section_path: Legal issues/2002–2004: Subsequent charges
section_name: 2002–2004: Subsequent charges
paragraph_text: 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, 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." 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 sex videotape ", and a few 30- to 100-year-old kitsch collectible images."
  
  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. 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. Reubens was represented by Hollywood criminal defense lawyer Blair Berk.
  
  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.
  
  In December, he pleaded not guilty through Berk. 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.
  
  Reubens later stated that he was a collector of erotica, including films, muscle magazines, and a sizable collection of mostly homosexual vintage erotica, such as photographic studies of teen nudes. 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.
  
  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 material, but not things featuring kids".
  
  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. In the 2025 documentary Pee-wee as Himself, publicist Kelly Bush Novak recalls "I got a call from Paul and he told me it absolutely wasn't true. He knew Jeffrey Jones and Jeffrey Jones was being accused of.. improprieties and that person who accused him had been to Paul's house with Jeffrey and other people. And that person accused Paul of possession of child pornography."
  
  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, 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." 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 sex videotape ", and a few 30- to 100-year-old kitsch collectible images."
  
  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. 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. Reubens was represented by Hollywood criminal defense lawyer Blair Berk.
  
  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.
  
  In December, he pleaded not guilty through Berk. 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.
  
  Reubens later stated that he was a collector of erotica, including films, muscle magazines, and a sizable collection of mostly homosexual vintage erotica, such as photographic studies of teen nudes. 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.
  
  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 material, but not things featuring kids".
  
  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. In the 2025 documentary Pee-wee as Himself, publicist Kelly Bush Novak recalls "I got a call from Paul and he told me it absolutely wasn't true. He knew Jeffrey Jones and Jeffrey Jones was being accused of.. improprieties and that person who accused him had been to Paul's house with Jeffrey and other people. And that person accused Paul of possession of child pornography."