Larry Jones

An Oklahoma pastor accused of writing stories about a sexual fantasy involving young girls may have his case dismissed due to a First Amendment challenge, according to a district court judge.

Larry Jones, 66, of McAlester, Oklahoma is the former pastor of the Missionary Baptist Church in McAlester. He was arrested in September and later charged with possessing obscene or indecent writings. Police said his writings involved girls as young as 6 years old.

Authorities said there is no reason to believe Jones ever physically assaulted children, but pointed to a statute of Oklahoma law prohibiting citizens from having anything to do with materials resembling child pornography.  

Jones’ attorneys, Brecken Wagner and Blake Lynch, argued the law used to charge Jones was unconstitutional. They said the story would be protected by the First Amendment, although the attorneys did not concede whether Jones wrote the story. 

“We are now criminalizing any reference of child pornography,” Wagner said during a preliminary hearing in March. “It is all-encompassing.”

Pittsburg County Associate District Judge Tim Mills said during the March hearing he wasn’t ready to deem the prosecution of Jones unconstitutional and was going to bound Jones over for trial — with the condition prosecutors change the charge sheet to reflect the allegations Jones “wrote or composed” the story. 

That never happened, though.  

Jones’ attorneys then asked for the charges to be dismissed, and in a June 12 rebuttal, prosecutors said, “obscene material is not protected speech.”

During a June 15 hearing, District Judge James Bland pointed to a 1969 case that went before the United States Supreme Court challenging a Georgia law similar to the one used to charge Jones. In that case, a man was arrested for owning what authorities contended was an obscene video, according to the SCOTUS website. The judges at the time voted 9-0 that arresting him infringed upon his freedom, and government cannot deem something obscene. 

However, Bland also noted that prosecutors never amended their charging language, as Mills had previously advised. In a court order issued Wednesday, Bland said he intended to dismiss the case but put the dismissal on hold.

“The state has the ability to re-file with amended language,” Bland wrote. 

Wagner said in an interview he is not worried whether the office does appeal the decision. 

“We are extremely confident in the argument that was presented and the issues before the court and given the Supreme Court ruling 50 years ago, there is no reason to believe that it is going to be overturned by the court in Oklahoma,” Wagner said. “You don’t have to like what someone says in order to love to defend their right to say it.”

Perry writes for The McAlester (Okla.) News