Porn to screen in LA courtroom

LOS ANGELES, June 8 (UPI) -- A federal courtroom in Los Angeles will double as a screening room for fetish pornography in a criminal obscenity trial, prosecutors say.

Filmmaker Ira Isaacs is set to go on trial this week in a case involving films that depict bestiality and defecation, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. Isaacs claims his films are constitutionally protected works of art but prosecutors allege they violate criminal statutes.

The case is the first in Southern California brought by a U.S. Department of Justice task force formed in 2005 after pressure from Christian conservative groups for a federal crackdown on pornography, the newspaper said.

Jurors are likely to be asked to view hours of pornography characterized by prosecutors in court filings as "so degrading" an actress cries throughout one of the films.

If jurors find any of four videos at the center of the case have "literary, scientific or artistic value," the material would not legally be considered obscene, the Times said, citing a 1973 Supreme Court ruling.

Isaacs, 57, said he hopes the jury is shocked by his videos because he considers himself a shock artist, but he also hopes jurors see what he considers to be the artistic merit in his work.