Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 3/24/06 - In one of the city's most aggressive steps in its battle against sexually oriented businesses, Kennedale police raided an adult novelty store Thursday morning, shut it down and confiscated sex toys and pornography that a judge had deemed obscene.

Officers served a search warrant at the Log Cabin books and movies at 10:30 a.m. Public Safety Chief Scott Raven said investigators had removed about 10 cases of evidence by 4 p.m. and would probably work into the night to remove close to 100.

"We're going to be here awhile," Raven said.

A shop employee at the scene would not comment.

A woman who answered the Log Cabin's phone in the afternoon said, "I have nothing to say."

The Log Cabin is one of several adult video stores in the area of U.S. Business 287/Kennedale Parkway and Interstate 20 that the city has been regulating more intensely for 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-related offenses.

Thursday's search warrant was signed by a state District Judge James Wilson, who reviewed 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."

Wilson was not available for comment on what the standard is for deciding which items are obscene and which are novelties.

Kennedale City Manager David Miller said about sex toys that as an item becomes realistic, it becomes obscene.

"Things that are obviously only for sexual pleasure are against the penal code," Miller said. "Some of this stuff, there is no way you can say it's a novelty item."

The managers and owners of Log Cabin could face charges of promotion and distribution of obscene material, Miller said.

The charge can be a state jail felony, punishable by up to two years in jail and a $10,000 fine.

"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. "It's up to [the judge] what is obscene material, and his opinion is that it was."

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