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Home My WebLink About10/18/72Decision and Order- Fourth Street Cinema Proceedings of Board of Commissioners City of October 18, 1972 431 At a Special Meeting of the Board of Commissioners held in the Commission Chambe in the City Hall, Paducah, Kentucky, at 5:00 p.m. on October 18, 1972, Mayor McNutt presided and upon call of the Roll the following answered to their names: Commission- ers Harvey, Hornsby, Lambert, Puryear and Mayor McNutt (5). Mayor McNutt offered motion, seconded by Commissioner Hornsby, that the executed copy of an Agreement by the Mayor and Commissioners for a Special Meeting of the Board of Commissioners of the City,of Paducah, to be held on October 18, 1972 at 5 o'clock p.m., be received and filed. Adopted oncall of the Roll, Yeas, Commissioners Harvey, Hornsby, Lambert, Puryear and Mayor McNutt (5). The purpose of the meeting was for adopting and issuing the decision of the Board on the Charges of Larry E. Thomas, City Manager vs. Fourth Street Cinema, Western Corporation and Southern Investment Groups, Inc. Mayor McNutt offered motion, seconded by Commissioner Hornsby, as follows: WHEREAS, on October 3, 1972, a Statement of Charges was filed with the City Clerk by the City Manager against Fourth Street Cinema, Western Corporation, and. Southern Investment' Group, -Inc. as holders of --a City_ Business License for violating Sub -section (a) (2) of Section 17-28 of the Code of Ordinances City of Paducah, for permitting to occur on the premises covered by the license a condition which was alleged to be a nuisance or obnoxious to the moralsand general welfare of the public, and - WHEREAS, nd WHEREAS, the said charges were received and filed by the Board of Commissioners on said date and a date and time for hearing was set at 8 p.m., October 10, 1972, in the Commission Chamber in the City Hall in Paducah, to consider whether or not there were in fact grounds to suspend or revoke the said business license, and WHEREAS, the Honorable Joseph Freeland, Counsel for the Defendants, requested that the hearing be continued and reset for 8 o'clock p.m on October 17, 1972, and WHEREAS, said continuance was granted and the case was thereafter called for hearing at said time and said place, and WHEREAS, there appeared on behalf of the defendants, the Honorable Joseph Freeland, and on behalf of the City of Paducah, the Corporation Counsel, Honorable J. William Howerton, and WHEREAS, on call of the case for hearing both sides announced ready and Counsel for both sides preceded to make an opening statement, and WHEREAS, the complainant proceeded to present its proof at the end of which it was announced that the proof was completed, whereupon the defendants were invited to present their proof but declined to present any proof and the case was concluded by arguments first on behalf of the defendants and lastly on behalf of the complainant, and 432 Proceedings of Board of Commissioners _ _ _ City of Paducah Oct -ober 18, 1972 WHEREAS, the Board of Commissioners has considered the charges and all of the evidence which has been transcribed in full by a duly authorized and acting Court Reporter, Mrs. Shirley France, together with all exhibits filed and admitted in the evidence, NOW THEREFORE, I move that the Board of Commissioners adopt the following findings of fact and order: FINDINGS OF FACT (1) The defendants are the holders of a City Business License dated, February 25, 1972, for the purpose of operating an amusement theater for which they paid the sum of $104.20. (2) That said license was purchased subject to all of the terms and conditions of the Occupational License Ordinance of the City of Paducah as is set forth in Chapter 17 of the Code of Ordinances City of Paducah, Kentucky. (3) That Section 17-28 of the Code of Ordinances City of Paducah, Kentucky, provides in part as follows: "(a) Any license issued under this Article may, with notice to the holder thereof and a hearing as hereinafter provided, be revoked or suspended by the Board of Commissioners: (2 ) If there shall occur in, ors -,or at the premises covered by the license any condition which is a nuisance or obnoxious to the morals and general welfate of the public; (4) That on June 27, 1972, the defendants, at the licensed premise, did exhibit a motion picture entitled "Temptation and Sin" which was a filmed presentation of sexual intercourse and other sexual activity, whether real or simulated, in a shameful, abnormal, perverted, unnatural vulgar and immoral manner. (5) That on September 7, 1972, criminal charges for the exhibition of "Temptation and Sin" were tried in the McCracken Circuit Court resulting in a hung jury with eleven of the twelve jurors making a determination that the said moving picture was obscene but without resulting in any conviction for exhibiting obscenity. (6) That on July 6, 1972 the defendants continued to exhibit lewd and immoral moving pictures on the licensed premises and did exhibit to one William Bruce Kersey, a minor of the age of seventeen years, a film entitled "This Baby is Yours", which film presented various lewd acts of sexual inter- course together with lewd displays of nudity and auditory presentations of vulgar language, and that said minor was permitted to enter the licensed premises without regard to his age. Proceedings of Board of Commissioners _ City of N ;,ah October 18, 1972 (7) That on July 26, 1972, the defendants exhibited at their licensed premise two movies entitled "The Doctor and his Women" and "The Lona Swift Sword of Seigfried" to one Charles Young, age fifteen, which movies were vulgar, lewd and immoral and glamorized immoral and criminal behavior and presented on film acts of sexual intercourse and other sexual activity. (8) That the said fifteen year old Charles Young was admitted without question of his age on July 26, 1972 and was again admitted on September 24, 1972 when he was permitted to view a film entitled "The 433 Games People Play" which was a shameful and lewd presentation of nudity, vulgar language, and abnormal sexual activity. (9) That the defendants have continued to use their licensed premises to regularly display immoral, abnormal, vulgar, lewd and perverted filmed presentations of sexual intercourse and sexual activity between men and women a:nd -women with other women and specifically did display such filmed presentations on October 3, 1972 and on October 17, 1972, the date of this hearing. (10')= That the theater is open to the public generally and has regularly and continuously presented filmed presentations as complained about herein to anyone without regard to age or sex and to mixed,audi- ences. (11) That the citizens of the community have, in large numbers, expressed their desire that such a condition not be permitted to exist and that there was filed with the record of this case petitions containing in excess of three thousand five hundred names. CONCLUSIONS 1... That the defendants have permitted or created at the premises covered by their business license a condition which is a nuisance or which is obnoxious to the morals and general welfare of the public in the City of Paducah. 2. That the defendants acquired their license subject to the prohibition against permitting such a condition to exist at or upon their licensed premises. 3. That the Statutes of the Commonwealth of Kentucky have empowered cities of the second class to declare, prevent and abate nuisances on public or private property and the causes thereof, and that a public nuisance exists as the result of an act or a failure to act which injuriously affects the safety, health, or morals of the public. 4. That a licensed business establishment regularly presenting filmed presentations of sexual activity to the public without regard to N Proceedings of Board of commissioners October 18, 1972 _ o— Cify of Paducah age, sex, maturity, criminal background, prior sexual offenses, or the effect such presentation will have upon a viewer and his relationship to others within the community and society is a nuisance and is obnoxious to the morals and general welfare of the public and to the safety of the public and is lawfully subject to regulation and even suppression, abatement or prohibition. ORDER IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that the license to operate an amusement theater issued to the defendants, Fourth Street Cinema, Western Corporation and Southern Investment Groups, Inc. on February 25, 1972 for the year 1972 be, and the same is hereby, revoked, and the City Treasurer is hereby authorized and directed to recover the said license from the defendants and to return to them their prorata share of the cost of the license for its unused portion for the remainder of the calendar year 1972. /S/ Alice H. McNutt Mayor Rev. W. G. Harvey Commissioner Thomas E. Lambert Commissioner Approved as to Form q ffohn Hornsby - Commissioner J. William Howerton Counsel for Complainant Henry Puryear Commissioner Joseph S. Freeland Counsel for Defendants Adopted on ca -11 -of the Roll, Yeas, Commissioners Harvey, Hornsby, Lambert, Puryear and Mayor McNutt (5). On motion the meeting adjourned. ADOPTED�f �� 1972 APPROVED ct, r Mayor City Clerk