First lap dancing, now bookstores. Last week Sheriff Lawrence W. Crow told the Polk County Commission that Lakeland Florida's Video X-tra and Varsity Video Store, the only two adult businesses still operating in Polk County, have agreed to shut their doors by June 30, 2002. The closures are part of pretrial intervention agreements.
Owners and operators of the businesses, as well as the Varsity's landlord, were arrested in 1996 on obscenity charges for selling sexually explicit video- tapes from their stores. By agreeing to the intervention, the owners will avoid prosecution on Florida's Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
State Attorney Jerry Hill's office has long used the RICO statute, and its stiff penalties, to pressure adult businesses to close. Hill said granting a 2 1/2-year lead time before the closings was the "quickest, most efficient way to rid ourselves of these businesses."
Hill said there had been "ongoing litigation for years" against the Varsity, 1145 U.S. 92 E., Lakeland, and Video X-tra, 1014 N. Combee Road, Lakeland, and that it would likely continue to drag on without an accord with the owners.
The agreements include deed restrictions barring adult uses on the properties in question and a requirement that Video X-tra drop a pair of federal lawsuits stemming from the arrests.
The owners of the businesses also are forbidden to operate a "sexually related" business within Hill's 10th Judicial Circuit -- Polk, Hardee and Highlands counties. Each business also must make cash payments to help defer investigative costs.
Crow applauded Hill, calling him one of the few state attorneys in Florida "with the backbone to use the RICO statute how it's meant to be used."
Hill and Crow declared victory in a long war on pornography that began just after Crow's appointment as sheriff in 1987.
"It's been a long battle," Crow said. "I'm tired of being sued, tired of being beat up in the newspaper. But Polk County has won, and it's going to be a better place to live."
But David Wasserman, a Winter Park lawyer representing the Varsity and Video X-tra, warned that any claims of victory might be premature.
Wasserman said nothing in the agreement prevents the Varsity from relocating in Polk County under different ownership or from filing a lawsuit of its own against the county and State Attorney's Office.
"If they think they've purged the community of sex, they need a psychiatrist," Wasserman said. He rejected the notion that Polk residents embrace the war against adult businesses in the county, noting that the patronage of residents made the Varsity and Video X-tra successful businesses.
"They are imposing an artificial community standard at the point of a gun," Wasserman said. "Human sexuality is not a crime." Wasserman said his clients agreed to the pretrial intervention for purely economic reasons. He noted that the Varsity had weathered two previous prosecutions before 1996 and spent about $1 million over the years defending itself against obscenity charges.
"If we prevail tomorrow, they'll just file more charges," Wasserman said.
Hill and Crow made no apologies for the doggedness of their staffs in pursuing the obscenity cases. One of his first acts in office was to receive an intelligence briefing about adult businesses between Lakeland and Auburndale in the area of U.S. 92.
"We heard it was their intention to open a strip between Lakeland and Auburndale that would be like the Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando," Crow said. "That caused me a lot of concern."
What followed was more than a decade of emphasis, during which time vice detectives investigated about 100 adult businesses. Many of the businesses have complained of harsh treatment from investigators and prosecutors.
"Jerry and I have seen our names on lawsuits so many times, I don't even read them when they come to my desk anymore," Crow said. "But they've all been dropped. We haven't paid a dime."
