Virginia- A Lancaster County grand jury has indicted a Kilmarnock video store as a public nuisance for its sales of adult videos and its display of other “obscene” videos.

According to Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney J.W. Harmon, the indictment asks the Circuit Court to close the Movie Gallery’s back room where X-rated videos are displayed.

In addition, Harmon said, the grand jury that met last month also found that covers of many R-rated and unrated videos in the store’s main shopping area “were obscene and not suitable for viewing by children under 13.”

The indictment asks the court to order Movie Gallery to change the way it displays those products.

Ninety-four county residents petitioned the court in August to declare the video store a public nuisance.

They charged that the store “exposes the community to obscene and pornographic materials which constitute a public nuisance.”

Movie Gallery also “does not provide adequate safeguards to protect children from exposure to this material,” the petition alleged.

A spokesman for Movie Gallery, the nation’s second-largest video chain with 4,500 stores, said company policy prohibited comment on pending legal matters.

Harmon said Movie Gallery’s trial would likely occur early next year.

If found guilty, Movie Gallery could be fined up to $10,000 and ordered to abate the conditions that created the nuisance.

The outcry against the Kilmarnock store was led by Fabiola Gergerich of Middlesex County.

Gergerich has crusaded against sexually oriented businesses in the Northern Neck. Westmoreland County Administrator Norm Risavi described her as “the most persistent advocate I have ever met as county administrator.”

At Gergerich’s urging, Westmoreland and Richmond counties this month enacted new zoning restrictions on sexually oriented businesses. No such businesses now operate in either county.