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CAPITOL NEWS AGENCY'S AMAZING ADULT VIDEO TARGET OF CITY OFFICIALS
By: Andy Powell, Staff Writer - 04-05-10 - 12:00 a.m. PDT
Email Andy@JRLChartsonline.com
City council members, claiming knowledge of "lewd and lascivious behavior" in the Capitol News Agency's Amazing.net Adult Video store located at 486 Bridge St, Springfield, MA, was recently ordered to remove the doors of all 13 video booths used by its customers, intending to stop alleged lewd behavior.The door-removal requirement was among conditions of the 2010 entertainment license issued to the business, Amazing.net, in a decision by Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, dated March 12, 2010.
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Amazing.Net Adult Video sells adult xxx video both gay and straight, magazines, adult novelties, along with coin-operated video preview booths.
According to the city officials, a surprise inspection Amazing.net back on Dec. 30th, 2009, found a customer inside a booth who was committing a sexual act with his pants down, visible in the opening below the door. The inspector's testimony and photographic evidence was presented during a hearing on the license request and was incorporated into Sarno's decision.
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The doors, however, were still in place this past Thursday April 1st. City Solicitor Edward M. Pikula stated that the continued use of the doors appears to be in violation of the new entertainment license, and will be investigated.
The city has an ongoing legal battle with Capital Video Corporation., of Rhode Island, the corporate owner of Amazing.net Adult Video, defending the city's decision in 2008 to deny its entertainment license for the preview booths.Superior Court Judge Cornelius J. Moriarty overruled the city's decision in August of 2008, ruling in part that there was no basis to conclude that the booths "presented a health hazard or adversely affected the public interest in any way."
The city has appealed, and has a hearing before the Massachusetts Appeals Court on Wednesday April 7, 2010 to further argue the case. The hearing is being conducted locally at Western New England College.
Thomas B. Lesser, a Northampton lawyer representing Capital Video, said he has not yet seen the new entertainment license, but questions the new requirement to remove the booth doors."Our opinion is there is a less restrictive way of doing what the mayor wants to have done - that's the mayor's concern about people doing things in private that will disturb the public," Lesser said.
Lesser continued "We suggested a microphone system that would address the issue." Lesser said the appeals court hearing "might shed some light on this issue."
The 2010 license will continue to have conditions that were ordered in the business' 2009 license including: surveillance cameras must remain installed in the booth area and outside the store.The current lighting must be maintained inside and outside the store; and at least one employee must be assigned to monitor the booth area.
Pikula said the city is appealing the portion of Moriarty's decision that states the business is constitutionally protected.
