San Antonio- Never mind the 6-foot model of a phallus, movies with racy titles and battery-operated sexual aids.

The real hostile work environment came from supervisors at Billy J. Davis’ latest workplace, according to Davis.

The other stuff – merchandise or promo items inside an adult video store – was just part of the territory, according to testimony in a federal sexual harassment trial in San Antonio.

This afternoon, jurors begin deliberating whether there is any validity to the claims that Davis, 38, was fired from his job at a local store run by a Texas porn mogul because Davis complained that a male supervisor was sexually harassing him.

The jury must weigh the testimony of a half-dozen witnesses who over a day and a half laid out tales of sex, lies and videotapes. Defense lawyers claim the store had a sexually-charged environment and that Davis never complained to anyone about the alleged sexual harassment until he was fired.

At stake could be about $450,000 to $500,000 – the amount Davis is seeking in compensatory damages, plus unspecified punitive damages.

The workplace is AVE Inc., which ran several Adult Video stores in Texas that the feds shuttered last year as part of a racketeering and tax investigation.

Four of the stores ordered closed were in San Antonio, including the one at 4828 N.W. Loop 410 – where Davis worked from June 2001 to Feb. 11, 2002.

In testimony Monday, Davis claimed supervisor Joseph Pais, 57, made profane, vulgar and inappropriate remarks about him, customers and others. Sometimes, Pais’ talk would turn to sodomy, Davis said.

“He would tell me how I might enjoy what he did to some of the customers,” Davis testified.

Davis also testified that the supervisor grabbed him inappropriately and gave him a tip: If Davis gave sexual favors to his customers, he might make more in product sales.

Davis said he complained to Pais about the harassment, and Pais said there was nothing he could do about it.

Davis also said that in January 2002, the company brought in Christina Phelps to manage the store. Davis said he told her of the alleged sexual harassment, that Pais was stealing from the cash register and using drugs.

He also said Phelps responded that if the company chose to turn a blind eye, it was not her problem.

Davis said that Phelps wrote him up five times for disciplinary matters in two days, when he had never been written up before, and he added that there was no one else he could complain to because the company was so secretive about the identities of its upper management.

Davis also read from a company policy that said employees were not to speak about the company to anybody.

“If you cannot keep quiet, we will find someone who can,” Davis said, reading from the policy.

Pais disputed making some comments and acknowledged he may have said other things Davis alleged. Pais testified that much of the comments made were part of workplace banter, and not meant to be serious.

“If I did, I was joking,” Pais responded to many questions.

Pais also seemed to back Davis’ claim that the company was secretive. He said he knew a bookkeeper who called to check on the store only as “BK,” and the regional manager as “Mr. D,” identified as Charles Phelps, 48, who oversaw the San Antonio stores and was sent to prison for three and a half years as part of the federal probe.

Under questioning by AVE’s lawyer John Fahle, Pais said Davis had initiated some of the talk relating to sex.

Fahle said the company may have wanted to be secretive on business affairs because of its legal issues. Among them was a lengthy federal probe that targeted some of their relatives and other business associates.

The criminal case culminated last year with one of the associates signing a plea agreement in which he agreed to forfeit interest in 27 adult businesses in Texas. The man, John Kenneth Coil, pleaded guilty to mailing fraudulent tax returns and selling obscene films and was sentenced last September to 63 months in federal prison. Others in New Mexico and Arizona that are part of the porn empire were allowed to stay open.

Coil’s son, John A. Coil, owns 100 percent of the shares in the stores that remained open, according to Fahle. The younger Coil got three years of probation for his plea deal to fraud.

Fahle also refuted Davis’ claims, alleging Davis – to suit his own needs — changed his story on the stand from what he said in a prior deposition and what he wrote in a journal about his employment at Adult Video.

To drive home his theory, Fahle put Christina Phelps, daughter of Charles Phelps, on the stand. Fahle devoted his questions to trying to prove that she fired Davis for insubordination and not doing what he was supposed to. Christina Phelps testified Davis never complained about sexual harassment to her and that she didn’t learn about it until she got a notice from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after he was fired.

Did you fire him for his complaining about sexual harassment? Fahle asked.

“No,” she said.