Max Hardcore was an infamous director in the adult industry, who was probably best known for his arrest.

In 2007, Max Hardcore was indicted in Florida by the United States Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section with five counts of transporting obscene matter by use of an interactive computer service and five counts of mailing obscene matter, relating to five movies showing fisting, urination, and vomiting.

He was subsequently found guilty on all charges and sentenced to 46 months in prison.  On appeal, the 11th Circuit Court in Atlanta, Georgia, upheld the conviction, ruling that materials published online can be judged by local community standards in Florida even though Hardcore did not live there or produce the materials there. He began serving his sentence on January 29, 2009 and ended up spending and a half years in prison.

That, however, wasn’t his first run-in with the law. That would have come about in 1998 because of his movie Max Extreme volume 4 when the city of Los Angeles charged him with child pornography and the distribution of obscenity. That the actress was over 18 was not disputed; charges were brought because the actress was portraying an underage character.

This 9-second clip was from the scene from the Max Hardcore movie Universal Max 4. The girl in question, known simply as “Courtney,” did anal, and got a golden shower, all while playing the role of an underage child.

Yes, in real life, she was over 18, but she played the role of someone who was 12 and a half years old.

Just before the case was brought to trial in 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition) that the statute prohibiting adults from portraying children in films and books was unconstitutional. Based on this ruling, the child pornography charges against Max Hardcore were dismissed.

The misdemeanor charge of distribution of obscenity was retained, but the jury failed to reach a verdict. An additional obscenity charge was subsequently levied against him by L.A., again resulting in a hung jury.

According to his longtime business partner and friend Paul Munoz, Max Hardcore died from septic shock and pneumonia on Monday. He was 66 at the time of his passing.

He had been undergoing a final round of radioactive iodine treatment from his year-long battle with thyroid cancer when he was hospitalized Friday in a suburb east of L.A. with an infection in his throat that spread to other parts of his body, causing his organs to fail, Munoz said.

May he rest in peace.