Mobile, Alabama- The Mobile City Council on Tuesday gave the owner of two adult video stores in Tillman's Corner and Theodore two more weeks to prepare a defense after the city accused the stores of allowing on-premises sex acts.
Meanwhile, the stores' owner, Patricia A. Daniel, agreed to stop allowing patrons to view adult movies in closet-sized booths in the stores, said Assistant City Attorney Wanda Cochran. At Tuesday's meeting, residents who live near the stores were allowed to voice complaints during a public hearing.
Attorney Jeff Deen, hired by Daniel last week, told the council that he needed more time to properly represent his client, because he only recently received all materials regarding the case. "The stores may or may not be in compliance with state law," Deen said. "That's what I'm going to look into."
Express Video, at 4400 Rangeline Road, and I-10 Video, at 5700 Willis Road, have been the focus of a six-month Mobile police investigation. A city report to the council says officers found that patrons pay $8 to watch sexually explicit videos for an indefinite period of time in the closet-sized viewing booths.
The report also says police found used condoms in the booths and that holes had been drilled in the booths to allow patrons to watch sexual acts taking place.
Meanwhile, police said Tuesday that they have issued warrants for the arrests of over 30 adults, charged with loitering on the stores' property for the purpose of deviant sexual intercourse. Eric Gallichant, a Mobile police spokesman, said that as of Tuesday, no arrests had been made. Police will not release the names of those charged until after the arrests, he said.
"I don't know if they (those charged) have been notified or not, but officers will be attempting to execute warrants issued for their arrest," he said.
Gallichant said charges have not been filed against Daniel or any employees of the two stores.
At Tuesday's meeting, four residents linked the stores to public drunkenness, prostitution and loitering in the area.
After the meeting, Daniel said, those problems did not spring from her stores. "That's not us, that's someone else," Daniel said. "Our business doesn't sell alcohol and doesn't allow prostitution." Rebecca Smith, who lives on Swedetown Road, said the stores and other adults-only businesses were "ongoing problems in the community."
Smith said residents were exposed to "the filth of people throwing up in the parking lot from alcohol," as well as beer cans and liquor bottles littering yards. She said drunken drivers use Swedetown Road instead of the main highway to elude police, causing disturbances in the middle of the night. Smith also cited widespread prostitution in Theodore.
"It's heartbreaking to leave a church worship service and be confronted by prostitutes," Smith said.
Daniel said Smith did not describe problems associated with her stores. "They had nothing to say about us," she said. "It was totally irrelevant."
James Lopasser of Daphne, who owns American Tire Distributors Inc. on Willis Road, down the street from I-10 Video, said truck drivers who ship tires to his business as well as some of his employees have been propositioned for sex by males while in the area.
"Some of them (the drivers) have pulled out tire irons and chased people (propositioning them) down," he said. "It's only a matter of time before something else happens."
Daniel said that problem had nothing to do with her store and did not occur there. "Nothing mentioned (at the meeting today) has happened on our property," she said.
Mason Head, a contractor in Grand Bay and a member of the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce, said he thinks property values have dropped partly because of adults-only businesses in the area.
Head said travelers can see I-10 Video from the Interstate, which is housed in a bright purple building and advertised by an ornate, lighted sign depicting shooting fireworks. "We're known in this area as the rednecks," he said of south Mobile County. "Now we have the privilege of being known as the pervert rednecks."
