Closing of Alley Behind Adult Bookstore Urged : Canoga Park: Joy Picus continues her fight against Le Sex Shoppe. She tells the council that restricting night traffic would reduce illicit activities.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joy Picus proposed Wednesday that the alley behind an adult bookstore in Canoga Park be closed to traffic at night in an effort to curb reported sexual behavior by the store’s customers.

Picus’ motion, dealing with the alley behind Le Sex Shoppe in the 21600 block of Sherman Way, will be considered by the council next week. In mid-January, a Picus-sponsored bid to have Le Sex Shoppe declared a public nuisance and closed had to be dropped because the store is not within 300 feet of property zoned for residences.

“So far, we haven’t succeeded in clearing up this problem, but this is our latest effort,” said Jackie Brainard, Picus’ press secretary. The bookstore is a “focal point” of public lewd conduct and male prostitution, Brainard said.

Customers seeking sexual encounters cruise in their cars up and down the alley all night long, said Patric Quinn, president of the local Owensmouth Citizens Committee. Not only is there engine noise but also “loud stereos and shouting” throughout the night, Quinn said. Neighbors say many of the encounters are among homosexuals.

According to city records, as many as 21 arrests a month for lewd conduct and prostitution have occurred in or immediately around the store, which sells adult books and films and contains “peep-shows.”

“I had a customer who had his genitals grabbed by one of these people,” said Jim Bruinsslot, whose Sherman Way print shop is located next to Le Sex Shoppe.

“Hopefully, closing the alley will give us some relief,” Quinn said. “It’s not that we have a problem with Le Sex Shoppe itself. But it’s with what it attracts--the lewd behavior. People also say we’re being homophobic. But it’s not that--heterosexual or homosexual, these people are perverts.”

In the past, the city has posted signs warning motorists that a city law prohibiting “cruising” applies to the area around the bookstore, and it has closed at night a nearby city-owned parking lot used as a trysting spot by bookstore customers. And neighbors have patrolled the area, shining powerful spotlights to deny privacy to those engaged in sexual encounters near the store, Quinn said.

Coincidentally, Wednesday also was the deadline for compliance with a city ordinance, passed several years ago, that prohibits adult entertainment businesses from operating within 500 feet of a home, church or school, or within 1,000 feet of another adult entertainment business. The Pussycat Park Theatre, specializing in adult films, is located across the street from the Canoga Park Le Sex Shoppe.

But Deputy City Atty. Michael Guarino, one of the city’s top criminal prosecutors of adult businesses, said the businesses are expected to file a lawsuit to prevent enforcement of the law. “We’ve heard that five or six of the owners are getting together to sue to enjoin enforcement,” he said.

Quinn and Bruinsslot said Le Sex Shoppe’s owners are acting as if they plan to operate for several more years. “They’ve put in a new stucco wall and other improvements,” Quinn said. “We all know they are not planning to go anywhere.”

Le Sex Shoppe, a chain of adult businesses, is run by Erotic Words and Pictures, Inc. The owners and their attorneys did not return phone calls from The Times on Wednesday.