FLOMATON, Ala. -- An Alabama barber has been arrested after he was charged with selling a number of "obscene" porn movies out of his shop.
Local police raided Genes Barbershop in downtown Flomaton Wednesday where they said they confiscated 16 DVDs and several VHS tapes. The shop, local denizens said, has been around for more than 30 years.
“We had been receiving complaints throughout the community about pornographic material coming out of this barber shop," said Flomaton Police Chief Geoff McGraw said, who noted that officers later conducted a sting operation on the shop's owner, Garvin Chancery, who is said to have sold the movies.
“Our investigation revealed that he was selling adult DVD’s from the shop for $3 each,” McGraw told the local newspaper. “When you got finished with your movie, he would even buy it back for $1.
“That’s not the kind of business we wanted in downtown Flomaton, especially next door to a church.”
Chancery, who was released, was charged with two counts of distribution of obscene material.
McGraw did not disclose the nature nor names of titles his department deemed "obscene."
Alabama's obscenity law is modeled on the 1974 U.S. Supreme Court opinion Miller vs. California in which obscenity was defined in part as works that offend local community standards.
There are now three pending cases involving obscenity prosecutions in the U.S., including charges against Chancery, big boobs model Kimberly Kupps in a Florida state case and Ira Isaacs, a scat pornographer who goes on trial next month in a a federal case in Los Angeles.