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The pleas were made part of an agreement between the defendants and prosecutors that saw nine counts of violating federal obscenity statuettes dropped. The couple and Extreme Associates Inc. were indicted in August 2003 for selling graphic pornography via the mail and online after a long investigation by federal prosecutors. At the time, they were accused, "of sending obscene movies to a Post Office box in the Pittsburgh area. The suspects also allegedly sent obscene tapes and DVDs to a local wholesaler and transmitted obscene footage on the Extreme Associates Website."
A trial was set to begin this coming Monday with jury selection. The couple were facing upwards of 50 years in prison and up to a $5 million fine.
Black promoted Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW) from 1999-2003 in California, using his adult video production company Extreme Associates as the parent company. The promotion was something of a West Coast answer to the original ECW after a falling out between Zicari and then-ECW owner Paul Heyman, running regularly for several years using a mix of former ECW talents like Sabu, New Jack and the late John Kronus as well as West Coast performers they cultivated like Supreme, Kaos and Johnny Webb.
XPW, using Shane Douglas as booker, had expanded into Philadelphia in 2002. Their entrance set off the Philadelphia wrestling war of 2002-2003. At one point, they held exclusivity on the former ECW Arena, preventing all other independents from running the venue during a really hot period where tons of companies were running (and most drawing) in the city of Brotherly Love. A side effect of their run inadvertently lead the way to the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission taking a much stricter stance on hardcore wrestling following an incident when a particularly bloody bout ended up in the ECW Arena's women's restroom and a woman affiliated with a Commission member ended up with blood on her.
Although the company was gone from Philadelphia by February 2003, they had also moved into the Pittsburgh market, drawing a good house there thanks to Douglas' local promoting and were still running regularly in Los Angeles.
That all changed in April 2003 when Extreme Associates was raided by federal authorities after receiving materials that were ordered from the website of Black's adult video company and shipped to Pennsylvania. Once the federal charges were filed, the promotion pretty much ceased to exist although they maintained the company website for some time afterward and aired several taped "Best of" XPW PPV specials.
An XPW revival show "A Cold Day in Hell" was staged last year in California and later released on DVD, but Zicari was not involved as he had sold the rights to the company and its video library to XEG and Big Vision Entertainment in 2004 and was later said to have "despised wrestling and all it 'did to him", according to an interview I conducted with former XPW official Kevin Kleinrock to promote the reunion show.
Sentencing is set for 7/1, although there are some issues to be worked out, specifically whether decency guidelines for today or 2002 (when the indictments were issued) should be utilized, based on the graphic, over the top nature of the adult material in question and guidelines were changes shortly after charges were originally filed. Part of the agreement made in exchange for the plea is that prosecutors will not seek to determine how much revenue Extreme Associates made from the videos as those amounts could have led to increased prison time at sentencing.
The sentence could range between 10 months to five years, but it should be noted that the Judge presiding over the case, Judge Gary Lancaster, did throw out the charges brought against the couple in January 2005 after their attorney argued had infringed on the rights of "free liberty and privacy guaranteed by the due process clause United States Constitution." U. S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan later appealed that decision and had the charges reinstated in December 2005. There is a belief by some that the Judge may order home detention for at least part of the sentence and due to the other charges being dropped, neither Zicari or Romao would be required to register as sex offenders in their local community. The couple and the company could also be fined up to $250,000 each.
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The Associated Press ran the following piece in regard to the guilty plea:
Porn sellers plead guilty in Pa. obscenity case
PITTSBURGH—The owners of a California company that distributed videos depicting deviant sexual conduct pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiracy to distribute obscene material.
The guilty pleas from Robert Zicari and his wife, Janet Romano, in federal court in Pittsburgh come after a nearly six-year battle over whether the First Amendment protects such videos, which included scenes of simulated rape. The Northridge, Calif., couple still plans to contest the government's claim the material should be considered "sadistic or masochistic" for sentencing purposes.
Advocates for the couple accused U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan of bringing the case in western Pennsylvania because the area's "community standards"—which govern what is obscene according to the U.S. Supreme Court—are more conservative than those in California.
"We believe any jury in the country would have found this material obscene," Buchanan said. "Recognizing that the material is in fact obscene, the defendants chose to plead guilty."
Zicari also pleaded guilty on behalf of the couple's business, Extreme Associates Inc.
The couple decided to plead guilty because prosecutors agreed to forgo calculating how much they earned from the business, which could have affected their potential sentence, said Zicari's attorney, H. Louis Sirkin, of Cincinnati. Sirkin refused to say how much they earned.
Zicari, 35, and Romano, 32, declined to comment after their pleas.
Zicari told the judge he is undergoing treatment for an obsessive-compulsive disorder. Romano wept as she answered the judge's questions, and the couple embraced and kissed after she pleaded guilty.
Zicari had ridiculed the prosecution and marketed some videos as the "Federal Five-Pack" after agents targeted the company. The business was the focus of a PBS "Frontline" documentary in 2002, before the charges were filed.
Zicari—playing a fictional character named Rob Black—speaks about the charges in one video at issue in the indictment.
"This is the movie that was showed on PBS and they made a real big to-do about it," Zicari's character tells viewers. "They kind of put it over like we drag girls from the street and, like, rape them and did this whole thing. They failed to point out the people ... appeared in numerous amount of our films."
Sirkin said Zicari's defiance on the video was character-driven: "Ultimately, you'll get to see the real Rob Black when we come back for sentencing. Rob's a very sweet man."
Zicari, Romano and the company were indicted by a grand jury in 2003.
U.S. District Judge Gary Lancaster dismissed the charges in January 2005, ruling that people have a right to view such material in the privacy of their homes and that, therefore, companies like Extreme Associates have a corresponding right to distribute it.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the charges in December 2005, noting the Supreme Court has determined federal obscenity statutes don't violate one's right to privacy.
Still at issue are the sentencing guidelines.
The defense will seek a prison term of 10 to 16 months, half of which could be served in a halfway house. The government is pushing for a prison sentence of 27 to 33 months.
Lancaster, who presided at the guilty pleas and will sentence the couple July 1, can also fine Extreme Associates up to $500,000 and place it on probation for five years, making further sanctions possible if the company runs afoul of the law. Sirkin said the business still exists on paper, but isn't operating.
Buchanan said the pleas vindicated her prosecutors and her office. She has been criticized for seeking out sensational cases, including prosecuting comedian Tommy Chong for his California-based mail order marijuana bong business in 2003.
"Criticizing a prosecutor for enforcing the law is a high compliment,"
Buchanan said Wednesday. "Thank you."
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