KENNEDALE, Tx - Kennedale police raided an adult novelty store this morning, shut it down and confiscated sex toys and pornography that a judge had deemed obscene.
A team of officers served a search warrant at the Log Cabin books and movies at 10:30 a.m. and public safety chief Scott Raven said the operation would take six to eight hours.
The amount of material police were cataloging and taking was going to "fill the van at least two times," Raven said.
The Log Cabin is one of several adult video stores in the area of Mansfield Highway and U.S. 287 that the city has been regulating more intensely the past few years. The dispute has escalated to lawsuits, and in fall 2004 police arrested five workers from Crystal's, Dreamer's Video, XXX Superstore Video and The Log Cabin for obscenity.
Thursday's search warrant was signed by state District Judge James Wilson, who viewed items from the store that had been purchased by undercover officers. Wilson ruled that the items violated the state's obscenity law.
Texas Law defines obscenity as that which the "average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest in sex."
The managers and owners of Log Cabin could face charges for promotion and distribution of obscene material, City Manager David Miller said. The charge is a state jail felony.
"We made sure before we came up here and strung that yellow crime tape that we did everything we could," said Mayor Jim Norwood, who is also a pastor.
An employee of the store did not want to comment.
