LAKELAND, Fla.—A Florida judge apparently has deemed a collection of adult videos being sold in a convenience store and gas station to be obscene, according to a local ABC station. The owners of the establishments and the man who is said to have sold them the alleged contraband all have been arrested.
Last month, undercover vice detectives visited several stores in Lakeland, said abcactionnews.com. “According to investigators, they found both Skyview Foods, located at 2939 Skyview Drive, and the Sunoco Gas Station at 2225 S. Combee Road, selling XXX DVD videos.” According to detectives, the videos were “near the checkout corner of both stores, in full view of any customer.”
Detectives then bought some of the videos. “The videos contained hardcore adult images, which a judge later ruled violated Florida's obscenity laws.”
Last week, the detectives reportedly returned, seized 272 items from the stores and arrested four people—three store owners and a man they said supplied the videos being sold.
“It's illegal to sell obscene material in Polk County, something the store owners found out the hard way,” the news outlet reported.
The local sheriff wants the busts to send a message to others thinking about disseminating similar material in his neck of the woods.
"The deal that I want to tell the smut peddlers, is take your stuff and get out," said Sheriff Grady Judd. "If you don't, we're gonna put you in jail. How do you like that?"
The provider of the videos was apparently popped in a sting.
“During their investigation detectives tracked down the man they say was supplying the stores, 25-year-old Donald Burke of Woodbury, Georgia,” reported abcactionnews.com. “They met him in the parking lot of a Davenport restaurant, where they say he sold them over 100 videos, and also asked them if they would [be] interested in buying medical marijuana.”
Burke, who reportedly had 432 videos on his truck, was charged with distributing obscene material and 10 misdemeanor counts of possession.
Chad Cookler, reporting for ABC, declined to note that according to federal law adult content is legal to possess in the United States until a jury finds it obscene.
