Gazette: “Zoning laws set; But porn store’s plans unchanged”

Today’s Gazette reports on the City Council’s approval of adult-use zoning on November 2. The Republican also covers the story in “Council limits adult businesses”. Among other things, the new ordinances (see details) require that businesses with more than 1,000 square feet of adult material on display must locate in Northampton’s Highway Business District and be at least 500 feet from homes, schools and houses of worship.

Capital Video’s proposed porn shop at 135 King Street is near many homes and calls for 6,222 square feet of retail space (see the plans). Capital Video general counsel Lesley Rich said the company will “analyze the situation” and work with the city. The company has a Site Plan Review scheduled with Northampton’s Planning Board on December 14. Mr. Rich attended Thursday’s council meeting but made no public speech.

Mayor Clare Higgins and a two-thirds majority of the council members supported the adult-use zoning ordinances. Opposing some or all of the ordinances were Councilors Maureen Carney (Ward 1), Paul Spector (Ward 2) and Raymond LaBarge (Ward 7).

The Gazette quotes from a letter sent this week to the mayor and city councilors from Lesley Rich. Mr. Rich insists that Capital Video intends to open an “upscale store” and complains that “a campaign has been waged against our business by individuals that have maligned the reputation of Capital Video.”

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We would like to respond to Mr. Rich’s claims in his letter, which is reproduced at Talk Back Northampton.

Capital Video claims it will open a “sensuality style business, with a focus on couples and women in the adult market”. The reality is they will continue to sell violent, misogynistic porn that celebrates infidelity. You can dress up the displays around World of Black Bondage, “Office Slut Gangbang”, “Use Em’ Abuse Em’ and Lose Em’ #9” and “Housewives Unleashed #16”, but that doesn’t change the nature of this material.

Concerning “individuals that have maligned the reputation of Capital Video”, let’s review some of Capital Video’s history. What Mr. Rich calls ‘maligning’, we call factual evidence and a long track record that gives cause for concern. Capital Video owner Kenneth Guarino is a convicted criminal who served time in jail in 1997 for conspiracy to evade taxes. Before then, The Boston Globe published this detailed profile:

A few things have changed for Guarino since the mid-1970s… One of his closest associates was killed under mysterious circumstances when he fell out of a moving car…

Law-enforcement sources, including those in the FBI, Rhode Island State Police and Providence Police, stated in interviews that Guarino has ties to organized crime, especially the Carlo Gambino family in New York City. There are these circumstances to support their statements:

Guarino’s major supplier of pornographic magazines and films has been Star Distributors Ltd., a Manhattan company that is controlled by an associate of two crime families, those of Gambino and Simone (Sam the Plumber) DeCavalcante of New Jersey.

An undercover FBI agent who helped bring obscenity-related indictments against numerous associates of organized-crime families in the 1980 Miporn case said that, by agreement, Guarino handled trade of books, magazines and sexual devices in New England while the 16mm and 35mm movie business was reserved for the DeCavalcante family.

Late in 1977, Guarino made out two $7500 checks to an associate of the Gambino family. The money was the single largest payment made to any individual out of Guarino’s corporate funds during the three-year period from early 1975 to February 1978, and it is labeled on Guarino’s ledger book as “commissions…”

Guarino’s company, Imperial Distributors, took over as the prominent distributor of pornographic magazines in New England in the early 1970s, from the now-defunct Atlantic Distributors Inc., also of Providence. Providence police contend that Guarino went to work for Atlantic around 1966 or 1967, shortly after he left Mount Pleasant High School in his junior year.

In 1969, then 20 years old, he started on his own and opened Imperial Distributors Inc. in Providence. Within two years, most of the adult bookstores in New England were buying their magazines and books from Imperial. The details of how Guarino assumed major control of pornography distribution from Atlantic Distributors are not known…

For pleasure, [Guarino] made frequent trips to Las Vegas, where he ran up thousands of dollars in casino “markers”…

The FBI assigned one of its accountants to review the several ledger books and other financial records seized at Guarino’s Imperial Distributors headquarters. From that review, the FBI accountant concluded that Guarino was failing to declare thousands of dollars in income that his chain of retail stores was grossing…

In addition to inspecting Guarino’s seized records, the FBI interviewed an accountant who had worked on Guarino’s financial books from sometime in 1973 to February 1978. According to a confidential report on that interview, the former accountant, William J. Martin 3d, told the FBI that “Guarino was skimming over a half-million dollars a year” from his corporations and bookstores.

