Police in this Fort Worth suburb raided an adult novelty store, confiscating various sex toys and pornography, forcing it to shut down.
Police officers acting on a search warrant at the Log Cabin Books and Movies, searched the business and confiscated sex toys and pornography deemed obscene by a judge, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported today.
Scott Raven, public safety chief, said the 10:30 a.m. operation lasted six to eight hours mostly due to the confiscation and cataloguing of nearly all of the shop’s materials which he said “filled a police van two times.”
The police action came after District Judge James Wilson examined material purchased from the store by undercover officers and deemed them to be obscene.
Under Texas law, obscenity is material which “the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest in sex.”
City Manager David Miller told the newspaper that the Log Cabin’s owners could face criminal charges of promotion and distribution of obscene materials.
Kennedale Mayor Jim Norwood was elected last May after promising to close down adult businesses in the city. Norwood, who is a local pastor, made headlines last year when he photographed pictures of license plates of adult store customers. He then used the information to get their addresses and mail each person a card informing them that they had been spotted at an adult business and that church counseling was available.
The Log Cabin is one of several adult businesses in Kennedale that has been under increasing scrutiny by city officials in recent years. In fall 2004, police arrested five people from the Crystal's, Dreamer’s Video, XXX Superstore Video and the Log Cabin on obscenity charges.
Kennedale has a population of 5,850 people.
