- CLEBURNE - Hours after a
judge ordered participants in a Burleson woman's obscenity case not to
talk about the case outside of court, the woman's attorney announced that
she would challenge the Texas obscenity law in federal court on behalf
of other clients who fear prosecution under the same law.
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- Johnson County Court at Law Judge Robert Mayfield issued
the temporary gag order Thursday to everyone involved in the misdemeanor
obscenity case against Joanne Webb, who is accused of selling sex toys
to undercover Burleson police officers in November.
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- The order, which is in place until a Feb. 12 hearing
on the permanent gag order sought by prosecutors, applies to Webb, her
family, witnesses, law enforcement officers, prosecutors and Webb's attorney,
BeAnn Sisemore.
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- Asked by Sisemore to clarify a point, Mayfield said that
the gag order applies to facts about Webb's case, not about the law. Mayfield
imposed the temporary gag order after Sisemore asked for a delay to more
fully research her opposition to a gag order.
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- After the five-minute hearing, Sisemore and Assistant
County Attorney Erin Lamb met privately for more than an hour. Afterward,
both declined to discuss Webb's case.
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- Later, however, Sisemore said that she was preparing
to file a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of other plaintiffs to challenge
the Texas statute under which Webb is being prosecuted.
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- Webb, 42, the mother of three teen-agers, is charged
with selling two sexual devices, a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up
to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine. Webb is a distributor for Passion
Parties, which sells the products to women 18 and older at gatherings similar
to Tupperware parties.
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- Before the gag-order hearing, while attorneys were meeting
with the judge, Webb and her husband, Chris, pleaded their case to the
media as they have done on national TV shows since Joanne's arrest.
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- The Webbs said they weren't sure why Joanne, a Baptist,
former teacher and chamber of commerce executive board member, was "singled
out" for showing other women how to be sensual.
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- But Chris Webb, a military veteran who served in the
1991 Persian Gulf War, said that fighting for women's freedom is worth
losing business, as he has since his wife's arrest.
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- "I'm a veteran," Chris Webb said. "I know
freedom isn't free. I know my family pays the price for a woman to speak
openly about their sexuality."
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- Joanne Webb said, "I'm a little fearful of a legal
system that singles someone out like me."
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- That's why, Sisemore said, she and other lawyers have
been working for months on a lawsuit, expected to be filed early next week,
to challenge the Texas obscenity law on behalf of women involved in similar
businesses.
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- "This is not about Johnson County, Burleson or Cleburne,"
Sisemore said. "This is about a law that is frightening for women
all over Texas. There is a case pending here, but there was work being
done on this issue for many months."
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- Sisemore says that the Texas obscenity law is so vague
and broad that it could potentially be used to prosecute almost anyone,
including people who use condoms that provide stimulation for sexual pleasure.
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- "These enhanced condoms are sold by Wal-Mart, Kmart,
Eckerd's, everywhere," Sisemore said. "If a wife gives it to
her husband for pure sensual pleasure, or vice versa, she violates the
statute."
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- http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/7834071.htm
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