The owner of adult retailer Video Palace and the manager of the store were arrested yesterday for selling videos deemed obscene by a county judge. Both individuals are currently out on bond.
Anthony Zecchini, who owns a Video Palace in both Vero Beach and Ft. Pierce, was charged yesterday morning with two counts of sales of obscene material, a misdemeanor. Catherine Morales, who manages the Verona Beach store, was charged with one count on the same charge.
The two had sold German defecation tapes to undercover officers March 17,18, and 19. Zecchini sold to two undercover officers and Morales sold to one - corresponding with the number of charges each of them faces. After deeming the tapes obscene, Judge Joe Wild issued a warrant to search the video store.
"We had them over here for seventeen years. They'd been up there the whole time. I don't like the stuff, but a lot of people wanted it. I had no idea it was supposed to be illegal," Zecchini told AVN.com. "How are you supposed to know what is okay to have and what isn't."
Zecchini suspects that the American Family Association was behind the bust, noting that while he has been selling defecation tapes for seventeen years, this was the first time he's had trouble with law enforcement officials over the matter. The AFA has been "harassing" Zecchini for the last three years.
"The first year they protested on site - which was good, because the following day was the best day we ever had. The second year we had to change everything around because it’s a percentage store. Now this," said Zecchini, who adds that last night, a woman he recognized as a member of AFA from a previous protest of his store, had to be removed by police after creating a disturbance inside the Video Palace.
"She started screaming at some of the male customers: 'How can you do this'. So we had to call the police," Zucchini said. "As soon as she realized we had called the police she left."
Police arrived at the Video Palace at approximately 11AM, and seized 46 titles - all of which were defecation tapes according to Zecchini. More charges could be pending after Wild watches the other seized tapes.
Zecchini was released on a $5,000 bond and Morales posted a $500 bond for her release. Immediately after
Undercover detectives checked all the video stores selling or renting pornography within city limits, Detective Sgt. Matt Harrelson told the Vero Beach Press Journal, but only Video Palace had movies that could be considered obscene.
"It wasn't like we just targeted this place," Harrelson said. "We looked everywhere."
"Right now, I'm just thinking about what I'm going to do. I didn't expect this," said a bewildered Zecchini.
