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3. The Attorney General should provide Informational resources for <br /> city and county attorneys who prosecute obscenity crimes. <br /> 4. Obscenity prosecutions should concentrate on cases that most <br /> • flagrantly offend community standards. <br /> H. OTHER LEGAL REMEDIES <br /> 1 <br /> A. RICO/FORFEITURE <br /> In addition to traditional criminal prosecutions, use of RICO statutes and criminal <br /> and civil forfeiture actions may also prove to be successful against obscenity offenders. <br /> By attacking the criminal organization and the profits of illegal activity, such actions can <br /> provide a strong disincentive to the establishment and operation of sexually oriented <br /> • <br /> businesses. For example, the federal government and a number of the twenty-eight <br /> states which have enacted racketeer influenced and corrupt organization (RICO) <br /> statutes include obscenity offenses as predicate crimes. Generally speaking, to violate <br /> • ' a RICO statute, a person must acquire or maintain an interest in or control of an <br /> enterprise, or must conduct the affairs of an enterprise through a "pattern of criminal <br /> activity." That pattern of criminal activity may include obscenity violations, which in turn <br /> can expose violators to increased fines and penalties as well as forfeiture of all property <br /> acquired or used in the course of a RICO violation. These statutes generally enable <br /> prosecutors to obtain either criminal or civil forfeiture orders to seize assets and may <br /> also be used to obtain injunctive relief to divest repeat offenders of financial interests in <br /> sexually oriented businesses. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961-68 (West Supp. 1988). RICO - <br /> statutes may be particularly effective in dismantling businesses dominated by <br /> organized crime, but they may be applied against other targets as well. <br /> The Working Group believes that Minnesota should enact a RICO-like statute that <br /> would encompassincreased penalties for using a-"pattern" of criminal obscenity acts <br /> to conduct the affairs of a business entity. Provisions authorizing the seizure of assets <br /> for obscenity violations should be considered, but the limitations imposed by the First <br /> Amendment must be taken intc account. <br /> -25- <br />