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Stafford, Virginia- The owners of a sex shop in North Stafford are expected to close its doors soon as part of an agreement announced last week regarding obscenity-related criminal charges against them.


Meagan J. Pacheco, 27, and Lesley O. Mason, 28, the owners of Pheromoans on Doc Stone Road, both pleaded guilty in Stafford County Circuit Court to a single misdemeanor count of possessing obscene materials with the intent to distribute. Four other charges were dropped.


They received no jail time or fines, and the charges will be dismissed in June 2009 if they stay out of trouble.


The owners also agreed to close their business by July 1 in order to comply with the condition that they not continue to violate the rarely used state obscenity law.


The business itself was also convicted of two obscenity charges. It was fined $5,000 and half of the fine suspended.


Pheromoans is an adult-oriented store that opened last year at 70 Doc Stone Road. Such things as sexually explicit movies, sex toys and novelty items are sold there.


Stafford authorities investigated the business toward the end of last year in response to what they claimed were complaints from residents.


As part of that investigation, detectives purchased and watched six movies, including "Barely Legal Hotties," "The Devil in Miss Jones," and "Deep Throat, www.xxxdeepthroat.com."


"Deep Throat" was at the center of a successful obscenity prosecution in Stafford 20 years ago.


The state obscenity law makes it illegal to distribute certain pornographic movies but does not make it illegal to own or possess them.


The law is rarely enforced but over the past 10 years there have been prosecutions in Gloucester, Prince William and Fairfax counties.


Pheromoans still has two civil cases pending in Stafford Circuit Court involving nearby property owners seeking to have the business evicted.


No trial has been set and the cases are likely to go away now that the business is expected to close.

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