Dallas cop and wife convicted of peddling rape tapes

Houston Chronicle ^ | October 23, 2003 | Associated Press

[Recourse]

Oct. 23, 2003, 8:07AM

Dallas cop and wife convicted of peddling rape tapes Associated Press

DALLAS - A jury on Wednesday convicted a former Dallas police officer and his wife on three federal counts of federal obscenity charges for selling videos depicting rapes.

Garry Layne Ragsdale, 34, and Tamara Michelle Ragsdale, 32, will remain free on bond until a Jan. 23 sentencing trial in Dallas.

The couple, who live in Fort Worth, each faces up to 20 years in prison and a $750,000 fine.

They were indicted in March on one count of conspiracy to mail obscene material and two counts of mailing obscene material and aiding and abetting, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Dallas said.

Between July 1998 and April, authorities said the couple ran a business called G Rags Inc. and had an Internet site offering videotapes showing rape scenes, including the "Real Rape Video Series" and "Brutally Raped Video Series."

Bank records revealed that the couple made more than $60,000 on video sales.

Ragsdale was a Dallas officer in the 1990s and was fired after a federal investigation into the rape videos.

Ragsdale's attorney, F. Clinton Broden, said he would appeal.

[Recourse]

Pretty sick.

[Skooz]

This is just messed up.

[Viva Le Dissention]

Surely this would be staged rapes, in which case I wouldn't have much of a problem with it; free speech and all.

If they are *actual* rapes, then you're right, but I think I'd charge them with a real crime, not distributing obscene material.

[ChemistCat]

Hmm. Thousands of movies have rape scenes in them. Are they going to prosecute everybody who sells such movies, new in stores, used on Ebay? All the actors, producers, scriptwriters...?

Are these of real rapes with innocent victims?? Or adult actors making realistic rape scenes? Exactly what is the crime, what is the charge here? Were they making these movies themselves?

A lot of facts missing here. I don't doubt these are raunchy and extremely pornographic, violent, deviant and deviance-causing films. I was of the impression however that adult porn is legal in this country. Don't much like that, but where is the line that lets them be prosecuted?

(This is from someone who won't watch R movies or most PG-13s.)

[Prime Choice]

I'm kind of lost here, so bear with me. Were these tapes actual rapes, or fake (as in scripted and acted) sex acts pretending to be rapes?

If it's the first case, their sentence is WAY too light. If it's the latter, how is that different from the rest of the X-rated porno crap that's legally for sale just about everywhere?

Am I being naïve here?

[Age of Reason]

faces up to 20 years in prison and a $750,000 fine.

Sick indeed.

That's probably more punishment than the system gives real rapists.

[sinkspur]

From THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS:

The jury of eight men and four women affirmed what prosecutors had argued during the trial: Videotapes the couple sold online depicting simulated rape, among aother sex acts, are not protected free speech under the First Amendment. Rather they offend contemporary community standards--the legal benchmark for defining obscenity--and are subject to criminal penalty.

This was one of the first convictions under Ashcroft's crackdown on pornography.

[Williams]

I think it's illegal to depict certain things which are considered obcene. These include bestiality, rape, torture, child porn, etc. I am almost certain the tapes in question are simulated rape videos. If he took tapes of actual rapes siezed from rapists, I think they would discuss it in the article. Of course, all kinds of things get depicted in "legitimate" movies and they don't get prosecuted.

[per loin]

Are the makers of Deliverance next to be charged?

[Heyworth]

These include bestiality, rape, torture, child porn, etc.

Yeah, that's pretty much the line. Beyond that, you're into obscenity under pretty much any definition. There was a Frontline program on PBS about the porn industry that talked about the rape thing, and while the mainstream companies stay away from it, the upstart guys trying to make a name for themselves push the envelope. They interviewed some mullet-haired guy who was making simulated rape films. I later heard that he was indicted by the feds.

I always found it interesting that you can have sex films or bondage films, but that if you have a film of sex during bondage, it's obscene.

[SauronOfMordor]

Realisticly, if they're just videos of actors pretending, then I think the criminal justice system has better things to do. Are they going to let out a REAL rapist to "relieve overcrowding" in order to make room for this guy? They spent HOW much money and time to get this conviction?

[Hildy]

They're just pretending? Hell, arrest everybody at MTV.

