Cinema One owner David Franklin listens as attorney Arvin Reingold talks with Mike Williams of the city police about padlocking. Click to enlarge.
photo by John Wilson
Criminal Court Judge Rebecca Stern, after hearing "terribly disturbing" testimony, on Monday afternoon ordered the back portion of the Cinema One Adult Theatre on Rossville Boulevard to be padlocked.
She said the front part where magazines and other material is sold can stay open, but a mini theater and a room at the back where there are private booths were closed.
Chattanooga Police went directly to the site to put on the padlocks.
Attorney Arvin Reingold said he wanted the judge and the prosecutor to review surveillance tape from inside the two back rooms.
Judge Stern said she would look at the tape over the weekend and should have a final ruling by Monday.
She indicated the padlock would stay on unless the tape showed the incidents did not happen.
A police undercover officer said he went to Cinema One on Oct. 9. It was the first time he had been in the club, he said.
The officer said he paid to go in the back two rooms and was buzzed in.
He said in the room with the private booths, he saw a man with his trousers down openly performing a self sex act.
The officer said he went inside the mini theater where there were about a dozen people.
He said that in the rear of the theater, he saw a white male performing a self sex act openly. He said a Chinese man in front of the man came back, and they began fondling one another.
Mayor Bob Corker in November of last year signed an order permanently closing the Cinema One. The City Council upheld it after a lengthy hearing in which undercover officers said they often saw sexual activity there and found bodily fluids.
The theater was later allowed to reopen after the owners went to court.
The adult establishment had been padlocked by District Attorney Bill Cox in early June. Citing unsanitary conditions inside the business, police boarded up the store, giving the owner 10 days to show why Cinema One should not be permanently closed.
The owners went to court and got it reopened based on meeting certain conditions.
But Phil Noblett, an assistant city attorney, later said Cinema One had not complied with those conditions, including continuing to maintain unsanitary privacy booths for use by customers.
He said it was the first time a mayor had been called upon to sign such an order. The order was signed by Mayor Corker on Nov. 8.
The store, which shows adult videos and sells adult items, was previously closed for 10 years from the mid-80s to the mid-90s.
The city code requires that adult establishments renew their license on a yearly basis and that for their license to be renewed, they are subject to investigation by the Police Department.
As a result, over the past year, the Chattanooga Police Department has conducted a number of undercover visits to Cinema I and caught on video tape a number of illicit sexual acts which clearly violate city ordinance, officials said at the time of the November 2002 order by the mayor.
Judge Stern later allowed the club to reopen after club owners said a number of steps had been taken to stop sexual activity between patrons.
Attorneys said anyone caught having sexual relations in a booth would be sent out, and with a second infraction, they would be banned from the theater.