June 17, 2006 | Sex & Society

Firing of porn deputies upheld

Free Speech is protected by the Constitution -- but only when it really is "free"; if money has changed hands it's another story.  That's what two Florida police officers learned this week when an appeal of their dismissals for appearing in Internet porn videos was rejected by a federal court. 

A three-judge panel  of the United States' 11th Circuit Court ruled in Ronald Thaeter v. Palm Beach Co. Sheriff's Office that the Palm Beach, Fla., County Sheriff's Office (PBCSO) did not violate two deputies' Constitutional rights when it fired them for appearing in pornographic materials that were distributed online -- even after an internal investigation cleared them of any wrongdoing.

The participation of Deputies Ronald Thaeter and Timothy Moran in adult videos and photos, which were reported to officials by a private citizen, are not protected speech, according to the court, because the “paid participation of Deputies Thaeter and Moran in pornographic photographing and videotaping for Internet display for a fee does not qualify as a matter of public concern under any view of the public concern test."

According to YNOT.com, the court likened the deputies' case to San Diego v. Roe, in which a police officer masturbated on video while wearing his uniform. The deputies' lawyer, Richard L. Rosenbaum, argued that his clients' case was different, though, because they were not in uniform and were not representing themselves in the videos as police officers.

The court did not take the differing facts into consideration.  It said in its decision that Thaeter and Moran violated a rule requiring them to seek permission from the sheriff's office to engage in any off-duty employment.

“What you do on your own time is your own business,” lawyer Rosenbaum said. “What these officers did was not obscene, not illegal, and not any of the Sheriff Office’s concern.”

A deputy requesting permission from his superior to appear in a porn video. We'd just love to be a fly on a wall for that conversation!

• Firing of Florida deputies who appeared in online porn upheld by 11th Circuit [YNOT Masters]