Cobb requests revocation of Tokyo Valentino business license

The Cobb Board of Commissioners will consider a request to revoke the business license of the newly opened Tokyo Valentino adult retail store on Johnson Ferry Road in East Cobb.

UPDATED: The hearing has been postponed until Oct. 27.

At the end of Tuesday’s meeting is an agenda item from the Cobb Community Development Agency that would revoke the business license on the grounds that the applicant provided false and incomplete information.

Technically, what will be conducted is a “due cause hearing,” similar to attempts to revoke alcohol licenses, with the licensing agency making its case and allowing the license holder to present a defense.

Tokyo Valentino opened in a vacant Mattress Firm store space in June without needing rezoning or any action from the county, other than a business license that was granted in March.

Considerable opposition came from nearby residents before the store opened, as first reported in May by East Cobb News.

Commissioner Bob Ott of East Cobb said at the time there wasn’t anything the county could to stop the store from opening.

Last month, he proposed an overhaul of the county’s sex shop ordinance that would further restrict such businesses, and those measures passed unanimously without much public discussion.

In June, the Marietta City Council revoked the business license of a Tokyo Valentino store on Cobb Parkway, saying the store inventory didn’t match what was on its application.

A Sept. 8 letter from Ellisia Webb, the Cobb Community Development Agency’s business license division manager, to Tomika Hugley, the Johnson Ferry Road store’s applicant, charges that she applied for the license under the business name of 1290 Clothing Co. LLC.

“That is false information because the business at 1290 Johnson Ferry Road has never done business or held itself out to the public as ‘1290 Clothing,’ ” the letter states. “It is instead doing business as ‘Tokyo Valentino.’ ”

(You can real the full letter here.)

Webb also charges that Hugley did not fully state what the inventory in the store would contain, as required in the business license application, listing only retail clothing merchandise, including undergarments, shoes and games.

The top three items in the store, Webb said, citing an Aug. 28 listing from Hugley, are “lotions & lubes,” “toys” and “smoke products.”

Webb said those products constitute 70 percent of the store’s inventory, but the application didn’t mention them at all. The only product mentioned in the application that was later included on the inventory list was lingerie, which Webb said constituted only 14 percent of what’s in the store.

Webb also charges that Hugley is improperly listed on the business license application as the president and manager of the store, when state incorporation papers list Scott Morrison, the owner of several Tokyo Valentino and other adult stores in Atlanta, as the store’s organizer.

The other grounds for business license revocation in Webb’s letter include Hugley claiming the applicant had no delinquent taxes due. According to Webb, Morrison owes back business occupation taxes in several jurisdictions, including Gwinnett County.

Webb further details what she said are numerous misrepresentations made by Morrison to news media outlets and even to Hugley about his intentions for an East Cobb store.

Until his Marietta store was closed, Morrison had six adult retail stores in metro Atlanta, and has had legal battles in various jurisdictions.

His main store, on Cheshire Bridge Road in Atlanta, has been the subject of a legal dispute lasting two decades and that includes a civil rights lawsuit he has filed.

In late May, a DeKalb County judge ordered Morrison jailed in a longstanding matter involving his Stardust adult store in Brookhaven.

Morrison has vowed to appeal that ruling and the business license revocation in Marietta.

The Cobb commissioners meeting starts at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building, 100 Cherokee St., in downtown Marietta.

You can watch online on the county’s website, as well as its Facebook and YouTube pages and on Cobb TV23 on Comcast Cable.

Related stories

• Proposed Cobb code changes target sexually oriented businesses
• Editor’s Note: Is East Cobb really so uptight about a sex shop?
• East Cobb citizens speak out against new Johnson Ferry Road store
• Empty East Cobb retail building subject of sex shop concerns

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