Closure Agreement Is Final Word in Corona Adult Bookstore Battle

The owner of Corona’s only adult bookstore has agreed to close her shop in exchange for $97,000 in attorney’s fees, bringing to an end more than four years of legal battles with the city.

Helen Ebel will close the Adult Book Store by Dec. 2, and the city will assume her lease until it expires in March under “principles for a settlement” released by city officials Thursday.

Corona will use the West 6th Street storefront for overflow office space while portions of City Hall are being renovated or operations reorganized, city attorneys Dallas Holmes and Meredith A. Jury wrote in a memorandum to City Council members.

Although federal judges have repeatedly ruled that Ebel’s store could stay in its Corona location, the owner agreed to close it down in exchange for apparently few concessions from the city. Corona officials agreed to pay a portion of her attorney’s fees, assume her lease and drop an appeal to have lower court rulings reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Silence Surrounds Pact

Neither Jury nor Ebel’s attorney, Roger Diamond of Pacific Palisades, would comment on the state and federal lawsuits over the bookstore or the agreement that will bring the lawsuits to an end. “We have said that the attorneys will talk no further,” Jury said. “ . . . That was one of the conditions.”

Ebel, who owns another adult bookstore in Garden Grove, also refused to answer reporters’ questions on Thursday.

The $97,000 payment to Ebel’s attorney “will defray a portion of Ebel’s attorneys fees incurred to date,” the city attorneys wrote. “It is not in any sense to be construed as a payment of damages.”

Ebel opened her store in Corona in July, 1981. A few days later, the City Council passed an emergency moratorium on adult bookstores in the city, saying it needed time to establish permanent restrictions on their locations.

Ebel complied with the urgency ordinance, closing the bookstore. She also sued the city in U.S. District Court, winning a temporary restraining order that prohibited the city from enforcing the ordinance. A month later, in October, 1981, the council passed a permanent ordinance severely restricting possible locations for adult bookstores and similar businesses.

Conditions of Ordinance

Under the Corona ordinance, adult bookstores can be located only in certain commercial zones; they must not abut residential areas or be situated within 750 feet of churches, schools or parks and they must not be within 500 feet of each other.

The ordinance allowed Ebel 60 days to move to a legal location, but U.S. District Judge William P. Gray ruled in January, 1984, that the ordinance also left her unable to find a legal location within Corona. Gray’s decision was upheld by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Aug. 1, 1985, which ruled that the city had unconstitutionally applied the ordinance to Ebel after she had opened her store.

Six days later, the council voted to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. The settlement announced Thursday calls for Corona to drop its plans for appeal.

While the city’s zoning ordinance was under attack in the federal courts, the city filed suit in state court, seeking to have the bookstore declared a public nuisance and thus force its closure.

Both sides presented arguments on pretrial issues in that case to the California Supreme Court in June. However, the bookstore’s closing will render the state case moot, said James Wheaton, Corona’s city manager.