Police Find 17 Sex Toys in Local Woman’s Car During DUI Traffic Stop
Longview
News-Journal, November 21, 2002
By John Lynch
WHITE OAK, TEXAS—A Longview woman
who sells sex toys has been charged with felony obscenity after White Oak
police found some of her wares in her car during a traffic stop
The arrest report describes the 17 items as “obscene
materials and obscene devices,” but Police Chief Charlie Smith said the
items were mostly lotions and objects defined in a dictionary as having the
shape and often the appearance of the male genitalia, used in sexual
stimulation.
How illegal is that? Prosecutors will have to decide when
White Oak investigators forward their findings to the district attorney’s
office sometime in the next week, Smith said.
“We’ll see what they do with it,” Smith said.
Kathleen Elizabeth “Kathy” Grubbs, a distributor for
the national company Slumber Parties Inc., calls the charge, which carries a
maximum penalty of two years in jail, “kind of ridiculous.”
State law appears a little less forgiving: It’s illegal
to “wholesale promote” obscene materials or devices. Texas statute says an
obscene device is a simulated sexual organ or an item designed or marketed as
useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs. The law allows
investigators to assume that anyone with six or more of the items is intending
to promote them.
In April, Kilgore police raided the Adult Book
Store/Video Store at 1907 Industrial Blvd., seizing 12 large trash bags full
of devices police said were being sold illegally. The raid came after an
undercover officer visited the shop twice before the raid, making at least one
purchase. An 11-page inventory compiled by police estimated the materials were
worth $19,082. The sexual devices on the 11-page inventory ranged in price
from a “Climax Band” that sold for $5.95 to a “Wild and Crazy Tickler”
for $11.95; a “Hyper Sonic G” for $69.95; a “Plush Playmate” for
$89.95; and a “Cyber Sexploration Kit” for $44.95.
The store owner, Robert Duggan III, was never arrested,
but he agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor count of obscene display, a
charge equivalent to a traffic ticket, and agreed to pay a fine and let police
destroy the items.
Grubbs, 47, said she has been selling the items for about
two months as a distributor for Slumber Parties Inc., a national sex toy party
business that operates out of Ohio and Louisiana.
Slumber Parties is where the Tupperware party meets
Victoria’s Secret, the company says on its Web site. The distributors host
women-only parties in private homes to show off their merchandise. Grubbs
stresses the parties are only for adults, meaning no one allowed under age 18,
and men are definitely prohibited.
“Believe it or not, there’s a lot of women who go to
these parties,” Grubbs said. “It’s very popular.”
Company officials did not return a call Wednesday, but
Slumber Parties claims its network of distributors sold $15 million in
“romance-enriching” products, including lotions, powders, lingerie and
private bedroom accessories, with prices ranging from $2.50 to $139. Sales
this year are expected to reach $20 million.
The seizure of the items occured during a traffic stop on
Texas 42 on Old Highway 80 in White Oak at 10:27 p.m. Monday. Police stopped
Grubbs’ truck after seeing her driving erratically, an arrest report said.
She failed or refused to perform field sobriety tests and was charged with
driving while intoxicated, and a breath test showed she had blood-alcohol
levels of 0.228 percent and 0.22 percent, the report said.
Police searching her truck after the arrest found the box
of erotic items. The White Oak police chief said investigators are used to
finding drugs and guns, but sex toys are the first in his 22 years of
experience.
“There’s no telling what you’ll find on one of
these stops,” Smith said.
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