Adult Bookstore to Leave in a Year : Courts: The manager pleads no contest to a misdemeanor. City officials exult at his decision to leave after a 3-year battle.

In an apparent victory for Glendale officials, the manager of the city’s only sexually oriented book and video store will move his business out of the city within about a year, his attorney said.

Attorney Roger Diamond said Gary Enea, who operates Total News and Video at 6524 San Fernando Road, has been driven out of town by the city’s three-year campaign against him.

“Gary doesn’t want to be where he’s not welcome,” Diamond said, “so he’s going to leave the city.”

City officials were exultant.

“That sounds wonderful,” said City Councilman Larry Zarian. “In my mind, he’s not a welcome business. He has not contributed anything to this community. I say, ‘hooray.’ ”

Diamond made the announcement shortly after Enea pleaded no contest to one criminal misdemeanor charge of violating a city ordinance banning fully enclosed video display booths in a store that offers adult entertainment.

Enea and four other defendants, including two store clerks, originally had been charged with eight counts each of failing to comply with a city ordinance requiring the booths to be open, well lighted and visible.

But Enea agreed to comply with the ordinance after City Atty. Scott H. Howard agreed to drop all but one count against him and all counts against the other defendants. Glendale Municipal Judge Cheryl Krott placed Enea on three years’ probation and ordered him to bring the store into compliance by Wednesday.

Enea did not return phone calls. But, Diamond said, his client will obey the court’s orders, then obtain an extension that will allow him to continue operating his store at its present location for one more year. After that, he’ll leave the city, the attorney said.

Enea’s reported plans and the court ruling last week marked the latest chapter in a three-year battle between the city and Enea, whom officials have accused of running a store that sells sexually explicit materials and provides a site for homosexual liaisons.

Total News and Video has been operating in Glendale since May, 1986. In November, 1987, Krott found Enea and the owner of the store, then at 5130 San Fernando Road, guilty of violating a city use and occupancy permit after closet-size “peep show” booths were installed without city permission a week after the store opened.

Krott fined Enea and the owner and ordered them to shut down the booths, ruling that they could not operate them in an industrial part of Glendale. In 1988, the business moved out of the industrial area and into its present location to reopen the booths. But it quickly faced more trouble.

Last spring, the City Council adopted an ordinance confining adult-entertainment businesses to the downtown commercial district. The ordinance banning fully enclosed peep booths quickly followed.

Diamond said last week that the “collective acts” of the city were made purposely to drive Enea out of business.

“We believe very strongly in free enterprise,” Diamond said. “If there was no demand for his products, he would go out of business right away. It’s not the people who are against him, because they support him economically. It’s the city officials. And it’s clear that city officials have been driving him out.

Although the First Amendment prohibits the outright banning of adult-entertainment businesses, the judge denied Enea a constitutional defense, allowing Diamond only to argue the issues of the second ordinance under which his client was charged, Diamond said.

Zarian maintained that city officials have pressured Enea’s business but have not prevented it from operating. Howard said his goal was merely to enforce the city’s ordinances.

“My personal feeling of what the city is trying to do never entered into this case,” Howard said. “I’ve always offered that all we wanted was full compliance with the law.”

That, Diamond said, is what the city will get. He said Enea is willing to pay what he estimates will be $23,000 to remove the booths and improve lighting in the hope that the city will grant him a one-year extension before requiring him to relocate.

“If he can stay for another year, then it’s economically worthwhile” to renovate the store, Diamond said. “Otherwise, it wouldn’t have made sense to remodel and then have to move by April 7.

“After that,” the attorney added, “Gary’s going to leave the city. He understands that he’s not welcome in Glendale.”