Police find 17 sex toys in local woman's car during DUI traffic stop

Longview News-Journal ^ | November 21, 2001 | John Lynch

[riley1992]

11-21, local: Police find 17 sex toys in local woman's car during DUI traffic stop By JOHN LYNCH WHITE OAK — A Longview woman who sells sex toys has been charged with felony obscenity after White Oak police found some of her wares in her car during a traffic stop The arrest report describes the 17 items as "obscene materials and obscene devices," but Police Chief Charlie Smith said the items were mostly lotions and objects defined in a dictionary as having the shape and often the appearance of the male genitalia, used in sexual stimulation. How illegal is that? Prosecutors will have to decide when White Oak investigators forward their findings to the district attorney's office sometime in the next week, Smith said. "We'll see what they do with it," Smith said. Kathleen Elizabeth "Kathy" Grubbs, a distributor for the national company Slumber Parties Inc., calls the charge, which carries a maximum penalty of two years in jail, "kind of ridiculous." State law appears a little less forgiving: It's illegal to "wholesale promote" obscene materials or devices. Texas statute says an obscene device is a simulated sexual organ or an item designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs. The law allows investigators to assume that anyone with six or more of the items is intending to promote them. In April, Kilgore police raided the Adult Book Store/Video Store at 1907 Industrial Blvd., seizing 12 large trash bags full of devices police said were being sold illegally. The raid came after an undercover officer visited the shop twice before the raid, making at least one purchase. An 11-page inventory compiled by police estimated the materials were worth $19,082. The sexual devices on the 11-page inventory ranged in price from a "Climax Band" that sold for $5.95 to a "Wild and Crazy Tickler" for $11.95; a "Hyper Sonic G" for $69.95; a "Plush Playmate" for $89.95; and a "Cyber Sexploration Kit" for $44.95. The store owner, Robert Duggan III, was never arrested, but he agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor count of obscene display, a charge equivalent to a traffic ticket, and agreed to pay a fine and let police destroy the items. Grubbs, 47, said she has been selling the items for about two months as a distributor for Slumber Parties Inc., a national sex toy party business that operates out of Ohio and Louisiana. Slumber Parties is where the Tupperware party meets Victoria's Secret, the company says on its Web site. The distributors host women-only parties in private homes to show off their merchandise. Grubbs stresses the parties are only for adults, meaning no one allowed under age 18, and men are definitely prohibited. "Believe it or not, there's a lot of women who go to these parties," Grubbs said. "It's very popular." Company officials did not return a call Wednesday, but Slumber Parties claims its network of distributors sold $15 million in "romance-enriching" products, including lotions, powders, lingerie and private bedroom accessories, with prices ranging from $2.50 to $139. Sales this year are expected to reach $20 million. The seizure of the items occured during a traffic stop on Texas 42 on Old Highway 80 in White Oak at 10:27 p.m. Monday. Police stopped Grubbs' truck after seeing her driving erratically, an arrest report said. She failed or refused to perform field sobriety tests and was charged with driving while intoxicated, and a breath test showed she had blood-alcohol levels of 0.228 percent and 0.22 percent, the report said. Police searching her truck after the arrest found the box of erotic items. The White Oak police chief said investigators are used to finding drugs and guns, but sex toys are the first in his 22 years of experience. "There's no telling what you'll find on one of these stops," Smith said.

[oceanperch]

We need the War on Dildosnow?

[riley1992]

Orgasam

What is that? Some Americanized version of origami?

[oceanperch]

Maybe you should rethink carrying on a large dildo in this day and age it could be a feleciony.
"Maam you could poke an eye out with that thing"

[robjna]

The bahamas. I own a home there and they are very much people friendly. No income tax except 7% workers insurance.
they tax foreigners more heavily than their own citizens. if you are bahamian and own land , you pay no taxes until you build. I pay $3,000.00 in poperty taxes on a home valued at $400,000.00 They never tax your interest.

[Leto]

I'm waiting for some religious folk who find certain shapes embodied in plastic as dangerous, to hook up with the environazi, who find any plastic dangerous to link up, dildo's latest enviromental catastrophe!

[Hatteras]

"...a "Plush Playmate" for $89.95"

$89.95?! Does it come with a kick-start?

[agrandis]

Very interesting. I'll have to check out the Bahamas. Thanks.

[Hatteras]

I checked the Bahamas and they told you'd gone...

[Scully]

raging sex-toy madness!

