The owners of bondage website HouseOfGord.com filed suit in U.S. District Court against Kitsap County officials for civil rights violations. Jeffrey and Susan Marie Owen, who own HouseOfGord.com, filed the complaint regarding a warranted search of the couple's home. The Owens claim the warrant supposedly lacked proper specificity as to the "probable cause" that the Owens were operating a "sexual encounter center."
The Kitsap County code describes a "sexual encounter center" as a business in which one of the following takes place: "(1) Physical contact in the form of wrestling or tumbling between persons of the opposite sex, or (2) Activities between male and female persons of the same sex when one or more...is in a state of nudity or seminude."
The plaintiff's lawyer, Robert Apgood noted that none of the items seized had relevance to probable cause, so they could not be used as evidence. Apgood did mention the search could have been made based upon a rumor North Kitsap School District Superintendent Eugene J. Medina told police Lt. Earl Smith. However, this hearsay had not been definitively substantiated.
Prosecutor Russell Haugue said there was no animosity by Kitsap County against the Owens. Rather, the county simply wanted the Owens to obey the county code and not conduct an outside "sexual encounter" within 1,000 feet of a school. The search warrant was issued after pictures of BDSM acts taking place in the Owens' driveway surfaced.
Apgood countered that the violation had nothing to do with why the warrant was issued. Furthermore, the driveway was blocked from the main road by 50 feet of trees and could not have been seen by passersby.
