OLATHE, Kan. – A Johnson County grand jury tasked with deciding the community standard for obscenity remains undecided, despite having moved forward with numerous other cases. According to a recent report, the group, formed six weeks ago, started meeting July 16 in Johnson County District Court to look at whether a handful of video rental stores and sex shops in Johnson County were promoting obscenity.
The grand jury convened as a result of anti-porn crusader Philip Cosby's campaign to wipe out adult businesses in the Kansas City area. Cosby heads the Kansas City chapter of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families (NCPCF). Earlier this year, he organized a petition drive calling for grand jury investigations of 32 adult businesses in Kansas and Missouri for promotion of obscenity. Enlisting the help of church leaders and community activists, Cosby's group delivered the petitions to six county courthouses in May.
Grand juries at the county or district court level are rare in Kansas, and state law doesn’t limit the types of cases that they can investigate. Other district attorneys already have been utilizing the groups for a variety of others cases, all of which they have made rulings on.
Kansas law allows for a grand jury to be called if citizens gather a required number of signatures from registered voters. The only other way to convene a grand jury in Kansas is if a majority of judges in a judicial district agree to call one. Depending on jurors' reactions to adult material, the grand jury investigations could lead to obscenity indictments.
According to the Hays Daily News, the Johnson County grand jury is the county's first since 1989 and is expected to sit for three months. Wyandotte County also has formed a grand jury to look into obscenity cases.
According to the report, the groups meet periodically in secret and at least 12 of its 15 members must agree before an indictment can be issued.
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