan to use as evidence against Little and MaxWorld.

Defense attorneys objected to prosecutors' intent to only show 2-1/2 hours of the DVDs, saying the law required jurors to view the material as a whole in order to fairly decide if it's obscene by contemporary community standards.

The defense was concerned that jurors wouldn't watch the entire films on their own during deliberations and said that if prosecutors didn't show all 8-1/2 hours, the defense would. Bucklew asked prosecutors to show the films in their entirety so jurors would only have to see them once.

The judge also has placed a security officer outside the courtroom to keep juveniles out and stop anyone else from entering the courtroom once the DVDs begin playing.

"The tapes are graphic," Bucklew said.

About 15 minutes of previews were shown in court before the lunch recess. In them, Little is seen often wearing a white cowboy hat. He urinates on women, slaps them and calls them names.

James Fottrell, a Justice Department computer forensics specialist, navigated through Max Hardcore's Web site during his testimony. He read in court from a section on the site called, "Who the hell is Max Hardcore?"

In the description, Max Hardcore brags about his sexual exploits and how he "sexually sodomized" women.

The trial may last through the beginning of next week.

-Kevin Graham, Times staff writer