Coming soon to a courtroom near you. From The Kansas City Star


Anti-porn crusade has gotten the attention of area prosecutors — and soon grand juries

Courts in Johnson and Wyandotte counties plan to begin selecting grand juries today in one group’s crusade to rid Kansas City area businesses of pornography.

In the next several weeks, the jurors will decide what is and what isn’t obscene, setting standards for their Kansas communities. And if similar juries in the state are any indication, jurors might be asked to watch adult videos, review adult toys, or even take field trips to businesses in question.

“We don’t know yet what they’re going to want to see,” said Jerome Gorman, district attorney of Wyandotte County. “… Each community has to answer for itself what it will tolerate.”

In mid-May, the local chapter of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families, led by Phillip Cosby, delivered petitions to six county prosecutors in the Kansas City area. Those petitions sought grand jury investigations of 32 businesses — including strip clubs, sex shops and video rental stores in Kansas and Missouri — for promotion of obscenity.

The grand jury investigations could lead to indictments against the businesses.

While Kansas law requires a grand jury to be seated if enough signatures are collected, the public can’t call for one in Missouri. But in just two months, Cosby said, he’s had some success with Missouri prosecutors.

In Platte County, the only targeted business stopped selling the merchandise under question after it was contacted by the office of prosecuting attorney Eric Zahnd.

Some, though, still aren’t buying Cosby’s campaign.

“I don’t think there’s much credibility in what they’re doing,” said Steve Wolverton, owner of Hollywood at Home in Overland Park, which carries a small percentage of adult magazines and videos. “I think it’s a First Amendment issue, an issue of privacy.”

In Wyandotte County, Gorman doesn’t know of another grand jury seated in at least 40 years, probably longer. Jurors there will be given some information compiled by Kansas City, Kan., police and could even be presented other cases.

“We are seriously considering that at this point,” Gorman said. “At the very least to test the grand jury system, because we’re not familiar with it.”

In Johnson County, officials with the district attorney’s office would say only that the grand jury process is expected to begin today. They wouldn’t say whether authorities have already done an investigation into the five Johnson County businesses targeted in the anti-porn petitions.

Once grand juries are seated, proceedings are secret, said Brian Burgess, spokesman for District Attorney Phill Kline.

“One good thing about a grand jury is you have a lot of people focused on a specific issue,” Burgess said. “It’s tough to draw the line sometimes, and with multiple people looking at this, it will be obvious what side of the line it falls.”

Nearly four years ago, Cosby got riled after an adult bookstore replaced an old Stuckey’s restaurant in Dickinson County, not far from his Abilene, Kan., home at the time.

A grand jury handed down 29 grand jury indictments against the Lion’s Den. Those indictments, however, were later thrown out on a technicality.

Other campaigns targeted businesses in Saline, Sedgwick and Shawnee counties.

In the four Missouri counties, prosecutors have dealt with the petitions differently. All sent a letter to the businesses targeted by Cosby’s group, reminding them they need to comply with Missouri’s obscenity law.

Beyond that, Zahnd said World’s Liquor in Platte County was cooperative and an attorney for the owner said the store would do whatever it needed to do to comply. When an undercover sheriff’s deputy went in the store to see if the questionable merchandise was in stock, it wasn’t.

In Jackson County, where 20 of the 32 businesses are located, prosecuting attorney James Kanatzar hasn’t progressed past sending the letter to businesses. Cosby said he’s scheduled to meet with Kanatzar soon.

Van Buckley, a spokesman for Kanatzar, said the prosecutor didn’t have any comment at this time.

Petitions provided by Cosby’s group targeting two businesses in Clay County are now in the hands of a grand jury there.

Jim Roberts, a spokesman for the Clay County prosecuting attorney’s office, said: “We’re telling them (grand jurors) that this issue was raised in our community, we’re passing it on to you, and do whatever you want to do.”

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Phill Kline, you may remember, was the Attorney General of Kansas who tried to nullify Roe v. Wade by issuing subpoenas for the medical records of teenage girls throughout the State and indicting Doctors on alleged technical violations of the State's abortion law. The Charges were immediately thrown out by the Judge. Kline also got caught violating the IRS's campaign contribution regulations during his re-election campaign, which he lost in a landslide. Now he's the D.A. and he's going after porn.

He's going to have a hard time doing it in Johnson County. Outside of the city of Lawrence, J.C. is the most heavily democratic area of the state. Kind of interesting the guy that held Kline's current job before him is the same guy that Kline lost to last November in the general election. I don't see much luck of this succeeding in Kansas City. Western Kansas would be a different story but there aren't enough voters in that part of the state to make political grandstanding worthwhile.

