Edit: Be careful about reading this, you may end up loving the man.
"In July 1991, while visiting with relatives, Reubens was arrested in
Sarasota, Florida for
masturbating during a film at an
adult movie theater.
[42] During a random police inspection, a detective who had observed Reubens detained him as he was readying to leave. (This sweep also resulted in three other arrests). When detectives examined his driver's license, Reubens told them, "I'm Pee-wee Herman", and offered to do a children's benefit for the sheriff's office, "to take care of this".
[54] The next day, after a local reporter recognized Reubens' name, Reubens' attorney made the same offer to the
Sarasota Herald-Tribune in exchange for withholding the story.
[54] In 1971, Reubens had been arrested in the same county for loitering and prowling near an adult theater, though charges were dropped. His second arrest was in 1983 when Reubens was placed on two years' probation for possession of marijuana, although adjudication was withheld.
[55] On the night of the arrest, Reubens went to Nashville, where his sister and lawyer lived, and then to New Jersey, where he would stay for the following months at his friend
Doris Duke's estate.
[11]
The 1991 arrest was widely covered, and Reubens and his character both became the subject of ridicule.
Disney-MGM Studios suspended a video that showed Pee-wee explaining how voice-over tracks were made from its studio tour.
Toys "R" Us removed Pee-wee toys from its stores.
[42] It was commonly thought that
Pee-wee's Playhouse got cancelled due to the arrest; in actuality the show was already retired as Reubens, claiming an overworked crew and
fear of decline of quantity and quality in material, had decided against a sixth season. However, the popularity of the show had put it into syndication, which CBS revoked in fall of 1991.
[55][56][57] Reubens released a statement denying the charges.
[58]
On November 7, 1991, Reubens pleaded
no contest. The plea kept the charge off Reubens' record and obligated him to spend 75 hours performing community service, making an anti-drug
public service announcement that he would write, produce and finance.
[59]
Despite the negative publicity, many artists who knew Reubens, such as
Cyndi Lauper,
Annette Funicello,
Zsa Zsa Gabor, and
Valeria Golino, spoke out in his support.
[35][42] Bill Cosby defended Reubens, saying, "Whatever [Reubens has] done, this is being blown all out of proportion." Other people who knew Reubens, such as
Playhouse production designer
Gary Panter,
S. Epatha Merkerson, and
Big Top Pee-wee director
Randal Kleiser, also spoke in support.
[24][35] Reubens' fans organized support rallies after CBS canceled the reruns, picketing in Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco.
[42][60] The TV news magazine
A Current Affair received "tens of thousands" of responses to a Pee-wee telephone survey, in which callers supported Reubens by nine-to-one.
[42]
Reubens, who for years would not give interviews or appear on talk shows,
[56][58] did make a subsequent public appearance as Pee-wee at the
1991 MTV Video Music Awards on September 5,
[61] where he asked the audience, "Heard any good jokes lately?" He received a standing ovation. Reubens then appeared as Pee-wee once in 1992, when he participated in a
Grand Ole Opry tribute to
Minnie Pearl.
[20][24] As part of his community service, Reubens returned to the Pee-Wee character for a
public service announcement, as well as reviving one of his Playhouse characters, a claymation character named "Penny" for a second PSA talking about the dangers of substance abuse....
...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, acting on a tip from a witness in the pornography case against actor
Jeffrey Jones,
[68] 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.
[2] Kelly Bush, Reubens'
personal representative at the time, said the description of the items was inaccurate and claimed the objects were "
Rob Lowe's
sex videotape, and a few 30- to 100-year-old kitsch collectible images."
[69] Reubens turned himself in to the Hollywood division of the
LAPD and was charged with possession of obscene material improperly depicting a child under the age of 18 in sexual conduct.
[70] The district attorney looked at Reubens' collection and computer and found no grounds for bringing any
felony charges against him, while the city attorney,
Rocky Delgadillobrought
misdemeanor charges against Reubens on the last day allowed by the statute.
[71] Reubens was represented by Hollywood criminal defense lawyer Blair Berk.
[72] In December he pleaded not guilty through Berk, who also complained that the city attorney failed to turn over evidence to the defense, which City Attorney Richard Katz countered that prosecutors were not required to do until after arraignment, after which they did; neither side disclosed the contents.
[73]
"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
pedophile. Because that's not true."
Paul Reubens on the charges.
[27]
In March 2004, child pornography charges were dropped in exchange for Reubens' guilty plea to a lesser 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 a parent or legal guardian.
[27] Reubens later stated that he was a collector of
erotica, including films, muscle magazines and a sizable collection of mostly homosexual
vintage erotica,
[2] such as photographic studies of teen nudes.
[27] Reubens said that what the city attorney's office viewed as pornography, he considered to be innocent art and that what they described as people underage engaged in masturbation or oral copulation was, in fact, a judgmental point of view of the nudes that Reubens described as people "one hundred percent not" performing sexual acts.
[27] Being an avid collector, Reubens had 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 that he recalled Reubens asking for "physique magazines, vintage 1960s material, but not things featuring kids".
[2]
He spent the next two years in Florida, caring for his terminally ill father, who died in February 2004 of cancer.
[5][74]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Reubens