ANDERSON, SC – After being spurred into action by religious outrage, a 13-member grand jury has indicted four Anderson country adult stores on charges of disseminating obscene material.Lucy’s Love Shop, Pandora’s Boxxx, Paradise, and 4 Your Eyes Only each face a maximum five-year prison sentence and maximum fine of $10,000.
Ingo Stugg, owner of 4 Your Eyes Only since 1992, was shocked by the indictment and believes they should be a serious concern for all citizens.
“This is the government going into people’s bedrooms,” he said.
Stugg’s shop sells lingerie, lotions, books, magazines, videos, and sex toys. According to him, these items can be purchased at many places that have not been targeted by religious opponents.
“You go to Wal-Mart, J.C. Penney’s, they’re selling these things,” Stugg argued. “You go to any kind of gas station and they’re selling these magazines. You can buy some of the books I sell here at Books-a-Million.”
Anderson County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy, Tim Busha, explains that the four-month investigations came about as a result of citizen complaints when Pandora’s Boxxx became the first adult business to open within the city limits, within a shopping mall. Prior to that, no formal complaints had been received about any adult businesses in the county.
Once the Anderson Prayer Task Force learned about the location plans for Pandora’s Boxxx, it organized prayer rallies and collected nearly 4,000 protest signatures. Task force head, Rev. Elva Martin says that some members investigated the area adult shops and concluded that they were selling legally forbidden items. As a result, the group took its findings to the sheriff’s office and then wrote a letter to the 10th Circuit Solicitor, requesting an investigation, which included undercover officers purchasing items from each of the four shops suspected of violating state law. The merchandise was then declared evidence.
Stugg and other long-time business owners have gathered more than 600 signatures in opposition to the indictment and plan intend to defend themselves, but expect the legal price to be dollar high, ranging between $20,000 and $30,000.
“How come we have licenses for years and they suddenly come out with these things,” he demands to know. “Where are we going where all these churches can tell us what we can and can’t sell? We pay our taxes the same as anybody.”
Ultimately at issue in these cases will be how obscenity is defined. Because of the vast difference of opinion that exists even within small geographical communities, prosecution of obscenity cases have been problematic and rare. Although the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution denies protection to materials deemed obscene, it extends protection to lesser forms of pornography. Further complicating successful prosecution is the 1973 Miller v. California decision wherein the U.S. Supreme Court established a three-part “contemporary community standards” test to define what material qualifies as obscene.
