Louisiana- When Jefferson Parish officials told Mr. Binky’s in 2003 that it couldn’t open an adult video store in Harvey because it would be too close to a recreational area, the retailer pointed to its competitors.

Major Video and Suzette’s, according to Mr. Binky’s court filings, long had sold — without penalty — the same kind of products within 1,000 feet of churches, schools and playgrounds, where the sale of adult items is banned. So the parish dispatched inspectors, who in August cited two Major Video shops in Metairie, one in Gretna and the Fat City bridal and novelty retailer Suzette’s for running “adult establishments” in impermissible zoning districts or “without proper distance” from places such as schools. They ordered the stores to quit selling and renting so-called “adult” videos, which they had displayed in rooms off limits to customers younger than 21.

But far from resolving the issue, the move tipped off another round of finger-pointing that has sparked questions about whether Jefferson Parish, after coming down hard on some retailers, should force convenience and drug stores to remove age-limited products such as cigarettes and adult magazines from their shelves to adequately enforce its own rules.

The law offers no specifics, defining an “adult establishment” — synonymous with “adult use” — as a business engaged in “any activity, service, sale, or display of any commodity which is prohibited by statute or ordinance to minors or otherwise forbids sales to or excludes minors by virtue of age.” It specifically excludes the sale of alcohol, which is governed by other laws.

The parish’s Commercial Parkway Overlaw Ordinance requires a minimum of 1,000 feet “measured in a straight line . . . from the closest exterior structural wall of the adult use to the closest property line of a school, child care center, church or place of worship, park or recreational area.”

Major Video’s attorney, Franz Zibilich, said the rules that parish officials have accused his client of violating have been broken with impunity at dozens of stores that sell products that customers must prove their age to buy. Zibilich has promised to hand over a “lengthy list” of such shops to Jefferson officials, Parish Attorney Tom Wilkinson said.

“Every drug store that sells cigarettes would fall under this prohibition,” Zibilich said. “Every store that sold Penthouse Magazine would technically fall under these prohibitions, and you can’t decide to cite some without citing all, absent some objective reasons.”

Wilkinson said officials have no intention of spot-checking such operations as drug stores and gas stations that Zibilich suggested should be cited. He would not comment on whether the sale of cigarettes or adult magazines at those venues would violate parish law.

Parish, store traded jabs

The issue originated more than five years ago, when Jefferson Parish and Mr. Binky’s, run by DJS Properties LLC, traded jabs and eventually went to court over the retailer’s request to open an adult establishment at 2855 Lapalco Blvd. in Harvey, a property zoned M-3 for manufacturing use.

That case, which turned on a clerical error in the zoning law, was dismissed, and Mr. Binky’s returned in 2003 to request that the use permit for the lot be changed from “general mercantile” to “adult establishment,” according to a March 22 Parish Council memo.

The parish denied the appeal, saying that kind of business could not open within 1,000 feet of the nearby driving range, which Mr. Binky’s argued was not included in parish laws as a “recreational use.”

Also claiming that it had been denied a permit to sell adult videos while Major Video and Suzette’s were selling similar items “without the proper clearances, licenses, and permits,” Mr. Binky’s won a state court lawsuit. The ruling directed the parish to honor Mr. Binky’s request, court records show.

“The parish kind of turned a blind eye (toward Major Video and Suzette’s) until we filed this suit,” said Thomas McEachin, an attorney for Mr. Binky’s. “In my client’s view, the parish is kind of talking out of both sides of its mouth.”

But after a sign rose in front of the vacant building on its property proclaiming the “future site of Mr. Binky’s adult video store,” Louisiana’s Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal reversed the ruling, saying in March that the parish’s failure to adequately enforce its adult-use law should not affect its zoning rules. It is unclear whether Mr. Binky’s will appeal.

Meanwhile, an administrative law judge has moved to review the objections of Major Video and Suzette’s to their parish citations, which carry fines of as much as $1,100 each. While fighting the notice, Suzette Gandolfo, the proprietor of Suzette’s, publicly has tried to distance herself from Mr. Binky’s.

Gandolfo said Monday that her shop is “100 percent” different than Mr. Binky’s and compared her peddling of a few adult items with a convenience store selling cigarettes.

“We are not an adult store. We are a store that has a very small section of adult items that we don’t allow anyone under 21” to access, she said. “They’re kept out of the reach of children.”

Selective enforcement

Zibilich said the parish should not be allowed to selectively enforce its adult-use ordinance, especially after a criminal trial in 2001 in which a jury deadlocked on whether three tapes rented by vice squad officers at Major Video stores in Jefferson Parish violated community decency standards.

“How can you sit there and hide behind, ‘We didn’t know this was happening?’ ” he said. “But for that pronouncement by Mr. Binky, I suggest to you that the parish would not ever have even had the occasion to look at Major Video.

“Major Video has been paying taxes to this very same parish on those sales for 20 years,” Zibilich said. “If they wanted to complain, they should have complained 20 years ago, 19, 18, 15 and not collected our taxes. They have waived their right by acquiescence.”

Wilkinson admitted that it was Mr. Binky’s lawsuit that alerted officials to the zoning and distance violations. “All I can tell you is that from our standpoint, we were not aware that (Major Video was) selling adult videos at that location, irrespective of that criminal trial,” he said.

Wilkinson said that until Zibilich submits his promised list, the parish will not direct inspectors to check on sales of adult magazines and cigarettes at any stores near churches, schools and other protected areas.

“As a practical matter, we don’t go out looking for violations. We just don’t have the manpower or the finances to do that. We deal with enough phoned-in violations that keep our inspectors busy 24-7,” he said.

Quiet in the debate so far has been the Abundant Life World Outreach Center, the Harvey church that owns the driving range, on which it one day hopes to build a sanctuary.

But Senior Pastor Jonas Robertson said his congregation is well aware of Mr. Binky’s plans and will hold public protests if the store opens.

“We don’t want that type of filth and perversion anywhere near our subdivision,” he said. “We don’t want it anywhere because (it is) the type of establishment proven to attract perverts that prey on kids.”

Assuming sexual predators would be attracted to Mr. Binky’s, Robertson said his neighbors in the Woodmere subdivision and members of his church would picket the store and videotape its patrons “possibly to identify these predators.”

“If you don’t believe that these places don’t draw people that have sexual problems, then you’re blind,” he said. “They got to mop up the floor when they get out of there. It’s nasty, it’s filthy, and we don’t want them nowhere near any one of our neighborhoods.”