Charles Brownstein, Executive Director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) was interviewed by his friend and Newsarama administrator Matt Brady. The purpose of the interview was to discuss the Gordon Lee trial. There was something said in the interview that I found interesting. Specifically, it’s something Brownstein said about why the trial ended in a mistrial:
Before the jury was brought in, lead counsel Alan Begner brought some motions before the judge, including an oral motion in limine asking the judge to instruct prosecutors that their witnesses could not admit statements referring to Gordon’s previous criminal conviction for selling adult comics to an adult.
The phrase “selling adult comics to an adult” refers to Gordon Lee being convicted in the early 90’s of distributing obscene materials. It’s a phrase that gets mentioned a lot. It’s normally followed with the explanation that this prior conviction has nothing to do with his current legal troubles because that involved an adult and this involves a very young child.
What if the two cases are more connected then it seems?
Sandra Allen of Rome, Georgia was the adult that Lee was convicted of selling obscene material to. She wasn’t a comic book reader. She wasn’t a reader of obscene material. She was a mother of a child that came home from Lee’s comic book shop with a comic that she judged to be pornographic. It bothered her that her minor aged child could somehow get his hands on something she felt was pornographic. She didn’t understand how the neighborhood comic book shop could sell her son something she thought to be obscene. She decided she would make a visit to the comic book shop and check things out for herself.
On November 1, 1991 Sandra Allen went to Gordon Lee’s comic book shop and found more of what she believed to be pornographic on display to anyone entering the shop. Allen purchased two adult comics from Lee’s shop, Debbie Does Dallas and Final Taboo and took them directly to the Rome Police and made a complaint.
Upon receiving the two books, Rome Police Officer Marshall Smith took the two books to Floyd County Superior Court Judge Robert Salmon. After reviewing the two books purchased at Lee’s store, Judge Salmon issued an affidavit stating that there was probable cause to believe that pornographic materials were being sold at Lee’s comic book store. Based on the affidavit and the two books, Judge Salmon issued a search warrant for Lee’s comic book shop.
Over 300 allegedly obscene books and magazines were found and seized at Gordon Lee’s comic book shop by Rome Police. Lee was eventually convicted. His conviction stemmed not from the seized books and magazines, but from the two books purchased by Sandra Allen.
The seized books and magazines were not part of Lee’s trial.
Technically it’s true that Lee’s prior conviction was for selling “adult comics to an adult“. The comics being Debbie Does Dallas and Final Taboo and the adult being Sandra Allen. What is often overlooked is the reason Sandra Allen even went to Lee’s comic book shop and purchased the obscene comics in the first place. It wasn’t because she was looking for titillating reading material for herself. She went there because she was angry that her juvenile aged child was sold a pornographic comic book by Gordon Lee’s comic book shop.
A mother was upset by something her child received from Gordon Lee’s store. Why does that sound so familiar?
Good question. Let’s wait and see what Lee and the CBLDF rah-rah squad has to say about it.
Good question. Let’s wait and see what Lee and the CBLDF rah-rah squad has to say about it.
Probably do what they did the last time I brought up something about this case. Denounce me as a liar.
Why calmly debate anything when you can hatchet the opposing view with personal attacks?
Debbie Does Dallas is beautiful. Like the Sistine Chapel.
The question unanswered is, "DID Gordon Lee sell pornographic materials to Sandra Allen’s son? Or, was it pornographic to her?"
To me, SHE purchased the adult material. The reason why is moot. If she had reason to believe her son purchased adult content, that is what she should have presented to the Police.
Further, since when is it illegal to sell adult content to an adult?
Based on the limited details of that case, I think Georgia was wrong to even file a case against him. Now they get another chance to go after him, and they’re going after him maliciously
If I were Gordon Lee, after he sues them again for malicious prosecution, I’d use the money to move the hell out of Rome Georgia, and undoubtedly out of the state. It’s obvious, to me this is nothing more than maliciousness. This incident has gone on for three years. Where’s the right to a speedy trial? There has been delay after delay; and now that it has been declared a mistrial, despite the cost to the county, Leigh Patterson is still going to refile again early next year.
All this because an employee accidently gave a historically accurate comic depicting a cartoony nude man?
Let’s arrest Christian bookstore owners for selling biblical art depicting Adam and Eve nude. Or, store owners who sell The New Yorker, or National Geographic. What about libraries?
Now if Gordon Lee or his employee gave the kids a Playboy, then I’d say, let the SOB fry. But, it was an accidental oversight on a comicbook. And, quite frankly, I seriously doubt the boys got turned on by the cartoon image. Esp. since it wasnt sexual in nature.