LAWRENCEVILLE, Georgia — If anyone knows that sex sells in Gwinnett, it’s John Cornetta.

But the owner of the Love Shack adult entertainment chain was upstaged this past week on media coverage of his struggle to open a shop in Johns Creek.
Instead, raids and arrests of two women arrested on charges of prostitution, one of whom lives in the prominent Sugarloaf Country Club, stole headlines.

Cornetta declined to talk about the arrests of Nicole Probert and Lisa Taylor, although he said he’d met Taylor, who he knew as Penthouse Pet Melissa Wolf, at adult entertainment industry events such as awards shows.
But the man who battled Gwinnett County both in criminal and civil trials for the right to open a store in Peachtree Corners said the market for sex is as prominent in the suburbs as it is anywhere else.

In fact, the Peachtree Corners store is the top seller of adult merchandise in the state, peddling $35,000 to $45,000 in merchandise a week, and Cornetta said the newly opened Johns Creek store, which is still the source of heated debate, has quickly risen to No. 2.

Like any retail establishment, the best location for a store, he said, is where the money is.

So while many people believe prostitution is a problem found in inner-city streets and slums, it’s no surprise that sex is also for sale in one of the most prominent subdivisions in the area.

“What happened in a residential gated community is certainly not what I do,” Cornetta reiterated, but he said his own business works well in the wealthy areas of town. “The market is obviously there. They can afford to buy higher-priced items.

“Sex not only sells, but it is the oldest vice that man has ever known. It’s in every trailer park and every apartment complex and every gated multi, multi, multimillion dollar community.”

The Internet makes the market even bigger, as evidenced in the Sugarloaf case. Investigators learned information about the suspects through the Web site The Erotic Review.

“It’s simply about economics,” he said. “There’s not an economic barrier you cross over to buy a DVD or intimate apparel. … It’s been in the suburbs since day one, everywhere.”

In addition to his adult entertainment and tobacco shops, Cornetta also publishes a magazine focused on the industry, which includes 60 adult and novelty stores in Atlanta, 40 gentlemen’s clubs and “Lord knows how many illegal operations.”

“I’ve been to a lot of cities ,and Atlanta is no different than Houston, Miami or New York and Las Vegas,” he said. “It’s not a puritanical Christian nation like people try to make it out to be.”

While Gwinnett officials in 2001 arrested Cornetta on an obscenity charge, he was able to negotiate a plea deal that allowed his company to pay a fine and the charge against him to be dropped.

While Cornetta said he has a “live and let live” philosophy and does not believe laws should stop a man and woman from consensual sex, he said he has respect for Gwinnett District Attorney Danny Porter and did not wish to comment on the Sugarloaf arrests.

“To have any of this stuff be illegal is a waste of government resources,” he said, adding that he was simply explaining his libertarian views and not commenting on the specific case. “A man and a woman would be able to do what they want.”