In the interest of fairness I would like to state that the abortion doctor Kline had a hard on for is a worthless piece of shit named George Tiller who pumped a lot of money into the Democrat campaigns so no one would investigate him. He basically caves in seven and eight month old babies heads with a claw hammer and claims the mothers were suffering from mental breakdowns because of the pregnancy as justification for this. He also makes about $5000 per head bashing doing this. He is not a licensed psychologist so he has no right to make this kind of diagnosis. I am not a big fan of Kline but he was dead on right in going after this douchebag. I believe in a woman's right to decide but I draw the line at partial birth abortions.

What ever happened to the separation of church and state?

More Jefferson:

"Distortions of history occur in the minds of many Christians whenever they see the word "God" embossed in statue or memorial concrete. For example, those who visit the Jefferson Memorial in Washington will read Jefferson's words engraved: "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every from of tyranny over the mind of man." When they see the word "God" many Christians see this as "proof" of his Christianity without thinking that "God" can have many definitions ranging from nature to supernatural. Yet how many of them realize that this passage aimed at attacking the tyranny of the Christian clergy of Philadelphia, or that Jefferson's God was not the personal god of Christianity? Those memorial words came from a letter written to Benjamin Rush in 1800 in response to Rush's warning about the Philadelphia clergy attacking Jefferson (Jefferson was seen as an infidel by his enemies during his election for President). The complete statement reads as follows:

"The returning good sense of our country threatens abortion to their hopes, & they [the clergy] believe that any portion of power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly; for I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear from me: & enough too in their opinion, & this is the cause of their printing lying pamphlets against me. . ."

Jefferson aimed at laissez-faire liberalism in the name of individual freedom, He felt that any form of government control, not only of religion, but of individual mercantilism consisted of tyranny. He thought that our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry."

Update via 580AM WIBW news yesterday. Although the grand jury has since brought forth indictments for murder, robbery, DUI, and mortgage fraud as of now no indictments regarding pornographic materials have been brought forth.

Well... The Indictments are in. From THE KANSAS CITY STAR:

Grand jury indicts three businesses

A Wyandotte County grand jury investigating obscenity handed down indictments against three Kansas City, Kan. shops, the district attorney’s office announced Wednesday.

M&M Inc., a convenience store at 8535 State Ave.; Krishna U.S.A., doing business as Smoke Easy Cigarette Outlet, 6000 Leavenworth Road; and Lakhani Commercial Corp., doing business as the Stop ’n’ Go, 954 State Ave., were named in the indictments.

M&M Inc. is charged with a single misdemeanor count of promoting obscenity. Smoke Easy is charged with two misdemeanor counts of promoting obscenity and one felony and one misdemeanor count of possession with intent to deliver drug paraphernalia. The Stop ’n’ Go was charged with a single count of possession with intent to deliver drug paraphernalia.

The indictments came as the result of a citizen petition drive that called for grand jury investigations into promotion of obscenity by 32 businesses, including strip clubs, sex shops and video rental stores throughout six metropolitan area counties.

None of the businesses included in the charges announced Wednesday was among the 32 targeted by the petitions.

The Kansas City Chapter of National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families, an anti-pornography group, led the petition effort, backed by a legion of churches and religious groups.

A grand jury also was convened in Johnson County to address the issue. It has not handed down indictments on obscenity cases yet but has weighed in on other cases.

The grand jury in Wyandotte County is thought to be the first in 40 years. The one in Johnson County is the first since 1989. Although Missouri law does not require a grand jury to be convened because of citizen petitions, Clay County also has consented to bring the cases to a grand jury.

Jurors in the three counties will make judgments that will essentially set the standards for obscenity for their Kansas communities, legal observers say.

The use of a grand jury is seen as controversial to those who say that judges are better qualified to decide who should stand trial and that defendants should have the right to hear the evidence against them. Grand juries listen to cases in confidence.

Others say that the grand jury is a helpful prosecutorial tool that should be used more often.

All three indicted businesses are scheduled to appear on Sept. 14 at 10 a.m. in District Court for a pretrial conference.

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MEMO TO LUKE: Why don't you head on out to KC and cover the proceedings. The vacation will do you good, you'll get your evil jollies watching the persecution of innocent businessmen, and the ex-whores will have time to cover their asses. Win-win all around, I'd say.