When Mayor Frank Melton and two detectives raided an adult novelty store last Thursday, the incident raised a few questions. Disparate reports by local media WLBT-TV and The Clarion-Ledger offered no real conclusions. The two sources reported different names of the bookstore—WLBT-TV named it the Jackson Novelty Video and Movies, while The Clarion-Ledger referred to the store as Terry Road Bookstore.
On July 29, The Clarion-Ledger reported in its crime briefs that the store violated a state statute. The newspaper did not report which statute, but Section 97-29-101 of the Mississippi Code establishes the distribution of obscene materials or obscene performance through selling, renting, publishing or exhibiting, as well as intending to resell such items, as illegal. Knowingly selling, advertising, publishing, or exhibiting any three-dimensional devices designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of the human genitalia, also referred to as sexual devices, is illegal, found in 97-29-105.
The store is located near a pawn shop and a loan store—not residential spaces—but WLBT said that the store is "in the middle of a Jackson neighborhood."
The Clarion-Ledger reported, "The Terry Road and Porter Street area is not zoned for adult entertainment," but this may not be completely true. Mary Merck, the city zoning administrator, explained that the store could have stayed in that area if it had followed zoning restrictions more closely.
"In a C-3 zone, it was agreed that they keep a very small percentage of adult books, but they had to be covered in some way so that children couldn't see them," she explained. "Stores with more products of adult uses are only permitted in industrial districts."
"I think code enforcers went down there and talked to them, but the offense continues to repeat itself," Merck added.
What The Clarion-Ledger didn't report, though, is the possible presence of illegal sex. In a July 28, 2005, report, WLBT quoted Mayor Frank Melton: "I came in with two detectives, and there were two men in a sex act," Melton said.
The WLBT report said that "arrests" were made in the rear of the store, but the news station only reported one arrest—that of 50-year-old cashier Debra Washington. Sgt. William Gladney of the JPD vice crimes unit confirmed that public sex is illegal, but said he was unsure whether the two men had been arrested.
"I don't know what happened before I got there. We arrested Debra Washington, but I don't know about the two men," he said. Beyond that, the police referred questions about the sex arrests to the mayor's office, which did not respond by press time.
Though both reports noted that police "shut down" the bookstore, Gladney said the store could not be shut down without a court order from the chancery court. "We made an arrest," Gladney said, "but we didn't shut it down."
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