The Sex Police

On September 25, a Johnson County grand jury indicted the video store on misdemeanor criminal charges of promoting obscenity. The store's alleged crime was renting out four allegedly obscene movies — Don't Kiss Me I'm Straight, Hellcats 12, Anal Machines and Real Female Masturbation. A man who gave his name as Sean O'Cleary rented the videos in late August and never returned them. He had paid a $100 deposit and, later, called to tell the store that he'd turned the films over to the grand jury.

The grand jury handed down 15 obscenity charges against the store and three other Johnson County businesses. They're accused of renting out racy videos, selling sex toys and displaying obnoxious Halloween costumes.

Johnson County isn't alone. Citizen petitions have forced grand juries to convene throughout Kansas. This grassroots effort is the work of Phillip Cosby, a Ned Flanders look-alike and anti-pornography crusader. The 56-year-old retired Army master sergeant is the zealous leader of the Kansas City office of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families.

Cosby calls sex shops "an open sewer," "a moral cancer" and "a wicked stronghold." He has cautioned that "a tsunami is hitting our community." He blames the sex industry for causing rape and pedophilia. (Violent secondary effects of porn consumption have been widely discredited.) He has even coined a pet name for businesses that sell adult videos or sex toys: SOBs — an acronym for "sexually oriented businesses."

Cosby's bosses at the Cincinnati-based National Coalition preach "biblical sexual ethics." They don't want people watching porn, reading X-rated magazines, masturbating with sex toys or engaging in premarital or gay sex. They want trials in order to redefine obscenity in communities throughout Kansas.

The coalition's vision of community standards may not be representative of Johnson County, as a trip to Hollywood at Home and the other accused stores implies. Still, Cosby's Kansas City pornography jihad will serve as a test run for the rest of America: If he successfully shuts down the metro area's porn shops, the national office will wage similar holy wars with porn stores across the nation.

But Cosby's efforts are toothless. The Kansas obscenity statute that Cosby relies on has been ruled unconstitutional, and the stores he has targeted can beat the charges — if they choose to fight.

Cosby's strategy is possible thanks to a Kansas law that allows any citizen to convene a grand jury.

Cosby declined to discuss his strategy with The Pitch for this story, citing the paper's "bent." "We're not really moving in the same direction," he said. "I know you believe what you believe, and I believe what I believe, and I think we're just not a good fit."

After the indictments were issued, Cosby claimed in news reports that law enforcement officials were "breathing a sigh of relief" and referred to himself and his followers as "the cavalry."

It's unclear whether law enforcement considers Cosby "the cavalry." Of the dozens of stores that Cosby has targeted over the years, none has closed its doors.

Nowhere is that more evident than in his hometown of Abilene, Kansas.

Giant gold letters scream "Adult" from the horizon as Interstate 70 curves west toward the heart of Kansas. A second word — "Superstore" — slowly becomes clear as the miles click closer to Exit 272.

The Fair Road exit leads directly to the entrance of the Lion's Den Adult Superstore. This is where Phillip Cosby's war on pornography began four years ago.

Just after 1 p.m. on an early October afternoon, it's clear who won the war by looking at the half-dozen cars parked outside the gray, wood-paneled building. An 18-wheeler idles near the fenced-in entrance. The store's tinted windows are covered with advertisements for an in-store appearance by voluptuous porn star Stormy Daniels.

In September 2003, the Lion's Den opened in an abandoned Stuckey's restaurant just west of Abilene. The Stuckey's had sat empty for years, rundown and neglected. Then one day, Abilene residents saw renovations under way at the building. Guards watched the entrance to the store as workers unloaded trucks. No one was allowed in the parking lot.

The next day, the Lion's Den opened.