SHELBY, North Carolina – Midnite Video and Novelties sits about 200 yards from U.S. 74 East, just before the first Kings Mountain exit. The business has been there about six months. A sign on the side of the building reads “Now Open, Trucks Welcome.”
Earlier this month, Cleveland County Sheriff’s deputies entered the store with a search warrant and seized videos, magazines and sex toys.
The following week, a Cleveland County grand jury indicted the owner, Craig Djamolidin Sorvino, and another employee, Kelly Burch McCoy, on obscenity charges, including selling pornographic material to minors.
Sorvino and Ms. McCoy, both from Mooresboro, were not at the store when officers arrived. Other employees left after the officers arrived at the shop.
Lt. Joel Shores, who heads the vice and narcotics division for the sheriff’s office, said more people involved in the case could face charges.
Undercover officers have been investigating the shop for months, he said.
Shores said, because the case is still being investigated, he did not want to discuss details. He said that at least one minor went undercover and purchased videos that Shores said were “very illicit, pornographic videos.” This happened on Dec. 20, 2004, according to the indictment.
Shores and other officers, including an SBI agent, were at the scene for several hours Tuesday. Some wore blue latex gloves and loaded a rented trailer with cardboard boxes from the shop.
They didn’t close down the business, Shores said, but they seized the goods.
“They can open it back up after we’re finished here this evening,” he said.
Sorvino was indicted on nine charges, including possessing obscenity with intent to distribute, permitting sale of sexually-oriented device in an adult establishment and permitting more than one adult establishment in a building.
Beside videos, magazines and sex toys, Midnite Video also has a separate business called KC’s. At KC’s, female employees model lingerie for customers, Shores said.
Ms. McCoy was indicted on two charges, disseminating obscenity and disseminating harmful material to minors.
Additional charges and arrests are pending, Shores said.