Extreme Associates

The Bush administration said it would try to reinstate an indictment against a California pornography company that was charged with violating federal obscenity laws. Billed as the government's first big obscenity case in a decade, the 10-count indictment against Extreme Associates Inc. and its owners, Robert Zicari and his wife, Janet Romano, both of Northridge, was dismissed last month by U.S. District Judge Gary Lancaster, who ruled that prosecutors overstepped their bounds.

The Bush administration said it would try to reinstate an indictment against a California pornography company that was charged with violating federal obscenity laws. Billed as the government's first big obscenity case in a decade, the 10-count indictment against Extreme Associates Inc. and its owners, Robert Zicari and his wife, Janet Romano, both of Northridge, was dismissed last month by U.S. District Judge Gary Lancaster, who ruled that prosecutors overstepped their bounds.

During production of the 1997 movie "Mimic," American Humane Assn. representatives wandered through the Los Angeles set, ensuring that a herd of cockroaches was well taken care of. Licensed animal handlers were to follow state and federal anti-cruelty laws designed to protect the insects, which had been trained to swirl around actress Mira Sorvino's feet. The roaches had to be fed at a certain time. They could only work a few hours each day. They could not be harmed. At the same time, in studios in the San Fernando Valley, scores of other actors and actresses were working on movies.

The Justice Department on Thursday charged a North Hollywood wholesaler of adult films with violating federal obscenity laws, launching the first of what it promised would be a wave of criminal cases against purveyors of pornography.

Sometimes, Phil Burress wonders whether his faith in John Ashcroft was misplaced. Three years ago, the anti-porn activist was looking to Ashcroft and the Justice Department to wage an aggressive crackdown on smut. Federal obscenity prosecutions had flagged during the Clinton administration. The new attorney general, with his fervent Christian credentials, looked to be the ideal warrior to take on the nation's burgeoning and multibillion-dollar pornography industry.

The Justice Department has quietly installed an outspoken anti-pornography advocate in a senior position in its criminal division, as part of an effort to jump-start obscenity prosecutions. The Bush administration's election-year move follows three years of heat from the Christian right, which believes that Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, a longtime friend and ally, has fallen down on the job when it comes to fighting smut.