Posted on 03/07/2003 5:32:50 AM PST by GailA
Fed agents search photo ID studio By Chris Conley conley@gomemphis.com March 7, 2003
U.S. Secret Service agents Thursday morning visited a Midtown photography studio with a search warrant, carting off boxes of records and computer and camera equipment used to make identification cards.
No arrests were made at the Blue Light Studio at 245 S. Cooper, and the studio remained open for business.
The business does portrait photography for individuals and businesses and makes company ID badges, among other services. It also makes novelty identification cards.
Attorney William Massey, who represents the business, said the studio owners have made an effort to ensure its identification cards cannot be used for illegal purposes.
The novelty ID cards are clearly stamped to indicate they are not official, Massey said. People who have cards made are fingerprinted, he said. "They (owners) make sure the cards by Blue Light would be legal and difficult to use in an illegal manner," Massey said.
Two years ago, agents of the District Attorney General's Office seized equipment from the studio. Owner Terry Garner, while not admitting to any crime, agreed to make sure any cards made were marked as nonofficial, Massey said.
According to the search warrant inventory, the raid Thursday netted a range of equipment, identification cards, applications for cards and a letter to Garner from U.S. Attorney Terry Harris.
The inventory also states that the agents confiscated out-of-state identity cards they describe as fraudulent, and a "box of metallic social security cards, blank."
"We haven't done anything illegal," Garner said. "I don't know what it's about."
Garner said the novelty ID cards are popular during August when Elvis Presley fans gather in Memphis.
"In the wake of Sept. 11, (authorities) are being more cautious," Massey said. "I think they would have shut (Blue Light) if it were a full blown investigation of them."
Blue Light Studio opened on Beale Street in 1923 and remained downtown for 78 years at several locations. Elvis and Priscilla Presley, Rufus Thomas and a host of local celebrities had photographs made at the Blue Light over the years.
Garner, who bought the company in the late 1990s, moved the studio to the corner of Peabody and Cooper in 2001.
Both the Secret Service and U.S. Attorney's Office in Memphis declined comment on the case.
That must make people flock to their business
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.