CANADA – Two courthouse sheriffs briefly suspended due to their participation in a porn video that has appeared online knew the video was intended for Web distribution and signed a release form acknowledging such, according to the husband and wife production team that created the video.The officers, Jacqueline Burgoyne and Rick Gordon, filed a lawsuit last month, in which the pair claims they were drunk when they signed the waiver, and were unaware that the video would be posted to the Net.

Au contraire say Oshean de St. Clair de Guise and her husband Johannes, who filmed the video in question.

In a statement of defense filed in court earlier this week, the porn producing couple asserts that that they met the sheriffs mere hours before recording the video, and that the officers discussed a “desire of being introduced to the business of making reality video recordings of sexual activities.”

“Our position is they freely consented and knew what was going to happen when the video was shown,” said attorney for Oshean de Guise, David Guttman, according to reports from the Sun Media news service.

According to the statement of defense, the sheriffs were informed prior to filming the sex scenes that they would have to sign a consent form authorizing the video to be published on Oshean’s website for commercial purposes.

The consent form allegedly signed by the sheriffs reads, in part, “I am at least 18 years of age and eligible to participate in adult photo/video production for commercial purposes.”

In an affidavit filed earlier this month, however, Burgoyne claims that she believed the porn video was recorded only for the “personal use” of both couples.

In their lawsuit, Burgoyne and Gordon claim they have had their privacy violated and suffered humiliation and embarrassment due to the distribution of the video.

Burgoyne and Gordon were suspended on December 28th, 2006, after rumor of the video began to spread. According to Sun Media reports, the two were reinstated on January 8th, but subsequently took an immediate “stress leave” of absence before returning to work last week.

In January, Burgoyne and Gordon won a court order temporarily removing the video from Oshean’s website, pending a final hearing. According to Sun Media, a hearing will be held next month to decide whether the order removing the video should be made permanent.