- Alex Kozinski, who is presiding over an obscenity trial
in L.A., acknowledges that he had posted sexually explicit photos and videos.
He says he didn't think the public could access the site.
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- One of the highest-ranking federal judges in the United
States, who is currently presiding over an obscenity trial in Los Angeles,
has maintained a publicly accessible website featuring sexually explicit
photos and videos.
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- Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court
of Appeals, acknowledged in an interview with The Times that he had posted
the materials, which included a photo of naked women on all fours painted
to look like cows and a video of a half-dressed man cavorting with a sexually
aroused farm animal. Some of the material was inappropriate, he conceded,
although he defended other sexually explicit content as "funny."
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- Kozinski, 57, said that he thought the site was for his
private storage and that he was not aware the images could be seen by the
public, although he also said he had shared some material on the site with
friends. After the interview Tuesday evening, he blocked public access
to the site.
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- Asked whether the contents of his site should force him
to step aside from the pending obscenity trial, Kozinski declined to comment.
Opening statements in the trial are scheduled for this morning. In the
case, Ira Isaacs, a filmmaker based in Los Angeles, is accused of distributing
criminally obscene sexual-fetish videos depicting bestiality and defecation.
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- Stephen Gillers, a New York University law professor
who specializes in legal ethics, told The Times that Kozinski should recuse
himself from the Isaacs case because "the public can reasonably question
his objectivity" concerning the issues at hand.
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- Gillers, who has known Kozinski for years and called
him "a treasure of the federal judiciary," said he took the judge
at his word that he did not know the site was publicly available. But he
said Kozinski was "seriously negligent" in allowing it to be
discovered.
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- "The phrase 'sober as a judge' resonates with the
American public," Gillers said. "We don't want them to reveal
their private selves publicly. This is going to upset a lot of people."
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- Gillers said the disclosure would be humiliating for
Kozinski and would "harm his reputation in many quarters," but
that the controversy should die there.
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- He added, however, that if the public concludes the website
was intended for the sharing of pornographic material, "that's a transgression
of another order."
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- "It would be very hard for him to come back from
that," he said.
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- Kozinski said he would delete some material from his
site, including the photo depicting women as cows, which he said was "degrading
. . . and just gross." He also said he planned to get rid of a graphic
step-by-step pictorial in which a woman is seen shaving her pubic hair.
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- Kozinski said he must have accidentally uploaded those
images to his server while intending to upload something else. [Give me
a break!!! - Donna] "I would not keep those files intentionally,"
he said. The judge pointed out that he never used appeals court computers
to maintain the site.
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- The sexually explicit material on Kozinski's site earlier
this week was extensive, including images of masturbation, public sex and
contortionist sex. There was a slide show striptease featuring a transsexual,
and a folder that contained a series of photos of women's crotches as seen
through snug fitting clothing or underwear. There were also themes of defecation
and urination, though they are not presented in a sexual context.
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- Kozinski, who was named chief judge of the 9th Circuit
last year, is considered a judicial conservative on most issues. He was
appointed to the federal bench by then-President Ronald Reagan in 1985.
He has a national reputation for a brilliant legal mind and has developed
a reputation as a champion of the First Amendment right to freedom of speech
and expression. Several year ago, for example, after learning that appeals
court administrators had placed filters on computers that denied access
to pornography and other materials, Kozinski led a successful effort to
have the filters removed.
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- The judge said it was strictly by chance that he wound
up presiding over the Issacs trial in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
Appeals court judges occasionally hear criminal cases when they have free
time on their calendars and the Isaacs case was one of two he was given,
the judge said.
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- Kozinski said he didn't think any of the material he
posted on his website would qualify as obscene.
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- "Is it prurient? I don't know what to tell you,"
he said. "I think it's odd and interesting. It's part of life."
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- Before the site was taken down, visitors to <http://alex.kozinski.com>http://alex.kozinski.com
were greeted with the message: "Ain't nothin' here. Y'all best be
movin' on, compadre."
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- Only those who knew to type in the name of a subdirectory
could see the content on the site, which also included some of Kozinski's
essays and legal writings as well as music files and personal photos.
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- The judge said he began saving the sexually explicit
materials and other items of interest years ago.
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- "People send me stuff like this all the time,"
he said.
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- He keeps the things he finds interesting or funny with
the thought that he might later pass them on to friends, he said.
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- scott.glover@latimes.com
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