ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Florida officials filed an obscenity charge Monday against the author of a self-published how-to guide for pedophiles that was yanked from Amazon.com last month after it generated online outrage.
Colorado authorities arrested Philip Ray Greaves II at his home in Pueblo, Colo., on a Florida warrant that charges him with violating Florida’s obscenity law.
Polk County, Fla., Sheriff Grady Judd said his office was able to have Mr. Greaves arrested on Florida charges because Mr. Greaves sold and mailed his book, “The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: A Child-lover’s Code of Conduct,” directly to undercover Polk deputies. Sheriff Judd said Mr. Greaves even signed the book.
“He very proudly sold us his personal copy,” Sheriff Judd told the Associated Press. “I was outraged by the content. It was clearly a manifesto on how to sexually batter children. … You just can’t believe how absolutely disgusting it was.”
Laurie Shorter, spokeswoman for the Pueblo County, Colo., Sheriff’s Department, said Mr. Greaves would be held in the county jail on the Florida charge. He was being booked Monday morning, and it was unclear whether he has an attorney. Sheriff Judd said Mr. Greaves could be in Florida as early as Monday night.
“If he will waive extradition, it’s my goal for him to eat processed turkey on Christmas Day in the Polk County Jail,” Sheriff Judd said.
Denver attorney David Lane, who has handled several high-profile First Amendment cases, said Florida could have a hard time extraditing Mr. Greaves. He is entitled to a hearing during which he can argue he should not be sent there to face charges.
“The main question is whether what he’s accused of in Florida would be a crime in Colorado,” Mr. Lane said. “Obviously, it’s not a crime in Colorado because he hasn’t been arrested here.”
Writs of extradition — the paperwork necessary to send somebody to another state — are routinely signed by Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, a former Denver district attorney. But Mr. Lane, who is not affiliated with this case, said it involves a different set of issues.
“Most of other extradition cases present clear-cut cases — the defendant was dealing drugs in that other state or some other crime that is also illegal here,” Mr. Lane said.
Mr. Ritter’s spokesman, Evan Dreyer, did not immediately return a message.
Mr. Greaves has no criminal record, but his self-published book of advice on how to make sexual encounters with children safe caused a flap when it showed up on Amazon in November. The book later was removed from the site.
Sheriff Judd, known throughout Florida as a crusader against child predators, said he was incensed when he heard about the book and that no one had arrested Mr. Greaves for selling it.
“What’s wrong with a society that has gotten to the point that we can’t arrest child pornographers and child molesters who write a book about how to rape a child?” Sheriff Judd said.
The book included first-person descriptions of sexual encounters, purportedly written from a child’s point of view.
Mr. Greaves argues in the book that pedophiles are misunderstood, as the word literally means to love a child. He adds that it is only a crime to act on sexual impulses toward children, and offers advice that purportedly allows pedophiles to abide by the law.
Sheriff Judd said he and his detectives got Mr. Greaves to sell the book to them for $50; he sent it through the mail and told officers it was his last copy.
“If we can get jurisdiction … we’re coming after you,” Sheriff Judd said. “There’s nothing in the world more important than our children.”
Mr. Greaves is being charged with distribution of obscene material depicting minors engaged in conduct harmful to minors.
Associated Press writers P. Solomon Banda and Kristen Wyatt in Denver contributed to this report.
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