GARDEN GROVE : City Seeks to Limit Peep Show Hours

Another round in the battle between the city of Garden Grove and the operators of peep shows is scheduled for today as the city attempts to crack down on alleged lewd activity and other problems at A-Z Books.

Attorneys for the city will appear before Superior Court Judge John C. Wooley seeking to impose shorter operating hours on the adult bookstore and peep show business at 8192 Garden Grove Blvd.

The store is open 24 hours a day. According to City Atty. Stuart C. Scudder, the city will be seeking to limit the operating hours to between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Residents of the apartment building behind the store have complained of customers littering, making noise and committing lewd acts, Scudder said.

A police report prepared for the City Council said that undercover police officers were solicited for lewd acts 15 times between October, 1988, and July, 1989. Also, a police officer has observed customers exposing themselves in arcade booths in the peep show portion of the business.

“Were those acts all on the A-Z property, or just near it?” asked Roger Diamond, attorney for the bookstore.

“There’s a world of difference there. I don’t have any evidence that lewd acts are being committed on the property. If it’s not on the property, that’s somebody else’s problem. And as for the noise, there’s a bar just a short distance away that can account for some of the noise.”

The city is also trying to get A-Z to remove the curtains from the booths of its video arcade. While most of Garden Grove’s seven adult bookstore and peep show operators have agreed to conform with the city’s ban on doors in the video booths, A-Z Books replaced its doors with lacy curtains.

This week, the City Council voted 5-0 to tighten up the 1983 ordinance governing doors and curtains so that the law reads “no partially or fully enclosed booths shall be maintained.” Diamond said that the ordinance doesn’t prohibit curtains. Moreover, he said, the store’s curtains don’t block the view of exit signs that the city ordinance requires customers to be able to see.