Costly Legal Battle

Santa Ana’s attempt to ban profanity at the city stadium is not the first time the city has had the temerity to try to censor what its residents see and hear.

For the last 10 years the city has kept up a senseless and costly legal fight to keep The Mitchell Bros. adult theater from showing X-rated films that the City Council considers pornographic. Those movies are being shown elsewhere without incident or official harassment.

During those 10 years the city has never made a case that the movies being shown at the theater are “obscene,” or that the theater itself is a “public nuisance.” It probably never will.

Last Wednesday a Superior Court judge ordered the city to pay the theater’s legal fees, which the Mitchell Bros.’ attorney said could be as high as $1 million. This should make the council think twice about pursuing its vendetta. This comes at a time when the city is working on its new budget and is painfully aware that it could use the money for many needed public services, such as police and fire protection.

What should make the legal ruling and potential drain on the city treasury even more galling to taxpayers is that it could have been avoided. Last February the council foolishly rejected a settlement that called for the Mitchell Bros. to drop their request for attorney fees if the city agreed to stop trying to shut down the theater. Instead of accepting the reasonable offer, worked out by the city manager, city attorney and the theater owners, the City Council decided to step up legal efforts that have thus far cost more than $300,000 and could cost an additional $60,000 a week to pay for copies of films over which the city has been filing weekly lawsuits. It has cost the city another $2,000 to $3,000 a week for notes, tapes and pictures provided by an undercover investigator hired by the city to attend all films at the theater for the last 11 years.

Some members of the council still seem determined to pursue the lawsuits. It’s time for more reasonable heads to prevail. What’s really immoral and obscene is the city’s attempt at censorship--and the way it throws away badly needed tax dollars on a frivolous and losing legal battle being kept alive by misguided morality.