Police Seize Phone Equipment With Sexy Messages for Callers

More than 15 telephone answering machines that provide erotic messages to callers have been seized by San Diego police.

The services, which advertised by placing business cards on the windshields of cars in the San Diego area, provided “extremely lewd and explicit sexual scenarios” to those who called in, according to Sgt. Thomas Giaquinto of the San Diego Vice Squad. Callers were billed $2 plus any toll charges by Pacific Bell telephone company, he said.

The seizure Wednesday was the first time police have sought to confiscate the equipment of such firms in California, according to police and officials at Pacific Bell telephone.

These kinds of charge numbers--all of which have 976 as the first three digits--are also used to raise money for disaster relief, provide horoscopes, stock quotes, dial-a-jokes and other uses, a Pacific Bell spokesman said.

The equipment was found at five locations and belonged to several different firms, Giaquinto said.

The seizure was made under Section 313.1 of the Penal Code, which prohibits the distribution of harmful material to a minor, Giaquinto said.

“We’ve had numerous complaints from parents whose children have called this service repeatedly,” he said. “Of themselves the message is probably legal, but to make it available to young children isn’t. There is absolutely no attempt to screen the callers and determine whether they are minors or not before exposing them to this sort of material.”

Giaquinto said that advertising through distribution of business cards may have fueled the massive increase in use, and attendant complaints, of the last few months.

“These cards are getting pased around the schoolyards, and apparently it is the young kids who are most likely to be repeat callers,” he said.

The equipment seizure was made after police obtained a search warrant ordering Pacific Bell to provide the addresses of the offices where the equipment was stored. Arrests are likely to follow as the investigation progresses, Giaquinto said.

But attorney Tom Homann, who said he “will probably represent” one of the operators whose equipment was seized, said that the seizure was “clearly in violation of the First Amendment.”

“It strikes me as totally bizarre to imagine that a recording of people breathing heavily and moaning could be construed as being in violation of the law,” he said. “There is absolutely no way that you can hold the operators of this equipment responsible for the failure of parents to control their own children. It’s unimaginable that they’ll get a conviction.”

Giaquinto said that police had anticipated that a legal challenge would take place when they made the seizure.

“Sure, there is always a legal question in these cases as to whether it is protected by the First Amendment,” he said. “But after receiving so many complaints I don’t think that there is anything that we could do in good conscience except take some sort of action.”

The equipment was in offices at 5410 Division St.; 5106 Federal St., Apt 101A; 1441 Elevation Road; 34 N. Euclid Ave., and 4931 Martin Luther King Way.

According to Giaquinto, the sophistication of the equipment varied substantially, from simple answering machines to “extremely sophisticated, multichannel devices that could accommodate several callers at once.”

“Some of this stuff is worth a whole lot of money. I think that fact alone will cause the owners to challenge the seizure,” Giaquinto said.

One number in San Diego offered callers a choice of five separate “sexual fantasies” that could be selected according to the type of scenario and “partner” desired, one man who used the service said.

All callers were billed automatically by the phone company, which also received a fee for each 976 call, Giaquinto added.

He said the operations in San Diego involved “millions and millions of dollars each year.”

“We talked to one operator who had a very simple operation and took in more than $250,000 in the course of 18 months,” he said.

The equipment was seized after a two-month investigation by the vice squad, during which police gathered evidence of minors who had used the phones and garnered the phone numbers from business cards that were distributed in the area. Cards featured messages such as “Lots of hot talk and all kinds of action” and “Put more sting in your stinger,” Giaquinto said.

Adult entertainment services have been a source of complaints since the 976 number service was started in California, said Pacific Bell spokesman Joe Castrovinci, who added that the court order prohibited Pacific Bell from discussing specifics of the San Diego seizures. The 976 service was introduced to the San Diego area in March, 1985, he said.

Although Pacific Bell is prohibited by the First Amendment from screening out such firms, the phone company has sought to reject them on the grounds that they violate the tariff agreement between Pacific Bell and the California Public Utilities Commission because they transmit “lewd and lascivious” materials, he said.

“We are very firmly opposed to these adult entertainment uses and have several cases pending in the courts that would prohibit them from using our lines,” Castrovinci said.

The Public Utilities Commission is drawing up regulations that would allow Pacific Bell customers the option of screening out all calls to 976 numbers, he said.

“Once those procedures are drawn up we are fully prepared to implement them,” he said.