PEABODY, Massachusetts – All Paul Doherty wants to do is run a quiet pornography business. www.adultfyi.com/read.aspx?ID=3160
After adult film starlet Tyler Faith www.adultfyi.com/read.aspx?ID=8918 made an appearance at his store and stripped for customers www.adultfyi.com/read.aspx?ID=8924, the City Council suspended his license to do business for one week. That one week meant a loss of about $4,000 in revenue.
After that debacle landed his business on the front pages of area papers, he stopped hosting autograph sessions with visiting actors and actresses, stopped allowing customers to bring cameras in the store, and thought it was over. It wasn’t.
Unbeknownst to Doherty, an old advertisement from his store recently ran in the adult newspaper ‘Private Games,’ which stated “Watch for future autograph signings at Video Warehouse”
Now, anonymous letters are arriving at the homes of city councilors in what Doherty’s attorney, John Keilty, says appears to be a smear campaign by a former business partner.
Doherty contacted ‘Private Games’ about the ad. The publication will be printing a retraction and changing the advertisement in this month’s issue.
The council does not, by practice, accept unsigned letters, but councilors often receive such notes at their homes. Ward 5 Councilor David Gamache, whose ward Video Warehouse is located, said, “We get those (anonymous letters) every time something comes up (with the business). I just round-file them all the time.”
Gamache said he does not waste time responding to anonymous letters. “This (letter) was pretty harsh.” Ward 1 Councilor Barry Osborne said he had received one of the letters, calling it “an obvious attempt to discredit Mr. Doherty.” Last May, Osborne supported Doherty’s request for alternate dates to close down his business as a consequence of the Tyler Faith incident – citing the fact that the council offers that consideration to other businesses facing suspensions, such as bars caught serving alcohol to under-aged customers.
Osborne described the mailings as containing “photocopies of ads claiming that they are still holding autograph sessions, information about not paying taxes, and that sort of stuff.”