HAMILTON — About 70 ministers and church members showed up at the Butler County commissioners' meeting Thursday to thank them for funding the prosecutor's newly created obscenity task force.

        The contingent was led by Phil Burress, president of the Citizens for Community Values, a group which fights pornography in the area.

        “We are pleased with your actions,” Mr. Burress said. “We think it's a noble cause.”
       

A joint venture
        The commissioners and Prosecutor Robin Piper worked together to develop an obscenity task force to prosecute pornography cases. It will focus on child pornography, child predators and Internet trafficking of obscenity and illegal pornography.Ù The task force will cost $200,000 for a full year of operation. The commissioners recently allocated $120,000 for the task force for the rest of this year.

        Steve Tolbert, chief assistant Hamilton County prosecutor for 15 years, was hired earlier this month to head the obscenity task force.

        Several ministers told the commissioners Thursday about their experiences counseling people whose lives have been damaged by pornography.
       

Root of many problems
        “If you were to take away obscenity, you would take away about half of our counseling problems,” said Terry Ball, pastor of the First Church of God in Monroe.

        Monroe is home to the Flynt brothers' Hustler Hollywood adult-entertainment store and the Bristol Show Club and Revue, an adult-entertainment bar.

        Children's access to pornography through the Internet is especially disturbing, Mr. Ball said.

        “We hope the task force will be a long-term endeavor,” he said.

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