Sheriff’s deputies showed up at the Lion’s Den to obtain more novelties as evidence for the current grand jury investigation of the adult retailer on Wednesday – and this time they used a warrant instead of a credit card.
According to Jim Everett, assistant to the president of the Lion’s Den chain, deputies arrived Wednesday with a warrant that contained a list approximately “a page-and-a-half” long of novelties they wanted the grand jury to consider.
The first time novelties were obtained as evidence for the grand jury to consider they were paid for with a credit card.
According to the Abilene Reflector-Chronicle exactly $1,332.71 was charged on a Dickinson County credit card issued to the sheriff’s office to buy videos, DVDs, adult novelties, and even an inflatable pig.
And the store has a "no return, no refund" policy.
The grand jury is investigating Lion’s Den at the bequest of a local anti-porn group that circulated a petition calling for one. The grand jury convened in January.
“We don’t when the answer is coming down. It could be coming down at the end of March or it could be handed down sooner than that,” Everett said. “You hear rumors all the time, but until we get the official announcement we don’t know what is going to happen.”
In the mean time, the public continues to debate the matter in the local media. Everett points to editorials in local newspapers that call the grand jury a waste of both time and taxpayers money.
Members of the local community have also found other ways to show their support for the store.
“There was a young lady that had an illness and we contritubed some money to this particular situation. They took a picture of this happening, of the donation, with civic leaders there, and put it on the front page of the local paper,” Everett said.
“One thing led to another and the other organization [anti-porn] went to them and wanted them to tear up the check for that amount of money and they’d give them a bigger amount. They refused. Wasn’t that nice? It shows that not everyone is against us.”
Everett says that the Lion’s Den, a national chain, is rarely the subject of an obscenity investigation. Usually, communities against adult entertainment try other means of dissuading the chain from opening a store.
“Retail is detail. In the adult business it’s even more so,” Everett said. “Know your product, but even more importantly watch how high your signs are. You’ve got see to it that you’ve tapped into the right sewer line, whether your zonings right. That’s your homework and you’ve got to do it, or you don’t survive.
For now, Everett says the Lion’s Den chain is hoping the grand jury won’t hand down an indictment. And if they do “then the lawyers will have to duke it out.”
And Everett notes this is an election year and takes efforts to encourage supporters of adult entertainment to become political.
“We’re trying to make sure people vote appropriately. When you look at all the stuff happening out there today, it’s important that people make the right choices when voting,” Everett said.