[Heyworth]

There's all kinds of weird gray area. There was a guy arrested (it might have been in Canada) for writing kiddy porn in his journal. He wasn't accused of touching anyone. He didn't show the journal to anyone. It was an actual thought crime. (Now, to be fair, I think I recall he was already under police scrutiny for kiddy porn or something similar.)

[CodeMonkey]

20 years in prison for fake rape scenes and murderers can get a few years or probation. What a sick country when we put sex crimes anywhere near murder in the first degree.

[goldstategop]

Sex crimes are serious and have life altering consequences. Check out Dick Wolf's first season of Law And Order: Sexual Victims Unit just out on DVD. Its a great show and the two leads are credible actors. As cops they deal with sex crimes every day and its not something conducive to a social life. Eric Stabler tries to shield his wife and daughters from his work and his partner Rachel Benson doesn't have a boyfriend cause she can't talk about what she does for a living. Then why do it? Someone's gotta look out for the victims.

[archy]

Surely this would be staged rapes, in which case I wouldn't have much of a problem with it; free speech and all. If they are *actual* rapes, then you're right, but I think I'd charge them with a real crime, not distributing obscene material.

A few decades back, the police department for which I was a motorcycle cop got a new chief, who informed us that henceforth we were going to be operating to military standards, by gum! Since of the 27 on that department only eight of us had served in the US military [the new chief hadn't] we sort of wondered where he had gotten his ideas of what *military standards* were; it turned out his parents had sent him to a military prep school for two years to get him away from the house.

But his buddies did well, getting plum assignments and promotions ahead of others with 10 years or more of experience ahead of them. They did away with our two motorcycles on the grounds that they weren't bringing in enough revenue, which had never been stressed before; we had been the first responders that could get to a serious accident with a considerably more advanced first aid kit than most of the department's cars had, and when asked to cover a minor accident for the county or state police, the bikes were a quick answer for getting the paperwork and a wrecker call taken care of without tying up a couple of patrol cars.

So the law enforcement racket and I parted our ways, never top be rejoined again, I thought, until subpoenaed to chat with a federal grand jury a few months later, looking into bribery, shakedowns of businessmen, and the making of no-interest loans from the Fraternal Order of Police treasury- without benefit of having been reported to the IRS, plus a few other irregularities. I told them what I knew, including the part about the sale of two year-old $15,000 motorcycles to pals of the chief for under a grand apiece, and the little detail of the entertainment at the department's Christmas party when interview tapes with rape victims were played for the amused listeners.

Unfortunately for me, the chief and his half-dozen syncophants all swore I was lying, for whatever reason they did not know, but of which they were certain. Unfortunately for them, I had taped the session. I hear the former chief is doing right well now, having moved up to the position of assistant manager at the Pizza joint he now no doubt runs to military standards.

That's not quite the same circumstances as this guy and his wife playing Pirate and Fair Young Maiden for all the viewers in the privacy of their own homes, but of the two, I think I'd be a bit less condemnatory of the folks who found their own niche in show business.

-archy-/-

[Akira]

Were these tapes actual rapes, or fake (as in scripted and acted) sex acts pretending to be rapes?

From what I heard when it was first reported here, they were staged rapes.

If true, while I agree that it is sick and demented, I agree with you. I'm not sure how it differs a whole lot from XXX bondage videos or other similar things. I've seen some absolutely brutal rape scenes depicted in movies, too.

[LibertarianInExile]

Law and Order SVU is great, yes, and yes, sex crimes suck, but where is the sex crime here? These were STAGED rapes. Pornography is a word with negative connotations used to make these people seem evil. Even the headline is misleading in that way, because these WEREN'T REAL RAPES.

All these people were doing was satisfying the interests of some rather strange folks, making money in a way that did not break the law--until Ashcroft's fed buddies decided it was open season on people they believe morally suspect. You can bet they would have brought these folks down under some other way if this hadn't worked, harassing them via legal attack until they closed down.

And UC--suing Miramax, that's next. But don't ask me to spell it all out, I can't even come close to predicting the legal machinations of Ashcroft and his buddies. So let's ask an Ashcroft fan, another self-identified Christian. Sinkspur, please, tell us what you'd LIKE Ashcroft to do. If you had it your way, what would Ashcroft use the powers of the feds to move against?

[sinkspur]

Sinkspur, please, tell us what you'd LIKE Ashcroft to do. If you had it your way, what would Ashcroft use the powers of the feds to move against?

I've got two sons who are Dallas cops.

One of them knows both Ragsdales and said he's glad they're going to jail on SOMETHING.