Two members of the grand jury that indicted Lion’s Den Adult Superstore in April on 29 counts of promoting obscenity are believed to have signed the petition calling for the grand jury, and verifying that one of the first orders of businesses for the adult retailer’s legal team at an arraignment yesterday.
Cleveland-based First Amendment lawyers Michael Murray and Robert Littrell, attorneys for Lion’s Den Adult Superstore, entered not guilty pleas to all 29 counts of promoting obscenity on behalf of the store at an arraignment yesterday, then proceeded to request that the court provide the defense whatever information it was entitled to regarding the grand jury, including their names and votes.
The Abilene Reflector-Chronicle reports that Senior Judge Ronald Ennis ruled that the names of the grand jurors should be provided to the defense, but not their votes.
The grand jury that indicted Lion’s Den was impaneled last fall after Citizens for Strengthening Community Virtues (CFSCV), supervised by the American Family Association (AFA), gathered enough voter signatures to force a summons. The Reflector-Chronicle reported in January that two of the people who signed the petition were also on the grand jury.
Senior Judge John Weckel, who helped select jurors for the grand jury, noted at the time that inclusion of people who had signed the petition could be problematic. "Just like in any jury, you want every juror to be able to be fair and impartial," Weckel told the Reflector-Chronicle. "But the petition does raise the question of if someone did sign the petition, maybe they already have made up their mind. But I don't believe that was a problem at all with this jury."
Lion’s Den was indicted by a grand jury in April on 29 counts of promoting obscenity. Each count was for promoting adult novelties, most of which are rather standard fare across the country.
Dickinson County hired Thomas Lemon of the Topeka law firm, Cavanaugh, Smith and Lemon, to prosecute the case.
Rather than request a warrant to seize the bulk of the novelties named in the indictments, the county sheriff purchased the adult novelties. None of the $1,332.71 worth of taxpayer-purchased items are eligible for return under the store’s policy unless defective, in which case they must be exchanged for the same item, though if convicted the store could be required to pay the sum back as a condition of restitution ordered by the court if there is a conviction.
On December 7, the court will hear argument on pretrial motions, and expects a trial date should be set by the end of the year.
