Posted on 07/19/2002 6:18:07 AM PDT by FreeTally
Porn raid nets five arrests
Charges involve selling sex movies to a minor
By Tony Bridges
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER
Sheriff's deputies raided four Tallahassee sex stores Wednesday, charging five people with peddling grown-up movies to an undercover kid.
The arrests came after a 17-year-old girl posed as a customer and was able to buy adult videos at Rick's Toy Box on North Monroe Street, Greg's Video on West Tharpe Street, X-Mart Adult Superstore on West Tennessee Street and Intimate Encounters on Crawfordville Road, according to detectives.
Store owners decried the undercover sweep as "entrapment" and criticized deputies for exposing the 17-year-old to adult sex products. Sheriff Larry Campbell, once part of a campaign to drive adult stores out of Leon County, said he's just trying to make sure stores that sell dirty movies run a clean business.
The sting was prompted by complaints, including a letter-writing campaign, questioning sales practices at the stores, according to Sgt. Ed Cook, supervisor of the Leon County Sheriff's Office Vice Unit.
Detectives wired the teen-age girl - a high school senior who's frequently paid to do undercover alcohol buys - and sent her to shop at eight Tallahassee stores. They gave her marked cash, but told her to spend lightly, the girl said Thursday, asking that her name not be used.
It was her first time in a sex shop, but "you just have to be mature about it," she said.
She told store employees that she was shopping for her boyfriend, who was too embarrassed to come inside. Since the sting was operating on a budget, she avoided the expensive movies and shopped the $9.95 racks, she said.
In each store, she picked out one movie, browsed the lingerie sections briefly so she didn't arouse suspicions and then approached the check-out counters, the teen said.
Among the titles she selected: "Over my Knee, Part II" and "The XXX Files."
Clerks at four of the shops, including Rick's on West Tennessee Street, checked her ID and ordered her out.(sidenote-I don't get this part. Did they not sell, or did she keep comming back again and again) The others paid no attention as they sold to her - except for Bradley Harvey, owner of Intimate Emporium, who helped her pick out a video, the girl said.
"He gave me his card and he was like, 'Anytime you need anything, I've got catalogs,'" she said.
Harvey declined to comment Thursday.
He and clerks from three other stores were charged with selling obscene material to a minor, a third-degree felony. Each was released from the Leon County Jail after posting $2,500 bail.
Two of those arrested were at Rick's Toy Box. One of them was a veteran employee and should have known to check the girl's ID - but the other was simply there for a job interview and had no idea what was going on, according to Robin Smith, regional manager.
Smith said the store likely will help the job seeker with an attorney and said she was exploring other legal responses to the arrests. She had stern words for the Sheriff's Office.
According to Smith, vice detectives entrapped her workers by sending in a "dolled-up" teen-ager who looked much older than she was. Worse, they sent the girl into adult video stores, where she would have seen things she never should have, she said.
"They should look at what they did because they contributed to the delinquency of a minor by sending her into the store," Smith said. "They should look at what they did instead of just pointing the finger at us."
But don't expect the stings to end anytime soon - they're necessary to keep the adult businesses honest, said Sheriff Campbell.
In the early '90s, he and State Attorney Willie Meggs vehemently opposed adult-oriented businesses, arguing that they would lead to the birth of a gaudy "porn district" in Tallahassee. Meggs even prosecuted two store owners, but he gave up after one was acquitted by a jury in 1995.
The failure led to a minor rift between Campbell and Meggs: The sheriff backed off the campaign, saying his deputies had more important things to do, while Meggs publicly blamed his losses on a lack of aggressive law enforcement.
Now, Campbell says he's concentrating on catching violent criminals, but promises his deputies will be watching the growing number of porn shops in Tallahassee.
"As long as they abide by the law, they won't have any problems with me," he said. "But, if you sell to kids, you're going to jail.
Im more concerned that 1) We may have a creepy Sherrif's department that gets off on exposing young girls to adult products and 2) That there are parents out there that approve of this and allow their daughter to do it. Hell, I'd almost bet a parent or relative of hers is a cop.
Or walk in and check for ID's. They do it in bars around here all of the time. The porno store can be cited for allowing them to come in, period, as far as I know.
I'm content to let her parents be the judge of that.
If they wanted to bust the stores for selling to under-age teenagers, then they should have waited outside the store and checked ID's after purchase.
However, that would take a great deal more police time, and from what we're hearing from freeper residents of the area, the police also have a lot of other pressing matters that need dealing with.
Yep, I was there. As was a policeman off duty who works the downtown area. He watched the whole thing and approached the clown who was "stinging" the place. He questioned the tactics, and was promptly threatened with trouble down at the station if he interferred.
The resturant around the corner was ticketed the same afternoon for having more than one drink in front of a customer who had been the recipient of complimentary cocktail. Seems ya can't do that in Chicago.
Freakin jerks. The local thugs are almost always worse than the federal thugs.
One of the few things that the government is content to allow parents to be the judge of.
What escapes me is the rush to protect porn, drugs, immorality, and anything else that debilitates society.
I don't think you will have much of an argument here that our culture and society has been in the hole for the last forty years. But this is not what we should be paying our law enforcement to do. They are there to protect us from the bad guys.
Common sense, works wonders.
BTW - the stores that caught the girl and tossed her out, do they have a lawsuit for attempted entrapment, disrupting a lawful business, and contributing to the delenquincy of a minor?
Everyone is a bad guy to some people.
Figures. At least there seems to be a reasonable officer around there.
The resturant around the corner was ticketed the same afternoon for having more than one drink in front of a customer who had been the recipient of complimentary cocktail. Seems ya can't do that in Chicago.
Say What? I guess they don't have "2 for 1" drink specials there. Wow.
Freakin jerks. The local thugs are almost always worse than the federal thugs.
Yeh, both have figured out how to extort money from the citizens under the color of law.
The problem is that, if the store sold, there would be no crime. They want you to commit a crime. Also, they would be making a fake ID - a crime ;-)
A clerk should check anything close to borderline in appearance and better throw out anyone displaying "proof" they are underage. This way the cops avoid committing a CRIME to possibly entrap others to break the law.
The one store I have been in asks for ID when you come in the door. They have signs saying "Its the parents repsonisbility to keep your kids out. If they come in with a fake ID, we will not be responsible" or something like that.
Common sense, works wonders.
You would think.
BTW - the stores that caught the girl and tossed her out, do they have a lawsuit for attempted entrapment, disrupting a lawful business, and contributing to the delenquincy of a minor?
Not sure. The article seems to imply those are possibilities. The story is not clear as to what happened to the employees who tossed her out. It almost reads as if they arrested the people anyway. This could get real messy. IMO, this is even way different than sending in a kid to buy beer or cigs. You are exposing them to explicit adult products, not movies in plain wrappers.
Yeah, he is OK, but he is also one of the ones who drives home plowed most of the time. They don't seem to arrest their own, just us.
Say What? I guess they don't have "2 for 1" drink specials there. Wow.
No specials of any kind are allowed in the People's Republic of Chicago. No happy hour, nor "round to its". No cigarettes sold in the bar.
Except the cop bars, which sem somehow exempt. Funny like that.
It used to be and hopefully will be again some day.
Actually most people have made an art out of getting around the thugs. It's a Chicago tradition.
Exactly. If you've got Kazaa, there's no need to leave the comfort of your own home for puerno.
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