Making national headlines is an interesting lawsuit filed against the Marin County town of San Rafael recently, one in which a large porn magazine & video tape collection is at stake. A convicted “Peeping Tom” is angry that his porn collection was seized by police after he was caught surreptitiously videotaping a teenage girl and another woman in without their consent. Dennis Saunders of Healdsburg was convicted of 48 misdemeanors in 2002 related to making the secret tapes of the females in their bedrooms and bathrooms at an apartment complex where he worked and was sentenced to eight years.

Well it’s been a few years now, and the now 59 year old Saunders is recently out due to “good behavior” and wondering whatever became of his large collection of many pornographic mags & vids.

Saunders attorney Jon P. Rankin claims it is worth at least $10,000, Saunders claims $25,000. The plaintiffs allege that cops have no right to keep hundreds of these “unrelated” items, since Dennis hasn’t asked for the numerous homemade vids he took that led to his conviction, instead he merely wants the commercially purchased portion of his collection returned, one meticulously cataloged by authorities. These vids include “Best of Naughty Neighbors, Amorous Amateurs, Raw Sex Mardi Gras 1 & 2, “, ( The lurid list is available in it’s entirety via the court docs online at The Smoking Gun).

The attorney, Rankin, known for his casual dress in court and traveling in a ‘58 Caddy packed with pink flamingos went to Petaluma Highschool (Rankin’s 1973 Yearbook Pic @ right), and has been active in the legal profession since 1982. A tenacious litigator, he’s won numerous acquittals & property returns for controversial clients, is past president of the Tiburon Rotary Club and currently sits on the Tiburon Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. Rankin is a previous recipient of the A. Leonard Bjorklund award, named for a founding director of Alternate Defenders Inc., a nonprofit corporation that provides legal services to indigent defendants in Marin.

A 2006 profile in the Marin Independent Journal paints a picture of an attorney who likes to argue, and is bravely bent on assisting defendants, no matter the depths of the dastardly depravity they are accused of…

More on the attorney & a blurb on the porn suit from the “msm” after the jump:

Here’s a clip from the Marin IJ’s 2006 profile of Jon Rankin and some of the case loads he’s handled…

“As a lawyer in Marin, Rankin has a knack for catching interesting cases, both as a court-appointed defense attorney and as a civil attorney.

In 2001, he represented a former Kosovo war refugee and freedom fighter who fled the Serbs and settled in Corte Madera with his family. The man was charged with 18 counts of domestic violence, child endangerment and related violations; Rankin argued that his client suffered post-traumatic stress from the war. Prosecutors eventually dropped 15 charges in a plea bargain negotiated by Rankin.

Last year, Rankin won an acquittal for an 18-year-old Marin City man charged with attempted murder in the shooting of a 13-year-old Marin City boy.

Also last year, Rankin won an acquittal on attempted murder charges for a San Rafael man who struck a rival with his car in Marin City. Rankin’s client was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon instead, receiving a suspended sentence and probation.”

In another case, Rankin represented a suspect in a firearms case and not only got him acquitted but forced authorities to return the gun. But the client threatened Rankin in his office because the gun wasn’t being sent back fast enough.

Rankin kept his finger near a “panic button” behind his desk, but the gun owner eventually left without incident. Rankin says he’s extremely reluctant to hit the button on a defendant because “it’s just bad for business if you’re calling the cops on your own client.”