At the time that the former accountant made the charge, he was under indictment in Connecticut for embezzling more than $146,000 in four separate checks from his full-time employer, General Dynamics, in early 1978. Martin, according to the confidential report, later told the FBI that he had embezzled the money on orders from Guarino because Guarino needed money “for anticipated legal fees.” However, Martin said he would not testify against Guarino in the case because he feared for his safety…

“Spotlight: The Pornography Industry–A Quick Route to Profits for Region’s Top Porn Dealer”, The Boston Globe, 2/15/83

Elsewhere in his letter, Lesley Rich asserts, “Capital enjoys an excellent relationship with its host communities, and has not encountered any of the problems or detrimental effects that have been put forth.”

I doubt the people of Kittery, Maine would agree with Mr. Rich’s opinion. Let’s revisit the minutes of a meeting of the Kittery Town Council, February 27, 2006 (emphasis added):

a. (020206-1) THE KITTERY TOWN COUNCIL MOVES TO HOLD A PUBLIC HEARING ON AND HEREBY ORDAINS CHAPTER 5.40, AN ORDINANCE REQUIRING LICENSES FOR VIEWING BOOTHS OF ADULT ENTERTAINMENT ESTABLISHMENTS. …Police Chief Strong came forward and said everyone was aware that this establishment [Capital Video’s porn shop] had been a bone of contention for a long time. Although they had other regulations toward that establishment, it had come to his attention that there were either illegal activities going on or activities that were detrimental to the health and welfare of patrons and the general public. They started to pick up intelligence and interviewed a former employee, who had been in a managerial role for the company. During that interview, they were informed about certain activities and that basically it was a meeting place for homosexual males to meet people and engage in sex inside the booths and bathrooms, which the informant indicated he had personally witnessed. The Department continued to monitor the establishment and to research websites. The Chief made a sketch on the board for Council to see the establishment’s basic layout; the doors to “peek” booths were lockable from the inside.

Chief Strong said Fernald Road residents had complained about finding offensive trash on the road and the Department did their own surveillance, finding such items as empty pill bottles, lubricants, leather straps, movies, and used condoms within 100 yards of the rear of the establishment on Fernald Road. The Chief said they made the decision to send people in under cover and on two occasions, he sent two plain clothes detectives into Amazing.Net, arming them with special glasses and a portable ultraviolet light, which when shined on an area would illuminate body fluids. On January 30, two detectives went inside dressed in plain clothes and equipped with the ultraviolet light, as well as collection material. They entered booths, closed the doors, turned on the ultraviolet light and observed what appeared to be tremendous amounts of body fluids on all three walls and on the floor. The next night, the detectives followed the same procedure. Samples were sent to the Main Street Lab and on February 13, 2006, he received the results confirming that all swabbings taken in the four booths contained semen. The Chief said their informant told them that on numerous occasions he had tried to clean but had not been given any information on how to wash the areas properly. Police Chief Strong said he believed the collection of material they made, along with the lab results, showed beyond a reasonable doubt that there were body fluids being exchanged or deposited that other people were exposed to…

Despite the complaints of residents and Chief Strong’s evidence about the condition and activities surrounding Capital Video’s store in Kittery, Capital Video still made vigorous efforts to fight legislation to improve the health and safety of their porn viewing booths. The Portsmouth Herald reported in June:

…Kittery recently passed an ordinance that requires the owners of Amazing.net, located on Route 236, to remove the doors from the viewing booths. Once again, the ordinance was based on public health concerns because–just as had happened in Portsmouth–officials found semen on the walls and seats of the booths.

And, once again, the owner of the adult store–in this case, Capital Video Corp.–is attempting to fight the ordinance in court. On Wednesday, a York County Superior Court judge rejected the owner’s call for a temporary restraining order that would have freed the shop from having to comply with the new ordinance.

“There is no fundamental liberty interest to view sexually explicit materials in a closed viewing booth at a business,” Superior Court Judge Paul Fritzsche ruled.

…While Fritzsche’s ruling should have settled the issue, the main legal action brought by Capital Video claiming the town violated the company’s constitutional right to privacy remains active.

Far from being responsive to communities, Capital Video has a record of resisting even the most reasonable requests of citizens and public officials. Mr. Rich’s words may be soothing. Capital Video’s actions are not.