STAUNTON, Va. - Judge Thomas H. Wood has signed the final Order in the settlement between Rick Krial, owner of After Hours Video, Staunton's only adult store, and Commonwealth Attorney Ray Robertson, but only one party is walking away happy.
According to the judge's Order, After Hours will remain closed, and Krial will never again attempt to open an adult venue in the city. As part of the deal, Krial will pay the $2,500 fine levied as a result of his conviction on two misdemeanor counts of trafficking obscenity, $160 in court costs, and will drop his appeal of those two charges.
Robertson will forgo prosecuting Krial on 16 alleged felonies and eight alleged misdemeanors, all of which were a result of undercover sting operations mounted by local police.
"This is just exactly what we wanted all along," Robertson told the News-Virginian on Thursday. "This stuff just breeds horrible crime ... prostitution, pimping, organized crime, drugs ... not to mention ... it undermines marriage and monogamy. I've gotten tons of e-mails, letters and thank-you calls from the people of this area. I feel as sure as anything we've done a good service for our community."
Andrea Oakes, a member of Staunton's City Council and founder of the Citizens' Task Force Against Pornography, which lobbied the city for stricter anti-adult ordinances, called the Order, "a victory for the city and Staunton as a whole."
Krial, who said that he'd spent over $150,000 fighting the charges so far, and who yesterday described the total expenditure as "more than a house costs," said he was disappointed at the outcome.
"To me, justice wasn't done," he told the News-Virginian. "I would have won the appeal ... But I've already spent a lot of money on it."
AVN has covered the trial and its aftermath extensively, and Krial's attorney, Paul Cambria, has already expressed his disappointment that Krial had decided not to follow through on the appeal, which Cambria drafted and has said he would have argued for free.
Reached for comment today, Cambria stated, "I would not have signed [the agreement]. I thought it was forced by the threat of felonies and that the convictions would never stand up."
Krial has several other stores which he continues to operate in Maryland.
