Rival Reveals Candidate’s Porn Conviction

Gene La Pietra, one of two front-running candidates in West Hollywood’s third City Council election, owned two adult bookstores and an adult movie arcade in southeast Los Angeles County in the early 1970s and was convicted in 1971 for selling a pornographic film to a county sheriff’s deputy, according to court records and legal documents made public by his opponent, Abbe Land.

The documents show that La Pietra, 38, who now owns a popular Hollywood discotheque and is an influential fund-raiser for gay rights organizations and other causes, was sentenced to six months imprisonment in Los Angeles County Jail and a $1,000 fine for the misdemeanor conviction of selling the film, described by county prosecutors at the time as depicting “sex, nudity and excretion.”

But La Pietra and his attorneys at the time, David Brown and John Weston, said this week that the sentence was never imposed because it was set aside by a Los Cerritos Municipal Court judge in 1972 or 1973.

The conviction was disclosed by Land’s staff, which produced Superior Court records of appeals made by La Pietra of his Municipal Court convictions, requests for injunctions filed against La Pietra by the cities of Norwalk and Bell Gardens and replies by La Pietra’s defense attorneys, including an affidavit from La Pietra himself.

However, there are no existing Municipal Court records of the case. Eileen Bly, assistant to John Gomez, clerk of the Los Cerritos Municipal Court, said misdemeanor records more than 10 years old are routinely destroyed. In addition, the Municipal Court judge at the time has gone on to the Superior Court and says he does not recall the details of the case, and the county assistant prosecutor at the time cannot be located.

As a result, no court records are available indicating that La Pietra served any time in jail. Neither are there any documents showing that La Pietra’s sentence was set aside.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge M. Ross Bigelow, who was the original judge in Los Cerritos Municipal Court in La Pietra’s case, said he doubted that he would have voided the candidate’s sentence. But Brown and Weston said another judge probably set the sentence aside because by November, 1973, Bigelow had been elevated to his Superior Court post.

Despite the uncertainty about the disposition of La Pietra’s sentence, the candidate and his attorneys acknowledged his role in adult businesses in Norwalk and Bell Gardens and his 1971 obscenity conviction.

La Pietra, who said he sold the adult businesses in the mid-1970s, said his ownership of the bookstores and arcade was an example of his “pioneering spirit.” He expressed confidence that the disclosures would not harm his standing among West Hollywood voters.

“I don’t think I have to spend a moment justifying my actions,” La Pietra said during an interview last week. “What am I being condemned for? Success? That seems the thrust of this argument. You can’t be put on the defensive if you’re proud of your past.”

But Land said the documents would raise questions about his judgment and character.

“I think it will concern voters,” Land said. “Pornographers are not traditionally considered a community’s most upstanding citizens. Here we have a man who has been convicted of a crime who is portraying himself as an upstanding businessman in this community for the past 20 years. It makes you wonder.”

La Pietra countered Land’s insistence that the bookstores and movie arcade were strictly adult-oriented businesses. Instead, La Pietra described them as “novelty stores.”

“These stores were general in nature,” he said. “We sold adult materials and we sold novelty items like rings, jewelry, posters and key chains. I don’t think either side of the business was out of proportion.”

But Parke Skelton and Barbara Grover, Land’s campaign managers, said, “The cities of Bell Gardens and Norwalk certainly decribed these places as adult bookstores.” According to the re cords, the Hong Kong Cinema (La Pietra’s Norwalk store) had an exterior sign advertising “Explicit Adult Movies” and a 40-foot-high overhead sign that read “Nude Movies.”

“Those are not the kind of signs you normally associate with a tame novelty store,” Grover said.

The documents indicate that La Pietra had bought both stores in Norwalk and Bell Gardens by at least March, 1972, although he said in an interview that he does not remember the exact purchase dates. According to records, he battled continuously with police and officials in both cities. City attorneys in Norwalk and Bell Gardens sought Municipal Court injunctions in an attempt to close both stores. Those efforts ultimately failed, but the stores no longer exist.

