Investigation In 1991, a California law enforcement officer came into possession of one of the comics, parts of which reminded him of the then-unsolved
Gainesville student murders in Florida. which would later total $10,000. Baggish argued that Diana's work was obscene in a way that an easily available teen
horror movie was not, because the latter "portrays violence in a gross way, but it does not portray sex in a patently offensive way", which is one of the criteria for obscenity under the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court
Miller v. California ruling, the other two being an appeal to the "average" prurient interest in sex, and the lack of any artistic, literary, political, or scientific value. According to Lirot, the jury was visibly disgusted by the examples of
Boiled Angel that they were made to read. According to Diana, the jurors were asked "what their idea of art was, and one of them said '
needlepoint'." Baggish also called as a witness Tampa psychologist Sidney Merin, who stated that people "of questionable personality strengths" could be aroused by the comic book. making Diana the first artist to be convicted of obscenity in the United States. ACLU's Blumner was surprised by these provisions, saying, "I don't know of any time when such monitoring has been used on an artist. It reminds you of mind control. The fact that the state doesn't like Michael Diana's attitude and will send him to experts and conduct searches is like legalized lobotomy." Susan Alston Executive Director of the CBLDF at the time, in
Northampton, Massachusetts argued, "There have been about half-a-dozen comic book obscenity cases in the United States, but most involved store owners selling perceived obscenity—and as a result no artist was ever ordered to stop drawing. Michael Diana is the first known American artist who's been legally banned from drawing as part of his sentence." Richard Wilson, a national officer of the First Amendment Lawyers Association, called the sentence "absolutely illegal", saying that it amounted to unconstitutional prior restraint. Writer
Peter David characterized the sentence as "onerous".
Probation, appeals and other legal troubles Despite his and others' reaction to the sentence and Diana's bitterness toward those who targeted him, he says his probation officer, who followed his trial, was generally sympathetic and wished only to help him through his probation. During that time, Diana took up painting, and he produced one for
Wired magazine that depicted himself as a tiny figure in the courtroom and the judge and prosecutors as monsters surrounding him, which he jokingly suggested violated his probation. The only count of the three that was judged incorrect was the one for advertising obscene material, In February 2020, 26 years after his sentence, Diana was removed from probation. ==Post-legal trouble work==