City Council might take legal action to close adult bookstore

The heated battle over adult bookstore Hot Stuff will reach another boiling point Wednesday when the Las Vegas City Council considers authorizing legal action to close the business.

The dispute, which has dragged on for two years and to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals with rulings in favor of both the city and the owners of the store, likely won't end with the council's decision Wednesday.

"It's beyond money anymore," said former Hot Stuff general manager Aaron Gordon, who works now for the Los Angeles-based corporate owner of the store. "There's no profit in the store anymore. That store's a symbolic measure saying you can't trample the First Amendment."

Despite legal setbacks, the city considers Hot Stuff "a nuisance" and has revoked the store's license to operate at 5100 W. Charleston Blvd. As a result, on Wednesday the council will request legal action to force the unlicensed business to close.

"We're going to tell the city attorney to go forward with the injunction to shut them down," City Councilman Michael McDonald said.

In 1997, Baby Tam & Co. Inc. sought a bookstore license from the city stating that 30 percent of its merchandise would be adult videos. The city granted the license but later audited the store to find that 58 percent of its material was adult.

As a result, Hot Stuff was considered a sexually oriented business. And such businesses are not zoned to operate in the West Charleston neighborhood in which the store is located.

When Hot Stuff was informed its license would be revoked, the company sued. The city prevailed in District Court, but Hot Stuff won in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In that October 1998 ruling, the city was ordered not to use its municipal code zoning requirements to close the store.

This past June, the city asked the federal court to vacate that order. On July 20, that court ruled in favor of the city.

Ten days after that ruling, the city began citing Hot Stuff's manager with a $1,000 fine each day.

On Aug. 5 the city also served notice that the store was a "nuisance" because it is operating as a sexually oriented business in a limited commercial zone. Such businesses are only allowed in industrial zones.

The city attorney's office, with the council's permission Wednesday, could take any legal action necessary to close the store.

But Gordon vows to fight on -- to the Supreme Court if necessary.

"But I don't foresee that happening," Gordon said. "I'm very confident the 9th Circuit will rule in our favor again."

That court's ruling, Gordon said, dealt only with one of the five issues Hot Stuff's owners raised.

"They saw the first one in our favor and never needed to go to the other four," Gordon said. "We're confident the other four are just reason to rule in our favor as well."

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