Mark Kernes Discovers Possible Justice Department Cover-Up

Mark Kernes, AVN Media Network’s Senior Editor and resident legal expert of 16 years, has uncovered what he describes as an "interesting coincidence" between the recent firing of two U.S. Attorneys (Paul Charlton of the District of Arizona and Dan Bogden of the District of Nevada) for their unwillingness "to take good [obscenity] cases" and a likely Justice Department cover–up.

After close examination of a Motion to Dismiss filed on August 31st against United States v. Five Star Video, LC, et al — the one obscenity case that Charlton did file — Kernes discovered that the U.S. Trustee’s Office of The Department of Justice, and the United States Bankruptcy Court of the District of Arizona itself purchased, sold and rented copies of four indicted titles named in Charlton’s Five Star Video case.

“In other words,” explains Kernes, “while U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton was busy indicting Five Star [and other named defendants] for interstate transportation of obscene materials, the trustees employed by the Justice Department were selling and had sold those exact same titles.” This occurred while the Department of Justice and Bankruptcy Court were administering a bankruptcy of Arizona's best–known adult retailer, Castle Megastore chain.

As Kernes states, “we may never know” if Charlton was fired over the Five Star case, however, “the questions surrounding the official reactions — or overreactions — to the Aug. 31 Motion to Dismiss will not go away, and hopefully, the Senate Judiciary Committee will take a hard look at the circumstances of Paul Charlton’s firing... and possibly the Bush administration's obsession with mounting federal obscenity cases even when local U.S. Attorneys think they’re unwinnable.”

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