Virginia man guilty of selling depictions of animal cruelty

Pittsburgh, PA -- It took a jury 45 minutes yesterday to find Robert J. Stevens guilty of selling dogfighting videos under a federal law that had never been tested in a United States court.

Stevens, 64, of Pittsville, Va., was convicted of three counts of selling depictions of animal cruelty.

Although several other defendants nationwide have pleaded guilty under the law, signed by President Clinton in 1999, Stevens was the first in the nation to go to trial.

The statute was originally motivated by an effort in California to ban "crush videos," in which women wearing spike heels and short skirts slowly crush small animals to death for the sexual gratification of foot fetishists.

Stevens didn't make crush videos, but the government said his dogfighting tapes were still illegal under the law as images of animal cruelty.

Stevens and his wife, Julie, are pit bull fans who advertised videos in the Sporting Dog Journal, an underground publication, and then sold three tapes to undercover agents.

Stevens sold "Pick-A-Winna" and "Japan Pit Fights," both of which featured dogs mauling each other in a ring complete with handlers and spectators, and "Catch Dogs," which featured footage of pit bulls attacking farm pigs.

Stevens and his public defender, Michael Novara, argued that the videos are protected free speech under the First Amendment because they fall under an exception to the law.

Depictions of cruelty are legal if they have "serious religious, political, scientific, educational, journalistic, historical or artistic value."

Stevens said his videos had historical and educational value, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Kaufman said they did not.

The jury sided with Kaufman in one of the shortest deliberations in recent memory in U.S. District Court here.

Stevens faces a maximum of 15 years in prison but probably won't get that much.

Senior U.S. District Judge Alan Bloch released him pending sentencing April 21.

As conditions of his release, Bloch ordered that Stevens no longer associate with dogfighting organizations, not breed or train pit bulls, not sell any more videos and remove any pit bulls from his property.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which investigated the case with state police out of Uniontown, hailed the verdict.

In a statement, Brian Haaser, USDA agent in charge of the northeast region of the U.S., said the "landmark investigation and conviction will open the doors" to future investigations of the sale of dogfighting videos and other images of cruelty to animals.