More Sparks in Spencer County Sex Shop War

Hired guns are helping fight the latest round in the battle of the 231 Adult Plaza in Spencer County. Since 2005, church groups and politicians have been trying to close the shop, which sells adults themed novelties, magazines, movies and toys, and also operates a cabaret and peep show operation at U.S. 231 and I-64. Several county ordinances governing adult themed clubs and stores were passed right before the 231 Adult Plaza opened, and this latest round of court battles centers around the language in those measures. Chattanooga, TN, attorney Scott Bergthold has been helping the county in its efforts to shut the plaza down. Hes nationally know for his efforts to help local governments craft laws regulating adult businesses. Opposing Bergthold and Spencer County is H. Louis Sirkin, a Cincinnati attorney who is one of the foremost obscenity trial lawyers in the United States. The two men squared off in court Monday as the County asked Spencer Judge Wayne Roell to find that the Plaza has been operating in violation of the 2005 ordinances. The central issue in the case involves language in one of the ordinances that says an adult business needs special licensing from the county. An adult bookstore is defined in the ordinances as having "at least 35% of its displayed merchandise" consisting of sexually explicit material. Both sides employed private investigators who detailed the nature of the items they saw when they went into the Plaza. Sirkin says the county did not prove his clients store violates the order, but Bergthold says hes confident Judge Roell will side with the county. Roell is expected to rule in the next two weeks, and could order the Plaza to close and also to pay $75,000 in fines