According to public safety chief Scott Raven, a team of officers served the warrant at The Log Cabin late this morning. The search, which closed the store, is expected to take six to eight hours. The total amount of seized materials is expected to fill two vanloads, according to Raven.
This raid is the latest move in an ongoing battle by the city to regulate adult establishments operating in the Mansfield Highway area. In the fall of 2004 police arrested five employees of Crystal’s Dreamer’s Video and The Log Cabin for obscenity.
“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.
The warrant, which was signed by District Judge James Wilson, was based on evidence obtained by undercover officers posing as customers. Judge Wilson viewed the material in question and ruled that it was obscene under Texas 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.”
According to City Manager David Miller, owners of The Log Cabin could face felony jail time for promoting and distributing obscene material, if charged and convicted.
The owners of The Log Cabin could not be reached for comment.