Which reminds me of another funny story. My ex husband (before he became an ex) purchased a used car, and the entire family was proudly taking their first ride in it. Our daughters were in the back seat, and being the curious youngsters they were, began investigating their surroundings. To my great shock, our oldest pulled this...I can only describe it politely as a "thing"...from under the seat, held it up proudly and asked everyone to look at what she had found.

I hurridly made up some story about her finding a good "floor scrubber" (ok, really lame, but they were little), and retrieved the...um...appliance.

And yes, I threw it away at the local gas station just moments later.

[Sinner6]

This type of crap is why some of my gay friends voted for the democrats. This is the type of thing that feeds the idea that Republicans are trying to legislate in the bedroom. DAMN IT this annoys me.

[ASA Vet]

Your story reminded me of an incident at a house fire a few years back.
After the fire we (I was a Fire Dept Officer back then,) cleared the scene.
About an hour later I drove by just to insure we didn't have a rekindle.
(that's a failure to do it right the first time.)
There was a car in the driveway, and someone was using a
flash light inside the burned home.
Inside I found the 16 year
old daughter of the owner in her bedroom.
She was down on her knees removing things from a build in under bed drawer.
When I spoke, she jumped a mile, and dropped her battery operated sex toy on the floor between us.
Of course the drop turned it on.
She was the most embarassed young lady I'v ever seen.
She gathered up her "thing," and I escorted her out of the building.

[biblewonk]

Actually it's the obscenity thing I was talking about ;-)

[longshadow]

Texas does have the Constitutional right to ban dildos, ...

Not so fast, professor....

I would argue that these "devices" are nothing more than vibrating electro-mechanical contraptions -- nothing inherently obscene in that; thus, I see no Constitutional basis for banning the commercial sale of such devices, unless we are now going to allow the state to ban ALL vibrating devices.

The obscenity issue only arises once the device gets in to the hands (and orifices) of the user, assuming they decide to put it to such use. But who is to say what use the customer will put the device to? Perhaps, as "Scully" noted, they might decide to use it as a "floor scrubber"...... nothing obscene in that, unless you find clean, happy floors obscene.

It reminds me of the joke about the difference between kinky and perverted sex. "Kinky" is when you use a a peacock feather.......... "perverted" is when you use the whole peacock!

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

New homeland security dept-Orgasam Police.

And people wonder why so many women fake orgasms......

[Physicist]

nothing inherently obscene in that

Obscenity, by definition, is never inherent. Unfortunately, the standard seems to be no better than, "I know it when I see it," but the SCOTUS nevertheless does accept that there is such a thing as obscenity and that it can be banned under the Constitution. I'm not saying I like that, mind you...

[PatrickHenry]

I see no Constitutional basis for banning the commercial sale of such devices, unless we are now going to allow the state to ban ALL vibrating devices.

The constitutional issue is probably whether the state can ban auto-stimulation devices, as a matter of public safety, or health, or something like that -- the way they ban selling booze to minors. These things are usually done under the state's "police power," and I really don't know if such a ban would fly, given that most states have their own bill of rights in their constitutions. I'm a conservative fellow, but I can't imagine any rational reason for outlawing a device designed to provide self-stimulation. However, if this becomes a hot issue in Texas, it would be interesting to see what a crowd of single-issue voters would look like.

[Scully]

She was the most embarassed young lady I'v ever seen. She gathered up her "thing," and I escorted her out of the building.

You were the soul of discretion and tact. I must say though, I've never understood the whole sex-with-machinery thing.

[ThinkDifferent]

This is the type of thing that feeds the idea that Republicans are trying to legislate in the bedroom. DAMN IT this annoys me.

Right. There are plenty of people that want lower taxes and less government, but are convinced that Republicans want to turn the country into a Christian version of Saudi Arabia. If GOP leaders want to talk about the benefits of family values and monogamy, that's fine, and most people would agree with them. It's when they advocate throwing people in prison for entirely private acts that they understandably get worried.

[Old Professer]

You were the soul of discretion and tact. I must say though, I've never understood the whole sex-with-machinery thing.

It is a common misperception that Marilyn Chambers is ambidextrous.

[Hal.009]

"Don't tell anybody, but my wife and I have been known to violate this law with impunity.

I thought the combination of several live chickens, a gerbil, a tire swing and a five gallon bucket of axel grease had been banned in all fifty states for good cause.

You sir ... are a pervert!