Was Juvenile Agent Exposed to Too Much XXX to Testify?

A fresh-faced teen-age boy walks into an adult bookstore.

He sees a smorgasbord of smut. Or, or as the civil libertarians would have it, constitutionally protected expressions of free speech.

And Such Expressions!

The boy selects a magazine that is still encased in a cellophane wrapper (about which more later).

The store clerk either doesn’t ask him for identification or if he does ask, isn’t bothered that the I.D. says the lad is only 17.

He sells the boy the magazine. Out walks the boy.

In walk the vice cops to bust the clerk for selling “harmful matter” to a minor, a misdemeanor.

And so it was that five clerks at five X-rated emporiums in San Diego were busted late Friday and early Saturday: Pleasureland, Ever So Naughty, F Street Bookstore, North Park Adult and the Kitty Kat Theatre.

Fair is fair: Clerks at nine other places told the undercover kid to scram.

(Side thought: Where was this kind of job when I was in high school?)

Lt. David Bejarano, head of the vice squad, said the operation was in response to complaints about sex stores selling to kids. He says the 17-year-old (“a volunteer”) was selected because he was easily spotted as underage:

“We’re not out to trick or deceive anybody.”

A. Dale Manicom, attorney for four of the five places, is full of outrage, mock or otherwise:

“The cops sending a 17-year-old into dirty bookstores? He’ll be spoiled for life. He’s seen bare breasts and everything.”

Just what the kid saw may be legally significant. There are possible legal problems with using a minor for undercover work if the minor ends up consuming the forbidden object. Booze, for example.

For that reason the boy only selected magazines on which the clear cellophane wrappers were still stapled.

On the other hand, it could be argued that the covers alone of these magazines are the porno equivalent of several rapid shots of 180-proof.

So, if you hear of a 17-year-old around town who is bug-eyed and has heart palpitations, you’ll know why.

Realism, Sexism and Red Ink

Either way you look.

* What started as a 911 emergency call proved to be a case of cinema with too much verite .

Sheriff’s deputies in Vista got calls about teen-age boys in a residential neighborhood with guns who were running around and appearing to shoot at each other.

Out rushed the deputies, red light and siren.

What they found were youth re-enacting a scene from “Boyz N the Hood,” and filming it with their parents’ camcorder.

* More liberated than thou.

San Diego Councilman Ron Roberts got hit with one of the deadliest isms in politics last week when challenger Rich Grosch accused him of sexism .

Roberts had criticized Jane Henderson, wife of Roberts’ council colleague Bruce Henderson, for being part of the Grosch campaign.

Grosch issued a two-page blast saying that Roberts was guilty of felony sexism for supposing that Jane Henderson was merely doing her husband’s bidding.

Now Roberts is asserting that his credentials as a nouveau male are clean: He’s just been endorsed by the National Women’s Political Caucus.

* Speaking of Roberts: He held a press conference Tuesday to hit Supervisor Susan Golding’s plan for how to cut back on county mental-health funding.

Feel free to think of that as the opening shot of the 1992 mayor’s race.

* Look for the America’s Cup Organizing Committee, afloat in a sea of red ink, to cut the salaries of top executives.

Executive Vice President Tom Ehman is said to be in the $150,000 range now; the other four vice presidents in the low $100,000s.

* North County bumper sticker, on trash truck: “Your (scatology deleted) Is Our Bread and Butter.”

A Killer Discount

The recession is hitting everywhere.

The price of “Death Row,” a 225-page volume compiled by former San Diego cop Glenn Hare with killer profiles and execution methods, has been slashed from $19.95 to $12.95.

For the capital punishment buff on a tight budget.