Legal News

Kozinski Declares Mistrial in L.A. Obscenity Case.

By Jamie Heller

This just in: The AP is reporting that Judge Alex Kozinski, who’s come under scrutiny for sexual Web postings, has declared a mistrial in the L.A. obscenity case over which he was presiding earlier this week, and said he would ask that the case be assigned to another judge.

In the case, Ira Isaacs, a filmmaker based in Los Angeles, is accused of distributing criminally obscene sexual-fetish videos depicting bestiality and defecation.

“In light of the public controversy surrounding my involvement in this case, I have concluded that there is a manifest necessity
to declare a mistrial,” Kozinski wrote in an order.

The postings on the judge’s Web site came to light Wednesday in an L.A. Times article around the time that opening statements were under way. The trial was suspended that afternoon, due to the article, after jurors had already watched some of the videos.

Thursday, the judge called for a judicial ethics investigation into his own conduct in the matter.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on June 13, 2008 (boomark / email).