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NASHVILLE AUTHORITIES SHUTDOWN THE HOUSE OF THRILLS ADULT BOOKSTORE
By: Andy Powell, Staff Writer
Nashville Metro police officers closed and padlocked the adult bookstore this past Tuesday May 29, 2007 after a nine month investigation into illicit sex acts of indecency at the downtown Nashville location. Nashville Superior court ordered the shutdown of the House of Thrills immediately when five under-cover officers said that they had observed public lewd and unsale sexual acts amongst the patrions of the House of thrills Adult Bookstore.
Sgt. Tony Blackburn, the lead investigator on this case states that "We're not policing morality, but we'll be continuing our investigation into any public business that allows lewd acts of conduct such as the House of
Thrills is being charged with.
The padlocking of the House of Thrills is just the latest development in a year long crackdown by the Nashville Metro police department to reduce illegal activities in the Nashville area of adult entertainment businesses.
There have been over a dozen Adult Bookstores, Massage parlors and strip clubs that have been either fined or closed down altogether for various offenses and in some cases, hard prosecutions.
The House of Thrills Adult Bookstore has faced police scrutiny over the past 6 months since it had failed a random inspection by police in prior visits to the establishment.
There have been over eighty (80) arrests at the House of Thrills Adult Bookstore since last October of 2006 for various lewd conduct offenses.
The owner of the House of Thrills Adult Bookstore, Daniel Robert Piper, also known in the Adult film world as Daniel Mevio, was very elusive during the Nashville Metro's investigation, states police officials. Mr. Piper closed his business voluntarily, and detectives on the case state that the building's neon signs have been taken down and the interior of the location was cleaned out by the time the authorities had arrived to padlock the doors to the House of Thrills.
Local businesses in the area are stating relief over the closure. Xbiz said it best, "Prohibition on future use of the building, especially of a future use that involves display or distribution of 1st Amendment-protected materials, goes beyond the scope of what the statute authorizes. The Tennessee appellate court has recognized that a prohibition on an adult entertainment business operating under nuisance statutes would be constitutionally suspect. The statute does not authorize what the government is doing. Even if it were authorized by statute, any such order would be unconstitutional. It's my contention that this is a pretext for prior restraint." (photo of padlock courtesy of www.tennessean.com
