Frankenchrist sales boost

["James J. Lippard" <Lippard@HIS-PHOENIX-MULTICS.ARPA>]

 Album poster prompts pornography charges

(UPI) LOS ANGELES--Pornography charges have been filed against five
people in the distribution of an allegedly obscene poster packaged with
an album by the San Francisco punk rock group Dead Kennedys, prosecutors
said Tuesday.
   Among those charged in the misdemeanor complaint stemming from the
Frankenchrist album is the group's lead singer, Eric Boucher, 27, of San
Francisco, who uses the stage name Jello Biafra and who once ran for
mayor of that city.
  "The poster depicts a close-up montage of 10 explicit sex acts," said
City Attorney James Hahn.  "It's hard to imagine a more sexually
explicit poster, and it was the height of irresponsibility for it to be
packaged with an album distributed to minors."
   Hahn said the investigation began last December when a woman wrote
the state attorney general's office complaining about the poster after
her teen-age daughter bought the album from the Wherehouse, a record
store that is part of a chain, as a gift for her 11-year-old brother.
   Wherehouse officials later voluntarily pulled the albums off their
shelves, authorities said.
   The letter was forwarded in January to Hahn, who ordered an investigation.
   Charged with one count each of violating a penal code section that
prohibits distribution of harmful matter to minors were Boucher and
record distribution executives Michael Bonanno, 25, of Alternative
Tentacles Records; Debra Schwartz, 26, of Mordam Records; and Steve
Boudreau, 38, of Greenworld Distributors.  Also charged was Salvatore
Alberti, 66, of Huntington Beach, Calif., whose company was accused of
inserting the posters into the album covers and applying stickers on the
outside stating the poster is a "work of art".
   The defendants are scheduled to be arraigned in Municipal Court July
3.  They face maximum penalties of a year in jail and a $2,000 fine if
convicted.


   Jim (Lippard at MULTICS.MIT.EDU)