DOWNTOWN : Adult Theater Must Follow Stricter Rules

The city attorney’s office has obtained a court order to impose strict operating conditions at an adult movie theater on Main Street, officials said.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Burby issued a five-year injunction that calls for owners and operators of the Regent Theater to install additional interior lighting, repair seats, patrol aisles and keep the facility in “sanitary condition.”

Burby’s action on July 26 finalizes on paper a similar agreement reached about a week earlier between Deputy City Atty. Maria Perez Manning and theater owner Morton Wexler, tenant Abu Tayyib and operator Kae Sun Cho, Manning said.

Manning filed suit against the defendants last August to curb lewd conduct among patrons inside the Regent, 448 S. Main St. Over the past three years, vice officers made 50 arrests for lewd conduct, Manning said.

Rather than face a lengthy trial, theater management agreed to city officials’ demands, Manning said.

“They installed some lighting down the side (of the aisles),” she said. “Now you can see the seats.”

An attorney for the theater and Cho said his clients have spent “several thousand dollars” to abide by the injunction. “Frankly, the city attorney’s office and the police have been very cooperative,” said Donald Barnett. “I don’t think that they are trying to close us down.”