$15,000 Bail Set for "Pedophile's Guide" Author Phillip Ray Greaves II

BARTOW, Fla. (CBS/AP) A Florida judge set a $15,000 bail Wednesday for Phillip Ray Greaves II, author of "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure: A Child-Lover's Code of Conduct," a how-to guide for pedophiles that was pulled form Amazon.com last month.

Greaves was arrested Monday at his home in Pueblo, Colo. on a Florida warrant that charged him with violating Florida's obscenity law, which prohibits the "distribution of obscene material depicting minors engaged in conduct harmful to minors."

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd claims jurisdiction in the case because Greaves sold an mailed a copy of his book to undercover deputies in Florida who requested a copy.

During the hearing Wednesday, Greaves' attorney, Francis Solorzano, first asked Judge John Kirkland to drop the case before requesting that the judge reduce or eliminate the $15,000 bond.

"What we're dealing here is mere words," Solorzano said. "There are no images in the book."

But Kirkland said the judge who signed the arrest warrant had already found probable cause and could not override that decision. Kirkland decided to keep the bond at $15,000 and said if Greaves does post bond, he must stay in the state of Florida, not use a computer and not have contact with anyone under the age of 18.

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 was later removed from the site.

He writes in the book that pedophiles are misunderstood, as the word literally means to love a child, and adds that it is only a crime to act on sexual impulses toward children. Greaves goes on in the book to offer advice that purportedly allows pedophiles to abide by the law.

Greaves is being held at the Polk County Jail and told local media Tuesday that he "only has sex with grown-ups" and that writing and selling his book falls under his constitutional right to free speech.

If convicted of the third-degree felony, Greaves could be sentenced to five years in prison.

MORE ON CRIMESIDER
December 20, 2010 - "The Pedophile's Guide" Author Philip Ray Greaves II Arrested
November 11, 2010 - Amazon.com Pulls Pro-Pedophilia Book; "Pedophile's Guide" No Longer Available on Site, Kindle