Florida Clerk Faces a Felony Charge for Selling Rap Record : Pop: Police say an expletive-laced 2 Live Crew album was sold to girl, 11. Store employee could get five years, $5,000 fine.

In the latest move in Florida against the rap group 2 Live Crew, a Sarasota record store clerk was arrested Thursday for selling a copy of the Miami-based group’s album to an 11-year-old girl.

Chauncey Reese, 19, a clerk at the Tracks record store, was released on his own recognizance after being charged with selling “harmful material” to a minor, a felony that carries maximum penalties of five years in prison and a fine of $5,000.

The sale of the expletive-laced “As Nasty as They Wanna Be” album was made to the girl in January, police said. The girl’s stepmother, Ann Skolnick, 35, complained to police last month. Skolnick’s affidavit accompanied the official complaint against Reese.

“I have two boys (of my own), and I do not feel that this type of material should be made available in my community,” Skolnick said in a telephone interview Friday. “If I have to raise my kids, I will use any edge I can to stop this.”

Efforts to contact Reese on Friday were not successful.

Representatives of the record store and its owner, the Durham, N.C.-based Record Bar chain, declined to comment Friday.

Robyn Blumner, executive director of the Florida office of the American Civil Liberties Union, offered legal defense for Reese and said, “We will battle this kind of censorship wherever it strikes in Florida.

“The action of the police in terrorizing a young record clerk is unconscionable, and now every clerk who works in a record, book or video store is in danger of being arrested on a felony charge.”

Trish Heimers, spokeswoman for the Recording Industry Assn. of America and for a new industry coalition against proposed legislation to label records, said she was “outraged” by the arrest.

“To my knowledge, there is no evidence supporting the claim that music is harmful to anyone,” Heimers said. “It seems to me that the parent could have used the opportunity of hearing the record as an entree into a discussion with her child about some of the difficult issues the child might be facing. I feel she passed the buck.”

Florida Gov. Bob Martinez has focused attention on the group and its Luke Skyywalker record label, requesting a state investigation of possible racketeering concerning allegedly obscene material. Statewide Prosecutor Peter Antonacci refused to take the case, defering to local jurisdictions.

On March 9, a judge in Florida’s Broward County--which includes the Fort Lauderdale area and is on the opposite side of the state from Sarasota--ruled the album to be obscene and banned its sale in the county.

A spokesman for the Broward County Sheriff’s Department said that no arrests have been made but that record-store owners are being warned that they could face arrest for stocking the recording.

“It’s not unusual for videotapes to be declared obscene, and from time to time we’ll make an arrest for that,” said Broward County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Jim Leljedal. “But it’s pretty unusual for a record to fall under that category.”