By KATHY OLDHAM
Larry W. Peterman, defendant in the Movie Buffs pornography trial, took the stand on Friday to testify in his defense.
Peterman, former general manager of Movie Buffs video store in American Fork said, it was Movie Buffs’ policy to remove videos off the shelves if there were any complaints about them. He also said he did not receive complaints from anyone before his stores in American Fork and Lehi were raided by police.
Peterman, who faces 15 Class A misdemeanor charges of distributing pornography, said he had no knowledge that he was doing anything illegal.
When the content of Movie Buffs adult room was mentioned at the Lehi City Council meeting in 1994, Peterman said he explained the videos in the adult room of his store would be cable edited versions of X-rated movies, with the more explicit sexual scenes edited out. He said he told the council the videos would be sexual in nature and he thought they understood what that meant.
“I didn’t detect any confusion at the time,” Peterman said.
During cross examination prosecuting attorney Curtis Larsen asked Peterman “sexual in nature is a pretty general term is it not?”
Lehi City attorney Ken Rushton, who testified on Friday for the prosecution, said he got the impression the movies in the adult room at Movie Buffs were no different from movies available at any other video store.
“The council didn’t have any thought or concern that obscene or pornographic material would be in the store,” Rushton said.
Barbara Powell, the secretary of planning and zoning at the time Movie Buffs obtained a business license from Lehi, said she was shocked when she visited the adult room.
“In my opinion some people might want to watch an X-rated movie, but we would just as soon they went to Salt Lake County to get it,” Powell said in her testimony for the prosecution.
The prosecution is expected to finish with their rebuttal witnesses on Tuesday and closing arguments could be over as soon as Wednesday. Then it is up to the six members of the jury to determine community standards in Utah County.
