Kansas Obscenity Indictment Dismissed

OLATHE, Kan. — Johnson County prosecutors dismissed the grand jury indictment accusing Gringo Loco, a convenience store in Olathe, of promoting obscenity after the offending title was removed from the store's stock.

It was the second indictment to be dismissed by District Attorney Phill Kline’s office. Two other indictments remain pending.

A spokesman for Kline said the office agreed to drop the indictment after the owner of Gringo Loco agreed to remove Notorious Productions' “Babysitter 18” from its stock.

Attorney Tyler Garretson, who represented Gringo Loco, said that Alex Huynh, the owner, inherited the videos when he acquired the store about a year ago and rented them only to customers who asked if he had videos for rent.

“No one was more shocked than Alex Huynh when his business was indicted," Garretson said. "But from day one, as soon as they were alerted, he and his wife — no one could have been more angry than his wife — they went through [the store] and any movie that was even mildly sexually suggestive or explicit, they removed those immediately.”

The previous obscenity indictment that was dismissed, against costume store Spirit Halloween, was dismissed when the store agreed to move four costumes out of the sight of children.

The other two indicted businesses, Hollywood at Home in Overland Park, Kan., and Priscilla’s in Olathe, have pleaded not guilty.

The grand jury to investigate the allegations of obscenity convened in July after a petition drive by the local chapter of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families. Kansas permits a county grand jury to be seated through a citizen petition process.

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