La Pietra complained in one affidavit filed in May, 1972, that police in Bell Gardens had seized more than 50 books and magazines from his store, Book City News, and that, in one case, they raided his home.

“This was a time in American history when the press and printed matter were seized upon,” La Pietra said last week. “These were the repressive Nixon years. It was the mentality at the time to go after adult businesses.”

On April 26, 1971, according to court documents, La Pietra was arrested after selling one reel of a pornographic 8mm film to an undercover county sheriff’s deputy. On Dec. 28, 1971, Judge Bigelow convicted La Pietra of violating section 311.2 of the state Penal Code, which prohibits the distribution or sale of obscene matter.

La Pietra’s sentence was stayed through the summer of 1972 while his attorneys filed two appeals with the California Supreme Court and, after those appeals were denied, a writ to overturn his conviction. The writ, too, was denied, on Sept. 20, 1972.

“After the appeal and the writ were denied, there should have been nothing left but to serve his time,” said Bigelow.

County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Lt. Frank Woodall said county jail records from that period no longer exist.

Attorney Weston said La Pietra did not serve a sentence because Weston and a county assistant prosecutor worked out an agreement some time in 1972 or 1973.

“My recollection is that the prosecutor agreed to vacate the jail term in exchange for our agreement not to pursue further writs in federal court or challenge the legality of the sentence to the U.S. Supreme Court,” Weston said. He said the deal was approved by a Los Cerritos Municipal Court judge, whose name he cannot recall. The county assistant prosecutor could not be located.

As with the sentence, there are no remaining records to verify such a deal. La Pietra said he is unsure how the case finally ended, but is adamant that he never served any time. “I never went to jail on that charge,” he said.

La Pietra went on to describe the adult-oriented book and film business as “classically misunderstood by the courts and the public. Anything I sold is readily available in supermarkets and video rental stores today. None of those things are illegal.”

Land agreed with La Pietra about the legality of adult material. But she added that “as a woman and a feminist, I find pornography repugnant. It is clearly degrading to women.”

And Land also expressed concern about the image that La Pietra would bring to the city. La Pietra has previously condemned the City Council for projecting a “flaky image” to the media and other governments.

“I don’t think this council is flaky,” Land said. “But I think people will wonder about the image he might bring. How will someone with that background help the city’s image?”

La Pietra replied, “I don’t think I would tarnish the city’s image at all. These are things that happened 14 years ago. If anything, this casts a terrible shadow on Abbe Land and the kind of campaign she’s chosen to run.”

Although La Pietra publicly minimized the impact the disclosures would have on his campaign, he and several campaign staffers spent the end of last week telephoning backers in an effort to firm up their support.

Hope Boonshaft-Lewis, La Pietra’s press aide, said Monday that his backing remained solid. “I can’t think of anyone who has rescinded their endorsement,” she said.

But several other West Hollywood community activists and political observers said the continuation of La Pietra’s support would depend on how gay and community endorsing organizations reacted to the disclosures about La Pietra’s past.

Last Thursday, the political steering committee of the influential gay-oriented Municipal Elections Committee of Los Angeles tentatively indicated its support for La Pietra, who has made major financial contributions to the group. But Lynn D. Shepodd, a co-chair of the group, said a final endorsement was being withheld until members discussed the disclosures and until the group completes recommendations on other local political races.

Another West Hollywood political leader said, “Different people have different views on pornography, but a lot of us are being cautious. We don’t want to end up backing another Valerie Terrigno.”

Terrigno, elected to the council in the city’s first election, was convicted and imprisoned briefly earlier this year for embezzling more than $6,900 in federal funds. It is her vacated council seat that La Pietra, Land and a third candidate, Stephen Michael, are seeking.

Like Land, Michael questioned La Pietra’s handling of his past. “If these are the business credentials that he brings to West Hollywood, I don’t think West Hollywood wants them,” Michael said. “It seems ironic to me that a man who champions feminism and human rights does it with money he made from pornography.”