Only in Florida: I’d Like To Offer Into Evidence

Mark This Exhibit 69

In my column Only in Florida, I'll be taking you down to the Sunshine State for the latest and greatest sex stories that can only be found in the craziest state in the union.

We've all learned from many years of watching courtroom dramas like Law & Order and LA Law, real life documentaries like Making a Murder and The Thin Blue Line, and from those reality shows known as "murder porn" Dateline, Forensic Files, and 48 Hours that when you are in the courtroom, the lawyer with the best and strongest evidence typically wins. Beyond having a great theory as to why or why not someone did something, they can back it up with physical evidence. In the case of a Florida man who was arrested on charges of, among other things, lying to immigration about his marriage would like to submit into evidence his sex tape and dirty photos to prove his marriage is all about love.

Rogerio "Roger" Scotton, is currently awaiting trail for 27 counts of mail fraud and 2 counts of lying to immigration authorities which stem from his arrest in Fort Lauderdale back in 2012. Now, I'm not sure how making 12 strangers watch a sex tape and look at nude pictures will help with the mail fraud convictions, but Scotton believe it will show he and his wife are in love and not trying pull one over on the INS. 

He wants U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenbaum to let him show what she called videos and photographs of "you and your wife engaged, I guess, in some very intimate acts" to the jurors who will decide his innocence or guilt.

Scotton hopes to undermine the prosecution's allegation that he lied about details of his marriage to a Cuban woman to get permanent resident status here. The 25-year U.S. resident said he has visible proof that the couple had a genuine marriage.

Scotton, who is—not surprisingly—acting as his own attorney, knows that if this would be visual proof of the couple's true love. Judge Rosenbaum isn't completely sold and has agreed to view the footage and pictures before making a decision on whether or not Scotton can submit the tape and pics into evidence. The two had a little exchange in court on this topic:

The judge told Scotton she wasn't going to just "play that stuff in front of the jury and see what's on there" without vetting it.

"I don't think that it would be fair to your wife," Rosenbaum told Scotton, explaining she needs to ensure that he gets a fair trial without unnecessarily violating his wife's privacy or introducing irrelevant matters.

"Why is the privacy of my wife important at this point?" Scotton asked the judge. "I'm facing jail time."

"[Let's] see if we can figure out a less intrusive way to prove the same thing," Rosenbaum told him.

I guess if you really don't want to go to jail, you'll do whatever it takes to prove you are innocent. No word on when Judge Rosenbaum will come back with her ruling, but hopefully Scotton will get a fair shake, both in the courtroom and on the sex tape.

Via Sun Sentinel