City May Prosecute Rap Group for Simulated Sex

A Los Angeles-based rap group may be prosecuted by the San Diego city attorney for allegedly simulating sex acts with inflatable dolls during a summer concert at the Sports Arena, authorities said Thursday.

The Aug. 26 show involved members of the rap group Digital Underground, which may be guilty of “obscene conduct in a public place,” said Deputy City Atty. Gretchen North.

North said the case was submitted for prosecution by the vice unit of the San Diego Police Department, which alleged that three members of the band “simulated various forms of human sexual conduct” on stage--albeit with their clothes on--during a concert attended largely by minors.

If the case is not prosecuted--and that decision has not been made--it will be because the city attorney “has decided we can’t win,” North said. Recent, celebrated obscenity rulings went against prosecutors in cases involving the rap group 2 Live Crew and a Cincinnati art museum.

“Because of the complex of constitutional issues involved, and the lack of success prosecutors had in cases involving 2 Live Crew and (photographer Robert) Mapplethorpe, we’re conducting extensive legal research to assist us in determining whether we have a reasonable opportunity of conviction,” North said.

“It’s not accurate to say we’re leaning one way or the other. This is a sensitive, high-profile case. What 2 Live Crew did was verbal communication, and although these people (Digital Underground) had their clothes on, what they did was more graphic. We expect a final determination in the next week or so.”

Sgt. L.D. Martin said two members of the police vice unit stopped in at the Sports Arena, after receiving complaints from parents about recent shows. He called it part of a “general inspection” and said the concert “was way out of bounds.”

“They were simulating oral sex and intercourse,” Martin said. “We’d gotten a lot of calls from parents about concerts, so we decided to check into it.”

The Los Angeles manager of Digital Underground was unavailable for comment Thursday as were officials of the San Diego Sports Arena. But both Martin and North said the complaint “in no way” involves the Sports Arena, only three members of the six-member rap group, which performed that night with four other bands.

In his review of the show for The Times, rock critic John D’Agostino wrote: “Digital Underground was a disappointment but one that provided some amusing distractions. . . . Performing material from its acclaimed album, Sex Packets, (band member Humpty) Hump and two outlandishly outfitted sidekicks squirted champagne at the audience from crotch-level bottles, and, standing single-file, simulated various sex acts with inflatable dolls. Then two of the emcees stripped to G-strings to continue the pantomime on the stage floor.”

Martin acknowledged that several San Diego nightclubs, such as Les Girls and The Body Shop, feature complete nudity “but, unless we get a complaint, or they’re simulating a sex act onstage, we don’t bother ‘em.”

However, scenes involving nudity and lovemaking have recently been seen in plays at several San Diego theaters, one being the prestigious Soviet import, “Brothers and Sisters,” which appeared at the Old Globe Theatre as the centerpiece of Mayor Maureen O’Connor’s Soviet Arts Festival.

Full frontal nudity has been a component of recent shows at the La Jolla Playhouse (“The Grapes of Wrath”) and the San Diego Opera (“La Boheme”). A nude scene involving sex opens Terrence McNally’s play, “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune,” to have its San Diego premiere Nov. 27 at the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company.

“Well, those are respectable theaters, and that’s in the course of a dramatic play,” Martin said.