THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 28, 1994 TAG: 9409280456
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER AND LYNN WALTZ, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
Two members of the secret citizen panel chosen to determine the city's community standard for obscenity said Tuesday they had mixed feelings about helping prosecute the commonwealth's attorney's case against six area businesses.
Debra H. Eib, 42, and Barbara A. Mastic, 38, said they thought most of the items they reviewed were offensive but told prosecutors they didn't consider all the items obscene.
Other panel members told prosecutors that they thought the items seized by detectives in March were obscene. There are about nine people on the panel.
Mastic's and Eib's names were made public in a Tuesday plea agreement between the commonwealth's attorney's office and Louis Krbec III, charged with selling obscene items in three area book stores.
Krbec's attorney was given the names because the women dissented with the panel's decision that his client's merchandise was obscene. Such information is called exculpatory evidence because it could help the defendant, and prosecutors are required to tell defense attorneys about it.
Krbec pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges, reduced from felonies.
``I found 93 percent of the items highly offensive and against the community standards,'' said Mastic, a mother of two teenage girls and a self-described environmental activist and community volunteer.
``But in my understanding of the community standards, a slim percentage of the items fell into the gray area. I recognize there may be a need for some of these types of items and I am not going to be the person who is going to say, hey, let's take them away.''
Eib, a homemaker and longtime city resident, agreed with Mastic.
``I expected to see things that were extremely harmful to the public, things that had to do with pedophiles or horrible things,'' she said. ``But I didn't see anything that, if used by consenting adults, was something that I considered to be absolutely horrible.''
Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Albert Alberi declined Tuesday to reveal the names of the other members. He said he did not want to hold them up to public ridicule.
Because of the secrecy, none of the other panel members could be contacted for their opinions.
Alberi, who would not confirm the number of panel members, said the list included Eib and Mastic, a former City Council member, a retired military person and an official of The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star. (Publisher Frank Batten Jr.; Editor Cole C. Campbell and Vice President and General Manager Bruce Bradley said they did not know who the newspaper official was.)
Mastic said she was contacted by Michael Moore, an assistant commonwealth's attorney, for help in the case. She said she viewed the seized items alone, and discussed her opinions with Moore.
Mastic, a longtime Girl Scout leader and School Board employee, said she also talked to her friends about the items and their possible uses. She said she then decided that some may have therapeutic or health benefits and wasn't comfortable saying they were all obscene.
Both women, however, faulted the commonwealth's attorney's office for what they perceived as misdirected efforts.
The case has been investigated for almost a year. Krbec was the first of three defendants to go to court.
``My real concern is what's going on right now on the streets. That's where (Commonwealth's Attorney Robert) Humphreys and Mr. Alberi need to be,'' Mastic said.
Eib said, ``I think the result of the action, the closing of the stores, was wonderful. However, there are things going on in the community that are very, very much worse.''
KEYWORDS: OBSCENITY by CNB