Jury selection continues in obscenity case

By Jimmy LaRoue

Published: August 12, 2008

STAUNTON — Jury selection will continue today after five men and three women were tabbed Tuesday as potential jurors and 11 others were excused in a trial for a Staunton video store and an employee charged with violating obscenity laws.
A seven-member jury will be chosen in the case against After Hours Video owner Rick Krial; his company, LSP of Virginia; and employee Tinsley W. Embrey.
Staunton Circuit Court Judge Thomas H. Wood told jurors they would have to decide whether two particular videos sold at the Springhill Road store were obscene by community standards. He said jurors would learn the legal meaning of the word “obscenity” before the trial begins.
Questions centered on whether jurors could put aside any preconceived notions or personal opinions and listen to evidence impartially. That evidence, the judge and attorneys warned, would be sexually graphic in nature, particularly with regard to the videos at the center of the case. Members of the jury pool also were asked about their religious and moral beliefs, and whether they had ever viewed pornography.
“I feel it would have been more than distasteful for me,” said one prospective female juror who was later dismissed. “I’m Christian and I don’t want to subject myself to such things.”
Another woman said she thinks selling pornography is wrong, but could serve “if it was part of my civic duty.” She said her personal beliefs would likely get in the way of her deciding the case. She also was dismissed.
After about 30 minutes with all prospective jurors being asked general questions about their knowledge of the case, they were brought individually to an adjacent courtroom and asked more specific questions by Wood along with prosecutors and defense attorneys.
One potential juror was questioned for 45 minutes. Just nine of the 35 potential jurors were questioned in the first three hours before lunch, with 19 being questioned by the time Wood ended the day’s proceedings around 5:30 p.m.
Staunton Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Robertson suggested that Wood query potential jurors since both sides were asking mostly the same questions. The judge declined.
“I think we’re doing it the way we ought to be doing it, even though it’s driving me crazy,” Wood said.
He warned potential jurors that it would be an extensive process.
“I told you it’s going to be tedious — a long, tedious day,” Wood said.
Krial lawyer Paul Cambria Jr., of Buffalo, N.Y., said it was not unusual for jury selection to extend into a second day. He recalled a trial in which jury selection took 38 days.
“It takes awhile,” Cambria said.
Attorneys on both sides declined to comment. Krial faces numerous misdemeanor and felony obscenity indictments over 12 DVDs sold in October to undercover police officers.
The store opened in October, with more than 100 people signing petitions against it. The Staunton City Council later passed an ordinance placing restrictions on future adult businesses.
If the trial results in a conviction, the other indictments would be prosecuted as felonies because of Virginia’s enhanced penalty laws.
Cambria and Louis Sirkin, of Cincinnati, — both well-known First Amendment lawyers — were present to question the jury pool. Sirkin is representing Embrey while a third attorney, Tate Love, of Staunton, is representing LSP.
Robertson tried to deal with the moral issue others in the jury pool had raised.
“No one in this trial is asking you to set aside your moral beliefs,” Robertson told a potential juror, adding that if people who disliked pornography disqualified themselves, “we’d have no jury.”
Two people who live near the store expressed views but were both dismissed.
A potential male juror said “they are not guilty,” referring to Krial and Embrey, but he could put his opinions aside if it were proved that the law had been broken. He admitted to having purchased a video at After Hours. Robertson sought to dismiss him, but Wood overruled.
An elderly man in the jury pool who said he had a heart attack a month ago managed to get a chuckle out of both sides. The man, who said his wife had signed a petition against the store, responded to a Cambria question about whether he had discussed the case with his wife.
“She just said you better get off the jury,” the man replied.
Overruling objections from Sirkin and Cambria that the man had prejudged what the community standards are in Staunton, Wood sent him to the jury room.
The trial is scheduled to last four days, with jury selection continuing at 9 a.m. today and another 25 potential jurors being called in for possible selection.