Flynt says the plea bargain he agreed to is "the deal we always wanted" RELATED VIDEO CNN's Ed Garsten reports Flynt accepted the deal, in part, to prevent the possibility of his younger brother doing jail time Windows Media 28K 80K

May 12, 1999
Web posted at: 2:33 p.m. EDT (1833 GMT)

In this story: Details on the deal $10,000 fine RELATED STORIES, SITES

CINCINNATI (CNN) -- In a pre-trial plea bargain that had both Larry Flynt and a prosecutor declaring victory, the Hustler magazine publisher agreed Wednesday to remove X-rated videos, but not the magazine, from his Cincinnati store. The deal, which also includes a $10,000 fine, allows Flynt to avoid trial -- and a possible jail term -- on obscenity charges.

"I am very pleased," Flynt said afterward. "The deal the prosecution offered us was the deal we always wanted."

"We want to sell our magazine. If they just leave the magazine alone, we'll be OK," he said outside the Hamilton County Courthouse.

Prosecutor Mike Allen said the county protected its values and made no concessions to the Flynt. "He didn't win. He lost," Allen said. "He turned tail and ran."

Hustler magazine will continue to be sold in Cincinnati

Under the plea bargain, Flynt agreed to remove all sexually explicit videos from Hustler News & Gifts, a downtown Cincinnati store managed by his brother, Jimmy.

In return, prosecutors let the Flynts substitute their corporation for themselves, on two counts of pandering obscenity.

The prosecution dropped 13 other charges stemming from the illegal sale in 1997 of an explicit video to a 14-year-old boy.

That video, "Jet Striker Underground," is among those that will be removed from the store.

Each brother could each have received 24 years in prison and been fined $65,000.

Instead, Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Patrick Dinkelacker levied a total fine of $10,000 -- $5,000 each, on two counts of pandering obscenity -- on Larry Flynt's Hustler Corporation.

The corporation has until May 21 to pay the fine.

The Flynts did not address the court. Their plea bargain, entered by a defense lawyer, came while the trial was in its third day of jury selection.

Because of the deal, there will be no trial.

"Had the prosecution told me that Hustler magazine had to go, then we would be upstairs picking a jury now," Larry Flynt said, "but they didn't ask for that. They just asked for the explicit videos."

Such videos, he said, "are much more difficult to defend than magazines. They don't have the acceptance that magazines have."

Larry Flynt had opened the store because he was angry that obscenity crackdowns in the city made Hustler magazine barely available.

He was convicted in 1977 of pandering obscenity for selling Hustler magazine in Cincinnati, and hoped that a new trial in the same city would show that community standards for obscenity had changed.

Flynt served six days of a 7-to-25-year sentence for the 1977 conviction before being released pending appeal. The conviction was overturned in 1979.

He now lives in Los Angeles.

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