OHIO COUPLE SENTENCED TO PRISON ON OBSCENITY CHARGES

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Assistant Attorney General Christopher A. Wray of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Gregory A. White of the Northern District of Ohio and Guy Cottrell Acting Inspector in Charge, Pittsburgh Division, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, announced today that an Ohio couple, Ronald and Alina Urbassik, have been sentenced to prison on charges of mailing and transporting obscene material.

Judge Paul R. Matia of the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Ohio sentenced Ronald Urbassik to 12 months and one day in prison, along with a $3,000 fine. Alina Urbassik was sentenced to 4 months in prison. The couple pleaded guilty in July 2004 to a seven-count indictment that had been returned against them on April 13, 2004. The Urbassiks pleaded guilty to conspiring to engage in the business of selling or transferring obscene matter in violation of Title 18 USC Sections 371 and 1466; mailing obscene matter, in violation of Title 18 USC Sections 1461 and 2; and engaging in the business of selling or transferring obscene matter, in violation of Title 18 USC Section 1466. In addition to the prison sentence, the judge ordered the couple to forfeit the contraband that was the subject of the indictment.

Since 1990, the defendants have operated a catalog business that offered for sale hundreds of videotapes and DVDs depicting obscene matter, including sexually explicit conduct involving sado-masochism, defecation, urination and bestiality. The defendants distributed these obscene matters using the U.S. Mail.

This case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Kayla Bakshi of the Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael A. Sullivan and Christian H. Stickan of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio. The case was investigated by the Cleveland Office of the United States Postal Inspection Service.

Today’s sentencing is the second this week related to federal obscenity charges. Yesterday, a federal judge in Charleston, West Virginia, sentenced Harold Foote Hoffman, of Nitro, West Virginia in connection with his guilty plea to charges of using the U.S. Mail for the delivery of obscene matter, which included depictions of sexual acts involving defecation and bestiality. Hoffman was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment. He was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Paul Almanza of the Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Larry Ellis of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia. The case was investigated by the Charleston, West Virginia Office of the United States Postal Inspection Service.

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