MIAMI, FL — After listening to more than a day’s worth of arguments and presentations, Miami’s Code Enforcement Board ruled this week that Flava Works, an Internet adult production and distribution company owned by Phillip Bleicher, is illegally operating an adult business out of a single family home zoned solely for residential use and that the business must be shut down at that location immediately.”I think the city has met its burden of showing a link between the house on 27th Street and the website,” board member Oscar Rodriguez Fonts said before moving to deny a motion, made by Flava Works attorney James Benjamin, to dismiss citations posted by city code inspectors in May.
Flava Works operates CocoDorm.com, where visitors can, for a fee, watch live video streams from the house in question, where primarily black gay males are paid $1,200, plus room, board and meals, to live in the two-story home for a month and have sex with each other on schedule.
Monday’s hearing was the third in the case. Assistant City Attorney Victoria Mendez argued that Bleicher also was running an illegal rooming house, but that violation was dismissed.
Benjamin argued that the house, leased by Flava Works from owner Angel Barrios, was not part of the adult entertainment operation. He cited a Tampa case where the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that VoyeurDorm.com, a lipstick lesbian version of CocoDorm, was not guilty of similar violations.
He also argued that business transactions don’t happen at the house and that all sales and distribution take place at Flava Works’ business office, which isn’t located in the building.
”No member of the public came to the location to view, buy, trade, or obtain any adult entertainment,” Benjamin said.
”Miami’s adult entertainment ordinance encompasses internet activity in a way the Tampa ordinance did not,” board member Oscar Rodriguez Fonts said.
On Tuesday, Benjamin told the local press he intends to file an appeal within the next few days.
”But we’re not sure where we’re going to file the appeal yet,” he said. “We’re not going to put our tail between our legs and go away. The activity is protected by the First Amendment.”
On the CocoDorm website, the company has a statement on the matter posted, saying, “With the Code Enforcement Board’s ruling, starting today, the city will fine us up to $500 per day for each day we remain open. We are filing an emergency motion in federal court to block the city’s ruling citing VOYEUR DORM v CITY OF TAMPA and sue the City of Miami. Miami is wasting tax dollars to prosecute the legal CocoDorm residence, while drug dealers and prostitutes reign free on the streets of this neighborhood, which is known for its infamous ‘hoe stroll,’ but we suppose NBC and the city don’t care about real problems. Customers do not visit the CocoDorm location and neighbors didn’t know about CocoDorm (until NBC knocked on their door after they received an anonymous packet mailed by a competitor). What happens inside of CocoDorm is no different than what happens behind the closed door of any other house; people live, interact and have sex. This is our and your First Amendment right, and we will fight for these rights. By the way, no one from the neighborhood was present at any of the three hearings. In fact we have a petition of neighbors in support of CocoDorm! We will not close the CocoDorm!”
The daily damages claim runs counter to statements made by the board. Mendez told the local media that the decision would not be enforced immediately.
”The city has no problem with giving them two weeks to get their business affairs in order,” she said.
