City officials have filed a cease-and-desist order against the owners of Moonlite Reader adult video store who relocated their business to a building near a Little League baseball field.
Thomas G. Ambrosino, mayor of Boston suburb Revere, told the Boston Globe that his city was caught off guard when store owners moved their business to its new location a month ago after they were evicted from its previous location. He said the T&D Video, which operates Moonlite Reader, did not file the proper occupancy permit from the city’s Building Department in order to move into its new building.
Ambrosino told the City Council on May 7 that the company didn’t apply for the occupancy permit and that there were questions on whether the store meets city parking requirements at its new location. But he said the city didn’t file the cease-and-desist order based on its adult entertainment zoning ordinance.
A city ordinance bars adult shops from opening less than 1,000 feet from schools, parks and houses of worship, Revere is under a Superior Court injunction that prevents it from enforcing the measure against Moonlite Reader after it sued the city in 1994 for passing the ordinance and trying to enforce it after it had already opened for business.
A Suffolk Superior Court judge agreed with store owners Thaddeus Drabowski and Del Paone in 2002, who argued through their attorneys that the measure was unconstitutional and that would make them unable to operate their business in the city.
The city was forced to pay the owners $917,027 for legal fees, plus interest. That judgment had grown to $1.3 million as the city continues to appeal the case, a year later. A decision is expected the soon, the paper reported.
The shop’s attorney Allen C.B. Horsley said his clients are trying to work with the city on the issue and that they disagree with the city’s contention over permits and other occupation issues such as parking.
