BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Jimmy Flynt
|
Cincinnati police have charged an East End man with trying to bribe the teen-ager who is a key witness in the prosecution of pornographers Larry and Jimmy Flynt.
"It wasn't a threat," Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney Joseph T. Deters said Friday. "It was an attempt to pay him off."
Mr. Deters said Howard Beatty told the boy's guardian that it would be worth $50,000 to Jimmy Flynt if the youngster changed his testimony or refused to testify.
"It's absolutely absurd," responded H. Louis Sirkin, attorney for the Flynts. "My clients don't know anything about it."
The Flynts were charged on 15 obscenity and corruption
counts, including disseminating material harmful to a minor, at their Hustler store in downtown Cincinnati.
Grand jurors agreed with the prosecutor, in finding the Flynts sold pornographic videos to the 14-year-old. The Flynts deny any wrongdoing and are to go to trial in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court early next year.
Prosecuting Attorney Joseph T. Deters said Mr. Beatty's case would not affect the Flynt prosecutions.
Mr. Beatty, 44, of the 2500 block of Eastern Avenue, is being held in lieu of $125,000 bond.
He was arrested at 11:45 p.m. Thursday after the youth's guardian called Cincinnati police, Mr. Deters said.
Mr. Deters would not say whether Mr. Beatty had $50,000 with him, preferring, instead, to describe the alleged contact as an "introductory call." Mr. Beatty did not talk to the youth, Mr. Deters said.
Mr. Beatty, who has misdemeanor convictions on his record, could face up to five years in prison if he is convicted of attempting to bribe a witness. Mr. Deters indicated he would seek a reduced charge or penalty if Mr. Beatty were willing to help Flynt prosecutors. Mr. Deters said the teen-ager has not been named in any public prosecution documents. He said defense attorneys must have given it to Mr. Beatty.
"The name was released only one time by this office," Mr. Deters said, and it was in a June 15 letter to defense attorney Sirkin.
That letter, signed by Thomas P. Longano, a chief assistant prosecuting attorney, also told Mr. Sirkin that the boy and his guardian did not wish to speak to any member of the defense team. " I trust that you and the others will respect his wishes," the letter said.
Friday, Mr. Deters said he was not accusing Mr. Sirkin of doing anything wrong and it was neither criminal nor unethical to share the information with the Flynts.
Mr. Sirkin said he did not know whether his clients knew the youth's name.
