Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : COURTS : Santa Ana Loses Its Shirt Fighting X-Rated Theater

“You can’t put a price on morality,” said Santa Ana City Councilman John Acosta, a staunch supporter of City Hall’s decade-long court battle to close the X-rated Mitchell Bros. Theatre, the only one in the city.

But you can put a price on the battle, and last week a judge did just that. He ordered the city to pay the theater’s costs of defending itself against a suit that the city filed in the late 1970s. Those costs, the theater’s attorney said, amount to about $1 million for a jury trial and three appeals.

A week earlier, another judge had made a similar ruling in another of the city’s lawsuits against the theater. In that case, the legal fees would amount to “tens of thousands of dollars,” the theater’s lawyer said. The city’s own legal fees were estimated at $300,000.

In all, the city lost four lawsuits, but there were plenty more where those came from. Since February, when the city stepped up its attack on the theater, the city has filed one lawsuit per week against the theater. Each lawsuit alleges that the movies playing in the theater that particular week are obscene. The city is trying to establish that the theater is a public nuisance and should be closed.

Last February, Robert C. Bobb, then city manager, and City Atty. Edward C. Cooper negotiated an agreement with theater attorneys in which the city would drop its lawsuits if the theater would drop its demand for compensation of legal fees.

The City Council, however, not only turned down the agreement but allocated another $200,000 to pursue the lawsuits.

After last week’s ruling, Councilman Robert Luxembourger called the prospect of paying the theater’s legal costs “frightening.” Acosta, however, said he wanted to see the fight continue. “I’m supportive of pursuing whatever is necessary,” Acosta said.

Council members were reluctant to comment on what would happen next. There was, however, an indication of what may be in store for a Superior Court judge.

Superior Court Judge Harmon G. Scoville ruled last week that the theater must provide copies of the movies the city alleges are obscene so that all 42 of them may be viewed by the judge conducting the hearing.

Scoville then transferred the case to another judge.