Couple’s Suit Against KCBS-TV Set for Trial : Litigation: Their attorney says they were never arrested or charged with running a sex club at their Porter Ranch home. A judge refuses to dismiss the case.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge set a trial date for a pair of slander lawsuits brought against KCBS-TV for reporting that a Porter Ranch couple ran a sex club out of their home, an attorney for the couple said Monday.

Robert and Sharon Dow sued the CBS Network and five Channel 2 reporters last year alleging slander, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress for a series of 11 broadcasts about their sexual affairs in June and December of 1991.

The couple alleged in their lawsuit that they suffered extreme emotional distress and physical side effects and that they lost friends and business associates as a result of the television reports, which they said falsely asserted that they operated a sex club and charged admission at the door.

Superior Court Judge Ernest George Williams on Monday denied a CBS motion to have the cases dismissed, noting that issues remained in dispute. Williams ordered a Jan. 10 trial date.

Frederick Mumm, a CBS attorney, declined to comment on Williams’ decision.

Michael B. Schweitzer, an attorney for the Dows, maintained that his clients have never been arrested or charged with operating a “sex club.”

“All they did was hold private parties in their own homes for invited couples once or twice a month,” Schweitzer said. “They have never run a sex club.”

Schweitzer said a police officer interviewed by CBS testified in a court deposition that he never used the words “sex club” when he was interviewed by CBS reporters.

“Police deny making many if not most statements attributed to them by CBS in both broadcasts,” Schweitzer said.

The attorney said the lawsuit also alleges that KCBS broadcasts incorrectly reported that criminal charges were filed against the Dows on Dec. 19 and that those charges carried possible sentences of seven and a half years in prison.

Schweitzer said that his clients were not charged until Dec. 30 and that many of the 15 counts alleged land use and building code violations--infractions not punishable by prison time.

The alleged zoning violations included running a sexual-encounter establishment in a residential area and operating a business in a residential area. The charges stemmed from a May 11 raid that followed an undercover investigation by vice officers from the Devonshire Division of the Los Angeles Police Department.

A Municipal Court judge dismissed all but one charge against the Dows in February, ruling that police had obtained an illegal search warrant of the couple’s home, Schweitzer said. The Dows pleaded no contest to a single infraction of electrical wiring without a permit.

“This was a garden variety zoning-and-building-code case which got hyped to incredible proportions,” Schweitzer said.