CBLDF Picks Up Rome, Georgia Case

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has taken on a new case, this one defending Rome, Georgia retailer Gordon Lee on a charge of "distributing material depicting nudity" and a charge of "distributing obscene material to a minor." The charges are a result of a Halloween night giveaway at the store Legends where Lee mistakenly gave a minor a copy of Alternative Comics Free Comic Book Day effort Alternative Comics #2. That book contained three pages of male nudity in an excerpt of Nick Bertozzi's "The Salon."

While the Fund is experienced in obscenity charges, the depicting nudity charge sounds like a new one, and seems to carry with it an extensive fine ($10,000) and a jail sentence (1-3 years). The Fund has retained Alan Begner of Atlanta's Begner & Begner as lead attorney and Paul Cadle of Rome as associate counsel.

ICv2.com had the earliest story up I can remember, and Newsarama had the best early article I've read, with a breakdown of the case timeline by CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein and a hint that the Fund is currently pursuing a strategy that will perhaps keep this case from continuing on into court.

Other links you might be interested in are the artist's web site, the publisher's bio for the artist, what the publisher beleives to be the nudity in question, the on-line version of the story from which the material came, and its message board. All of those links can be found in a message board post last night where Alternative Comics' Jeff Mason basically spilled the beans 6-12 hours early about what is going on, after hinting after it the day before. I hope he won't mind my copying them here.

Here's this morning's press release, which should be readable in Word: Rome,_Georgia
 
posted 6:26 am PST | Permalink
 

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