The trial will determine the constitutionality of the city’s ordinance, which employs a 25 percent rule that defines an adult bookstore as any business that dedicates more than a quarter of its floor space to adult material.
Attorney Scott Bergthold, who represents the city, maintains that the store meets the ordinances definition of an adult retail space and is therefore subject to zoning and licensing requirements.
Bergthold is a Chattanooga, Tenn.-based attorney who has successfully helped cities around the country defeat adult store challenges to local zoning ordinances.
John Haltom, who owns the Doctor John’s Lingerie Boutique, filed suit in federal court in December 2003, claiming that the city had amended its zoning ordinance to specifically ban his store.
The trial, which is expected to last four days, could see more than 300 pieces of evidence entered into the record. More than 50 witnesses could be called upon to testify.
Should U.S. District Court Judge Mark Bennett rule in favor of Haltom and strike down the law as unconstitutional, a second trial will begin in March. That trial will address whether or not the city’s actions damaged Haltom by forcing him to delay the opening of his store. If successful, Haltom could be entitled to monetary damages from the city.
If Bennett upholds the ordinance as constitutional, a jury would be called upon to determine if Haltom’s store meets the definition of an adult establishment.
Haltom, who is represented by attorneys Andrew McCullough, Brian Vakulskas and Brad Shafer, owns additional retail stores in Nebraska and Utah, where he lost a Supreme Court case challenging that state’s sexually oriented licensing law.
