OLATHE, Kan. – District Attorney Phil Kline dismissed a Johnson County grand jury's obscenity indictment against local convenience store Gringo Loco on Wednesday.
The indictment was handed down by a special jury convened as a result of a petition drive spearheaded by anti-porn crusader Philip Cosby of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families. Kline's office dismissed similar obscenity charges against a Johnson County costume shop owned by Spencer Gifts in October.
Kline's spokesman Brian Burgess told the Kansas City Star that the office agreed to drop the indictment after the owner of Gringo Loco agreed to remove a DVD of Jim Powers' Babysitter 18 (Notorious) from the store.
Gringo Loco's attorney Tyler Garretson said
that store owner Alex Huynh "inherited" the video in question along with other DVDs in a storage area when he acquired the business. Huynh rented the movies only
to customers who asked if he had videos for rent.
“No one was
more shocked than [Gringo Loco owner] Alex Huynh when his business was
indicted,” said Garretson. “But from day one, as soon as they were
alerted, he and his wife — no one could have been more angry than his
wife — they went through, and any movie that was even mildly sexually
suggestive or explicit, they removed those immediately.”
Obscenity indictments remain pending in Johnson County District Court against Hollywood at Home in Overland Park, Kan. and Priscilla’s in Olathe. Both stores have pleaded not guilty.
