ANDERSON, S.C. – A grand jury indicted four sexually oriented businesses in Anderson county Tuesday on charges of disseminating obscene materials.

Prosecutors say the four businesses – Pandora’s Boxxx, Lucy’s Love Shop, 4 Your Eyes Only and Paradise – violate a state law that prohibits the sale of material that “depicts or describes in a patently offensive way sexual conduct.”

Community activists who opposed the businesses celebrated a victory.

“This is just the beginning of what could happen in our state,” said the Rev. Elva Martin, whose Anderson Prayer Task Force led opposition to sexually oriented businesses in the Anderson city limits.

State law says material is obscene if “the average person applying contemporary community standards relating to the depiction or description of sexual conduct would find that the material taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest in sex.”

Ingo Stugg, owner of 4 Your Eyes Only, said he has been in business in Anderson for 10 years.

“How come we have licenses for years and years and they suddenly come out with these things?” Stugg said. “Where are we going where all these churches can tell us what we can and can’t sell? We pay our taxes the same as anybody. If you don’t like it, then look the other way.”

Community opposition began to build last spring when Pandora’s Boxxx opened, as the first sexually oriented business in Anderson’s city limits.

Anderson’s city council passed a law restricting where such businesses could be located, but about 4,000 residents signed a petition urging a citywide ban on sexually oriented businesses.

Anderson Mayor Richard Shirley said the matter was best settled in the courts.

An arraignment date could come at the next general sessions court term on Nov. 7, prosecutor Scott McElhannon said.