Editing Paul Reubens (section)

=== 2002–2004: Subsequent charges ===
In November 2002, while filming [[David LaChapelle]]'s video for [[Elton John]]'s "[[This Train Don't Stop There Anymore]]", Reubens learned that police were at his home with a [[search warrant]]. Police were acting on a tip from a witness in the pornography case against actor [[Jeffrey Jones]],<ref>{{cite news |first=Stone |last=Phillips |publisher=NBC San Diego |title=Pee-Wee Herman creator speaks out |date=April 5, 2004 |access-date=October 7, 2012|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna4653913 }}</ref> finding among over 70,000 items of [[kitsch]] memorabilia, two grainy videotapes, and dozens of photographs that the [[city attorney]]'s office characterized as a collection of "[[child pornography]]."<ref name="persecuting" /> Kelly Bush, Reubens's [[personal representative]] at the time, said the description of the items was inaccurate and stated the objects were "[[Rob Lowe]]'s [[Rob Lowe#Sex tape|sex videotape]]", and a few 30- to 100-year-old kitsch collectible images."<ref>{{cite news |first=George |last=Rush |work=Daily News|location=New York |title='Pee Wee' Says His Porn Was Legal Kitsch |date=January 10, 2003 |access-date=October 6, 2012|url= http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/gossip/2003/01/10/2003-01-10_pee-wee_says_his_porn_was_le.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100830071650/http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/gossip/2003/01/10/2003-01-10_pee-wee_says_his_porn_was_le.html|archive-date=August 30, 2010}}</ref>

Reubens turned himself in to the Hollywood division of the [[Los Angeles Police Department]] (LAPD) and was charged with [[misdemeanor]] possession of obscene material improperly depicting a child under the age of 18 in sexual conduct.<ref>{{cite news |first=Richard |last=Winton |work=[[San Francisco Chronicle]]|title=2nd actor arrested on kid porn charges |date=November 16, 2002| access-date=October 10, 2008| url= http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/11/16/MN236439.DTL }}</ref> The district attorney looked at Reubens's collection and computer and found no grounds for bringing any [[felony]] charges against him, while the city attorney, [[Rocky Delgadillo]], formally charged Reubens on the last day allowed by statute.<ref>{{cite news |first=Charles |last=Feldman |work=[[CNN]] |title=Pee Wee Herman actor charged |date=November 16, 2002 |access-date=October 13, 2008 |url=http://archives.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/11/15/reubens.artwork.flap/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080924160107/http://archives.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/11/15/reubens.artwork.flap/index.html |archive-date=September 24, 2008 }}</ref> Reubens was represented by Hollywood criminal defense lawyer Blair Berk.<ref>{{cite news |agency=[[Reuters]] |website=The Space |title=Gibson brings in veteran defense lawyer amid drink driving charge |date=August 5, 2006 |access-date=October 11, 2008|url=http://arts.abc.net.au/news/artsnews_1707024.htm }}</ref>

{{Quote box| quote = One thing I want to make very, very clear, I don't want anyone for one second to think that I am titillated by images of children. It's not me. You can say lots of things about me. And you might. The public may think I'm weird. They may think I'm crazy or anything that anyone wants to think about me. That's all fine. As long as one of the things you're not thinking about me is that I'm a [[pedophilia|pedophile]]. Because that's not true.
 | source = Paul Reubens on the criminal charges made against him in 2002<ref name="creator speaks" />
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In December, he pleaded not guilty through Berk.<ref>{{cite news |agency=[[Associated Press]] |title=Actor charged with child porn |date=December 13, 2002 |access-date=October 10, 2008 |url=http://www.cjonline.com/stories/121902/usw_people.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090510054147/http://www.cjonline.com/stories/121902/usw_people.shtml |archive-date=May 10, 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In March 2004, child pornography charges were dropped in exchange for Reubens's guilty plea to a lesser misdemeanor obscenity charge. For the next three years, he was required to register his address with the sheriff's office, and he could not be in the company of minors without the permission of their parent or legal guardian.<ref name="creator speaks" />

Reubens later stated that he was a collector of [[erotica]], including films, muscle magazines, and a sizable collection of mostly homosexual [[Erotic art|vintage erotica]],<ref name="persecuting" /> such as photographic studies of teen nudes.<ref name="creator speaks" /> Reubens said that what the city attorney's office viewed as pornography he considered to be innocent art, and whether the memorabilia were pornographic images "depends on what one sees in those images". Reubens described the nude images as people "one hundred percent not" performing sexual acts.<ref name="creator speaks" />

Being an avid collector, Reubens often purchased bulk lots, and one of his vintage magazine dealers declared that "there's no way" he could have known the content of each page in the publications he bought, and the dealer recalled Reubens asking for "physique magazines, vintage [1960s] material, but not things featuring kids".<ref name="persecuting" />

During this ongoing legal issue, Reubens spent two years in Sarasota, Florida, caring for his terminally ill father, who died in February 2004 of cancer.<ref name="milton" /><ref name="return again">{{cite news |website=[[Today.com]] |title=The return (again) of Pee-wee Herman |date=June 19, 2007 |access-date=October 10, 2008 |url=http://www.today.com/id/19314030 |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016024251/http://www.today.com/id/19314030 |url-status=dead }}</ref>