SPARTANBURG COUNTY, SC – Prosecutors have dropped charges of disseminating obscene materials against two employees of a Spartanburg location of the chain video store Movie Gallery, according to a report in the Spartanburg Herald-Journal.The dismissed charges stemmed from a raid conducted in January at the Movie Gallery store located at 120 Garner Rd in Spartanburg’s Fairview Heights area. In the course of the raid, investigators seized hundreds of adult videos and arrested store clerks Shawn Wesley Price and Tamika LaShonda Grier.

Price and Grier were both charged with disseminating obscene material. An additional charge of disseminating obscene material to a person under 18 years of age was entered against Grier.

The dropped charges are part of an agreement reached earlier this year that ended a federal lawsuit brought against the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Department by Movie Gallery and Priscilla’s, an adult shop that was raided on the same day as Movie Gallery, according to Spartanburg County Deputy Solicitor, Donnie Willingham.

“That’s part of the agreement between the sheriff’s office and the county of Spartanburg to end that federal litigation,” said Willingham, according to the Herald-Journal.

Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright expressed relief, and told the Herald-Journal he was glad that the situation ended with a “peaceful resolution.”

Although Priscilla’s and Movie Gallery have both agreed not to sell items that allegedly violate South Carolina’s obscenity laws, including content that depicts violence against women, bondage, and certain other sex acts, charges of distributing obscene materials are still pending against two employees of Priscilla’s.

According to the Herald-Journal, Willingham declined comment as to whether charges would also be dropped against Priscilla’s employees Permethia Burnett Bradburn and Eliza Albertha Gathers.

In the interim since the January raid, the Movie Gallery location that was raided has closed up shop. Company officials for Movie Gallery said the closure was not related to the raid, however, but to a chain-wide effort to minimize overlap in market areas for Movie Gallery and video store chain Hollywood Video, which is now a subsidiary of Movie Gallery.