Bastrop, La. – The Morehouse Parish Sheriff’s Office arrested Red Door owner Lori Tremaine, 39, Monday afternoon on six counts of obscenity. Bond is set for $30,000, $5,000 for each count.

“She was charged with these six counts after multiple buys,” Sheriff Mike Tubbs said, referring to undercover officers who purchased pornographic videos at the Bastrop Red Door location.

According to Tubbs, everything was done through search and arrest warrants and all information from his office’s investigation will go to District Attorney Jerry Jones.

According to Tremaine and Brooke Mullen, an employee at the Bastrop location, the store was broken into Sunday night. A hole was busted through the roof; keys were scattered across the floor; and the cash register was smashed into multiple pieces. A door was damaged so badly it cannot open, and the store was stripped of cash. The theft and damages were reported.

While speaking to an Enterprise reporter immediately prior to her arrest, Tremaine said she had never been arraigned on charges regarding her stores, even though she had been charged. Tremaine said she opened her Monroe store in June 2004 with no adverse repercussions, but the store opening in West Monroe in August of 2006 garnered a response from the community’s religious leaders.

Tremaine said that store was shut down for a month and a half shortly after opening. Charges were filed against her and the owner of another adult novelty shop in Monroe, Fun Depot. An arraignment, she said, never came. She reopened her stores without the videos but returned them to the shelves when her lawyer said all charges had been dropped.

According to Tremaine, she had operated her stores for two years without any legal repercussions, even after the X-Mart Adult Supercenter moved in near both a church and a school.

“For the last two years, I’ve operated my other two stores with the same materials,” Tremaine said.

Prior to opening the store in Bastrop, Tremaine said she and her husband discussed the option for more than a year due to the high amount of traffic her stores garnered from Bastrop and Arkansas. She applied for her license and checked with the city attorney in early July regarding zoning laws in the parish. She said in mid-July the city attorney assured her that her business was legal to operate in the city and the mayor came to the store before it opened and assured her she had the right to operate.

“I understand that the preachers in town don’t want this type of business in town,” Tremaine said. “They don’t understand that there are a lot of people that do. I’m not here to harm anybody or make people mad.”

Tremaine said she does everything she can to keep her stores clean and her products out of public view, taking a “If you don’t want it, don’t buy it.” stance. The windows in her stores are tinted and every person who comes in is carded; no one under the age of 18 can stay.

“I have kids of my own,” Tremaine said. “It’s for adults, period. Kids don’t need any explanation beyond that.”

The owner said the viewing and subsequent purchase of the DVDs or novelties from her stores is, ultimately, a matter of personal responsibility. She said people know when they enter the separate room for videos and devices what lies ahead and pointed out that many of the same products are sold in the mall. Some of the videos have “clean covers” with the same content available for purchase, and other stores have novelties out for public view with no age requirements.