Judge upholds charges against sex shops
BY HURST LAVIANA

A Sedgwick County judge on Wednesday refused to dismiss misdemeanor charges against a half-dozen Wichita businesses charged with selling obscene materials.

In issuing the ruling, District Judge Terry Pullman rejected the argument of one defense lawyer who said all the materials in question were readily available on the Internet.

"Times have very much changed," Charlie O'Hara argued. "The community has changed dramatically in the last few years.

"It's our position that the contemporary community standards in Wichita, Kansas, right now include the Internet."

The businesses were charged after two grand juries were asked to investigate several adult businesses in 2005 and 2006.

The juries were convened after an anti-pornography group called Operation Southwind petitioned for the investigation of stores that sell sex toys, videos and other adult products.

The first jury returned a single indictment in November 2005, charging the owner of a West Kellogg Priscilla's store with one count of promoting obscenity, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a maximum $2,500 fine. The charge cited a DVD about oral sex.

The second jury led to similar charges against five businesses: After Dark Video, 2809 N. Broadway; Video Adventures, 2726 N. Amidon; Circle Cinema, 2570 S. Seneca; After Dark Video, 3721 S. Broadway; and X-Citement Video, 3909 W. Pawnee.

O'Hara said he wondered if jury members were aware of the existence of Internet porn sites.

"I want to know if the grand jury was told that you can buy similar items to these on all kinds of Internet sites, and you can have them shipped to Wichita," he said.

Pullman suggested that any randomly chosen jury would probably include a few Internet-savvy members who were aware of such sites. He nevertheless agreed to review the sealed transcripts of the proceedings to make sure the juries weren't specifically told to ignore the Internet.

Steve Joseph, one of two other defense lawyers in the case, attacked a part of a state law that makes it illegal to "knowingly or recklessly" distribute obscene material.

"What does it mean to recklessly distribute obscene material?" he asked.

Under state law, he said, "reckless" suggests that a person is posing a danger to someone else.

Pullman said he didn't think a jury would be confused by the wording.

A third lawyer, Jim Pratt, suggested that three magazines --"Women Who Love Bondage," "Bondage Parade" and "Bondage Fantasy" -- did not fit the legal definition of obscene. The third magazine, he said, was a collection of cartoons that included no photographs.

Prosecutor Mike Jennings, however, noted that the law applied to patently offensive "representations or descriptions" of sex acts.

"There's nothing in here that requires it to be actual," he said.

In the end, Pullman rejected all defense arguments and ruled that it would be up to a jury to determine what is considered to be obscene in the city of Wichita.

A trial date on the cases has not been set.