Bible Group Pickets Blind Vendor at Courthouse

Carrying signs that said “What kind of books do our justices allow?” and “Our courthouse sells pornography . . . promotes sexual crime,” the Rev. Dorman Owens and members of his Bible Missionary Fellowship of Santee picketed outside the San Diego County Courthouse downtown Tuesday.

The Bible group frequently pickets pornographic theaters, gay bars, birth control clinics and 7-Elevens around San Diego County.

At the center of the controversy is the 12 Playboy and five Penthouse magazines that Muriel Goehring sells each month at her first-floor courthouse snack stand.

Goehring, who is blind, has operated Muriel’s Mansion for eight years. The Business Enterprise Program for the Blind leases the space from the county.

“My feeling is that I’m in a law enforcement building in the first place,” Goehring said. “If the law enforcement people say it’s not illegal, I will continue to sell them.

Goehring used to display the current issue of Playboy on the counter to remind her customers when a new issue came out. She said that six months ago, a coalition of female county employees urged her to replace the counter display issue of Playboy with the new issue of Cosmopolitan.

“Cosmopolitan’s cover is more provocative than Playboy’s,” she added, saying that she stocks 60 copies of Cosmopolitan each month. A single copy each of Playboy and Penthouse are now located on the top shelf of the magazine rack, directly behind TV Guide and to the left of more Cosmopolitans. “They’re discreetly displayed,” she said.

Goehring said the picketers, who protested in front of the courthouse steps during lunchtime, have not hurt her business and that, in fact, they have helped it.

“We’re booming,” she said. “People are coming in here to see the ‘smut-mill.’ ”

The Rev. Owens asked Goehring if she would stop selling the adult magazines.

“No. Unless we are informed by law enforcement people that we are in violation of the law or offensive to county employees,” Goehring said.

“If parent groups come in and say that candy is rotting their kids heads out, am I supposed to stop selling candy? Smoking cigarettes is hazardous to your health; am I supposed to stop selling them?”