NORWALK, Calif. - A civil case involving regulation, or a lack of regulation on motel televisions, begins this week in California. The law firm of Jarvis & Krieger begins opening arguments today in Norwalk Superior Court in the case of Edwina McCombs and her 2 daughters. They are suing the Value Lodge, an Artesia, California motel in Los Angeles County.
The attorneys representing the case anticipate that the trial will last five days.
"Edwina McCombs, a Tennessee resident who was visiting Southern California to vacation with her 8 and 9-year old daughters, is suing Value Lodge located on Artesia Boulevard in Artesia, California for involuntarily subjecting her girls to hardcore pornographic movies."
McCombs says that on August 3rd 2006, she checked into the Value Lodge in where she informed the person at the front desk that she was there with her two young daughters.
After entering the room, she went to take a bath and her children turned on the television to watch a children’s show. "Instead," her attorneys charge, "the children were subjected to hardcore pornography with close-up images of people engaged in various homosexual sexual acts."
Edwina McCombs’ attorneys, Lee Janice Toback, Esq. and Eliot F. Krieger, Esq. say they will prove that the motel does not block its pornography channels, does not post any warning signs, does not provide a list of channels to its guests, and does not provide any restrictions at all against children accessing the free pornography.
This is a problem across the United States according to the Website cleanhotels.com: "It is not unheard of for families to report that children turn on a hotel TV and find a previously ordered hardcore pornographic movie in progress. The images planted on a child's mind through that one brief encounter can be troubling for many years."
It is anticipated that Edwina McCombs will call an expert, Dr Michael Perrotti, who also believes that exposing young children to hardcore pornography has a lasting negative psychological effect. It is anticipated that both young children will testify.
The hotel safety site says problems in these environments can go beyond the exposure to the actual movies as well, "hotels pandering pornographic movies can create a hostile and potentially dangerous environment for women traveling alone or with children."
The attorneys representing Edwina McCombs say the motel made a big mistake in not regulating what the small kids were exposed to.
“Value Lodge was negligent in failing to use preventative measures to restrict a child from accessing adult television channels. As a result of this negligence, this family has incurred great expense in obtaining appropriate psychological help for the McComb’s children,” Ms. Toback stated.
Calls to Value Lodge at 11854 Artesia Boulevard in Artesia on this matter were not answered.
