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From the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund:
Lee and his legal team, paid for by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, appeared in court this morning for jury selection and returned in the afternoon to begin the actual trial. Before the jury was brought in to begin the trial, lead counsel Alan Begner argued an oral motion in limine asking the judge to instruct prosecutors that they could not admit statements from their witnesses alluding to Lee’s character and previous legal actions Lee has been party to. Prosecutors assured the court that they had instructed their witnesses not to address Lee’s previous conviction for selling adult comics to an adult. Then during opening statements in front of the jury, prosecutor Tully said witnesses will testify that Gordon was defensive and that Gordon had told police, “I’ve been through this before,” a clear reversal of his earlier statement to the judge that prosecutors would not be entering such statements into the record.
Who would have guessed that instructions prohibiting witnesses from bringing up Lee’s previous conviction also included any statements made by Lee himself? I guess I can understand barring witnesses from mentioning that they knew that Lee was convicted in 1993 of “distributing obscene materials“. I wouldn’t have guessed this also included any statements made by Lee to the police. So much for, “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”
Lee’s prior conviction was for selling two porn comics, Final Taboo and Debbie Does Dallas.
