Gene Ross interviewed Max Lobkowicz, Dr. Block's husband, the other day and came up with this account: An LAPD S.W.A.T team. raided the Dr. Susan Block Show Saturday night apparently looking for four Hispanic gunmen who were reputed to have robbed and kidnapped someone in the building.
Max Lobkowicz: "It was very exciting. It was like Vietnam. We had a good ol' time. I was up against the wall with guns to my head. Nothing serious. Suzie, too. They came in literally under the guises that four Hispanic gunmen had robbed and kidnapped somebody in the building. When they arrived we told them we didn't think so. We didn't see any gunmen. To no avail. They literally pushed their way in and were here for 2 1/2 hours. When I called the police department, they told me they were there for ten minutes.
"We had about 40 to 50 people here so it wasn't our imagination. They didn't cite us for anything. There were approximately 12 police officers from Los Angeles central. And probably another 10 to 12 from the vice squad and organized crime units. They were all packing."
G. Ross: "Guns drawn and everything?"
Lobkowicz: "Guns drawn and everything."
G. Ross: "What was your first reaction upon seeing this?"
Lobkowicz: "After 30 years in this city, I said here they come again. We heard a helicopter overhead which you often do in Los Angeles. Then we realized the helipcopter's lights were right on us. When I went to the window they had guns pointed and said, 'Who's in the building? Get them all out.' We went downstairs to open the door and they came flooding in. It was pretty intense."
G. Ross: "You had another incident a couple of years ago?"
Lobkowicz: "We were raided in the Hollywood Hills when a neighbor said she had been watching scantily dressed women going into our house. She deduced from that that we were running a whore house. Vice officers came that time undercover and infiltrated the show. Towards the end of the show they made themselves known. It was at that point that they assaulted one of the guests - the Nasty Man from KSLX radio. Out of that came the fact that I didn't have a license to operate a public access show which they never went any further with.
"They were here till about 11:30. They secured all the different areas - the Internet area, the tape area, and they were particularly interested in the tape area. I don't know why but they spent two hours in there going through every title. There maybe some connection, I'm not quite positive, that may have to do with the [Jonathan Taylor] Spielberg case. They couldn't get that tape from me. One of the extraordinary things about this is that all the guests, including Ginger Lynn, appeared. They came through the police lines. They didn't stop anybody from coming in but they did block off Hope Street. When guests started to arrive, my fear was they would be intimidated and leave with all the cops around. But virtually everyone came upstairs and Ginger did a great show. By the time we started the show, the police were kind of laughing.
"They didn't have a warrant, but S.W.A.T. teams don't need search warrants. They can come in just like the gestapo or any secret police and take control. That's what they did and there wasn't much we could do. They had a lot of fire power. We couldn't do anything but be very nice. At first they separated Susan from the rest of us and held her at gun point. They were saying things like why are you dressed like this. She said because I'm a character and do a radio show and television show....We're going to the mayor's office and city council."
