District Attorney drops smut peddling charges

Tuesday, March 24, 1998 | 10:10 a.m.

At the request of the district attorney's office, 56 smut peddling charges from last year's struggle to clean up the Las Vegas Strip have been dismissed.

Deputy District Attorney Ben Graham asked Justice of the Peace Bill Jansen last week to dismiss the counts, citing evidentiary problems with the cases involving the illegal distribution of handbills.

The literature, advertising outcall entertainment services that Metro Police have said are thinly veiled fronts for prostitution, was so explicit that it drew repeated complaints from tourists and calls from politicians for its removal.

Graham said the cases dismissed had "proof problems" and the law on which the charges were based "may not have been as constitutional as the current ordinance."

He said the evidentiary problems involved such things as the failure of law enforcement to keep copies of the handbills in each case.

Graham indicated that some smut peddling cases under the new ordinance are still pending in the court system.

The new ordinance and successful court challenges aimed at the companies behind the often aggressive curbside distribution eventually resulted in the peddlers leaving the Strip, although the fliers and advertisements did not.

The multi-page ads are still distributed in news stands lining the Strip.