Obscenity indictment dismissed against Olathe convenience store

By Diane Carroll, The Kansas City Star
December 19, 2007

Johnson County prosecutors on Wednesday dismissed a grand jury indictment that accused an Olathe convenience store of promoting obscenity.

The indictment against Gringo Loco was the second to be dismissed by District Attorney Phill Kline's office. Two other such indictments remain pending in Johnson County District Court.

Kline spokesman Brian Burgess said the office agreed to drop the indictment after the owner of Gringo Loco at 905 S. Parker St. agreed to remove a DVD video titled "Babysitter #18."

Attorney Tyler Garretson, who represented Gringo Loco, said the video in question was with other videos in a storage area. The owner inherited the videos when he acquired the store about a year ago, Garretson said, and rented them only to customers who asked if he had videos for rent.

Most of the movies were old, Garretson said. The owner did not realize that some of the videos might be considered pornographic, he said.

"No one was more shocked than Alex Huynh when his business was indicted. 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, and any movie that was even mildly sexually suggestive or explicit, they removed those immediately."

Huynh could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Garretson also represented Spirit Halloween, an Overland Park store that was selling Halloween costumes this fall. The district attorney's office dismissed four counts of promoting obscenity when the store agreed to move four costumes out of the sight of children.

The two other businesses that were indicted were Hollywood at Home of Overland Park and a Priscilla's store in Olathe. Both have pleaded not guilty.

The grand jury that investigated obscenity was seated in mid-July after an area chapter of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families succeeded in gathering the required number of signatures. Kansas is one of a handful of states that allow a county grand jury to be seated through a citizen petition process.

The obscenity grand jury adjourned in October. This month, a second grand jury was seated to investigate Planned Parenthood of Overland Park. That petition drive was led by abortion opponents.