Stanton Seeks to Close Adult Bookstore : Suit Says Owner Misrepresented Nature of Shop in License Form

Lawyers for the City of Stanton filed a lawsuit in Superior Court Thursday seeking an order halting the operation of an adult bookstore and movie arcade in a Beach Boulevard shopping center.

A hearing is scheduled today on the city’s request for a restraining order that would prohibit the Earmark Books & Video Center from conducting adult entertainment business.

Sells Graphic Books

The shop opened this week, displaying a variety of sexually graphic books, magazines and videotapes and a row of peep-show-type booths in the back of the shop.

City officials said Thursday that shop owner Ginger Cox misrepresented her intentions when she applied for a business license. “At no time did she indicate that she would be selling sexually explicit material,” City Manager Kevin O’Rourke said.

O’Rourke sent Cox a letter Feb. 12 revoking her business license and operating permit, an action Cox’s attorney said was not valid because no hearing was held first.

“Even if (Cox’s) application was a misrepresentation, it wouldn’t have made any difference,” said Roger Jon Diamond, a Palisades Park attorney representing Cox. “In order to revoke a license involving a First Amendment issue, the city must first give the licensee the opportunity to respond.”

‘We Were Misled’

City Atty. Thomas W. Allen disagreed: “If Ms. Cox had made an application for an adult bookstore, which is what she has there now, the license would not have been granted. We were misled, and we don’t feel it’s necessary to hold a hearing when we have clearly been misled by the applicant.”

By opening an adult entertainment establishment, Allen said, Cox violated provisions of the municipal code that restrict such operations to certain commercial and industrial areas. The Beach Boulevard shopping center, zoned neighborhood commercial, is not one of those areas, he said. Although Cox’s shop is the only adult entertainment business in the city, Allen said there are “clearly” places in Stanton where such establishments would be permitted.

Diamond, characterizing the city’s concern as “silly,” said local zoning laws are overly restrictive and therefore unconstitutional. A business like Cox’s restricts minors from viewing X-rated material more effectively than other businesses, he said. “Kids go into liquor stores and look at all the magazines. They can’t do that here,” he said.

Council Ordinance

Tuesday night, the City Council unanimously passed an ordinance including “mini-motion picture arcades” among the businesses that are considered adult entertainment in Stanton, Councilman Mike Pace said. The new ordinance, effective immediately, also prohibits blinds, doors and other means of obscuring the interior of booths from the general store area, he said. There are 10 movie booths in the shop, each of which can be locked from the inside.

“She has opened a hard-core porn palace, and that’s why we’re going to court to seek a temporary restraining order,” Pace said. “She’s clearly in violation of federal court rulings and, with the locked booths in a place full of sexually explicit material, she is not in compliance with our ordinance,” he said.

Shopping center manager Rich Romano said Thursday that Cox had not violated the terms of her lease, which was recently altered to prohibit printed material “that shows more than Hustler” magazine. Jack Frank, who is buying the center, said Cox’s lease was negotiated with the shopping center’s present owner, Norbert Foigelman. Frank said he “inherited” the lease when he opened escrow 2 1/2 months ago but said he will talk to Foigelman about voiding the lease to avoid legal problems. Foigelman could not be reached for comment.

‘Economic Disadvantage’

Councilman Jim Hayes said the bookstore “will be an economic disadvantage to the city and will discourage other businesses from locating in the shopping center.” Moreover, he said, the shop is “obnoxious to the sensibility of our citizens.

“They throw the First Amendment at you, talking about rights,” he said angrily. “But other people have rights too, to maintain neighborhood standards they want. We have to balance these rights.”

Cox said the material she has on sale is not “hard core” and said she doesn’t see what all the fuss is about. “What’s wrong with making love?” she said. “We can take pictures of everything else we do.”