Gordon R. Foote Jr. '70 has become the first Harvard Undergraduate to be arrested for selling Avatar. He was nabbed for having allegedly sold the controversial publication to a 17-year-old girl outside the Coop.

Foote, a resident of Dunster House, was arrested by Cambridge Police and booked on charges of "selling obscene literature to a minor." He is eligible for a maximum jail sentence of five years.

Arraigned in the East Cambridge District Court last Saturday, Foote entered a plea of "not guilty." His case will be heard again on February 1.

Defenders

Foote was represented in the District Court by Luther S. Harshbarger 3L, president of the Harvard Voluntary Defenders. Harshbarger said that the Voluntary Defenders have helped with seven of the 32 Avatar cases which are pending in court.

The last Avatar. decision came in December when Judge Edward M. Viola of the District Court in East Cambridge said that he did not have jurisdiction to pass on the case. It was sent to the Middlesex County Superior Court where Attorney Joseph Oteri, of Crane, Inker and Oteri, took over the defense.

Foote, who said he has been peddling Avatar for the last three months, was selling the seventeenth issue--"the children's edition"--when he was arrested.

"Lots of people around Harvard are buying Avatar from kids who are taking all of the risks. If people want to keep buying Avatar, they're going to have to sell it as well," Foote continued.

"The paper is in bad shape both legally and financially. The only thing which will prove to Cambridge officials that Avatar is here to stay is if lots of respectable people come out and sell it in the streets," he said.