Pair cleared in porno prosecution

Tuesday, Nov. 19, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Two Los Angeles businessmen have been cleared of charges that they mailed obscene pornography tapes to Las Vegas.

Leonard Weinstein and Jerome Garfinkel withdrew their guilty pleas and the Justice Department dropped the charges, according to court papers filed last week.

Weinstein and Garfinkel had pleaded guilty in June 1995 and agreed to cooperate with the federal government's investigation.

But a Las Vegas jury ruled that the videos made by the producer of the porn classic "Deep Throat" were not obscene.

As a result, the businessmen asked to withdraw their guilty pleas.

The men were involved in the distribution of the videos and worked for Video Dubs Inc. and A.F.V. Releasing Inc., formerly known as National Duplication Services and Arrow Film and Video, Inc., respectively.

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