Friday, August 06, 1999
Therapist calls 'Orgymania' educational
BY STEVE KEMME
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON — A licensed sex therapist testified Thursday that the three adult videos in the Butler County video store obscenity trial have scientific value.
Dr. Judith Huffman Seifer said she sometimes suggests that couples in marriage or sex counseling view sexually explicit videos together and talk about them.
She said she viewed Best of Freaks, Orgymania and Sinderella She-Male, the videos in the trial of three VIP Video Store employees, and believes that each has educational value for some people.
During cross-examination, Dan Gattermeyer, assistant prosecuting attorney, questioned her credentials as an expert witness and tried to raise doubts about the educational and therapeutic value of the three videos.
Dr. Seifer was the defense's only witness.
After closing arguments this morning, the case will go to the jury.
Peter Tomaino, owner of VIP Video in Hamilton and Millville, and two store clerks, Billie J. Doan and Caroletha Geter, are charged with three counts of pandering obscenity.
The charges were filed after undercover police officers purchased the three videos in late 1997 and early 1998. The jury of nine women and three men must decide whether the videos are legally obscene.
The jurors viewed Sinderella She-Male on Thursday. The video depicted explicit sex between male cross-dressers and between a man and a female. Jurors were impassive as they watched the 11/2-hour video.
Before Thursday's court session, Common Pleas Judge Keith Spaeth excused a male juror because of a personal situation that arose Wednesday night.
Dr. Seifer, who now lives in West Virginia but had resided in Dayton, Ohio for 19 years, said that by viewing a video like Orgymania, a couple could see what orgies were like without actually doing it themselves.
“It could save a number of couples from harmful sexual experimentation,” she said.
“But isn't it possible that some people would want to do it after watching the video?,” Mr. Gattermeyer said.
Dr. Seifer acknowledged that it was possible.
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