By a unanimous 5-0 vote Tuesday, the Cobb Board of Commissioners voted to revoke the business license of Tokyo Valentino, a sex shop that opened in East Cobb in June.
The store had its license suspended in September, pending an appeal, and had been allowed to remain open. The hearing was delayed by a month at the request of Tokyo Valentino.
After a due-cause hearing that lasted more than two hours, commissioners rejected appeals by the store’s attorney that the county’s action to suspend the license was based on arguments that were “not material,” and posed constitutional issues.
The county’s business license division in September alleged that Tokyo Valentino’s owner, Michael Morrison, misrepresented the intent of his business with the application of a license under the name of 1290 Clothing LLC as a general retail clothing store.
That license was granted in March, but when the business opened on June 9 at the former Mattress Firm store at 1290 Johnson Ferry Road it was as Tokyo Valentino.
Morrison owns five other adult retail stores under the Tokyo Valentino name in metro Atlanta and a similar store in Brookhaven called Stardust.
Scott Bergthold, a private attorney from Chattanooga hired by the county and who specializes in defending local adult retail ordinances, said the change from 1290 Clothing to Tokyo Valentino “was a clear bait and switch.”
He presented exhibits during the hearing showing that adult retail items not listed on the business license application—lotions and lubes, sex toys and smoke products—comprised 70 percent of what was on display at the East Cobb Tokyo Valentino store.
Clothing—specifically lingerie—accounted for only 14 percent of the inventory, according to a listing introduced as an exhibit.
Cary Wiggins, the attorney for Tokyo Valentino, pointed to several businesses in Cobb that ended up doing something different than what they indicated in their business licenses, but they were not shut down.
He said the county had no proof that Morrison, listed on state business formation documents for 1290 Clothing as the manager but not on the county business license application, was the head of the East Cobb business.
The person listed on the latter, Tomika Hugley, left that job, and in an August e-mail presented by Bergthold, said she “wanted to cut all ties.”
According to an e-mail Bergthold presented, Hugley contacted Ellisia Webb, the county’s business license division manager, that she wanted the 1290 Clothing business license to be cancelled.
“I was not involved in the ordering of any inventory or products,” Hugley wrote in the e-mail. “I have pleaded for my previous partners to make changes and they have refused to do so. . . . The store that currently exists should apply for a proper business license.”
Wiggins said comments by Morrison made in news media accounts, including East Cobb News, and cited in the allegations were not relevant to the county’s case.
“Mr. Morrison has the right to not give the papers a straight answer,” Wiggins said. “You are allowed to lie.”
Wiggins also said his client “did not intend to break the law. It’s a good business. It’s a clean business. To hold those newspaper quotes against him are improper.
“Who did he mislead? The reporter for the East Cobb News? Well good.”
In late May, East Cobb News first reported that a business named 1290 Clothing had received a business license amid concerns that it would become a Tokyo Valentino store instead.
When East Cobb News reached Morrison for contact, he said that “I have no idea what you are referring to.”
Morrison told other outlets he wasn’t sure what might go into that space, and at one point said it would sell “electric dance music” and “festival clothing.”
That was before the store opened on June 9, and it didn’t need needing any rezoning due to the general commercial rezoning for the property that’s been in effect since the 1970s.
A number of local residents signed an online petition, and in September commissioners overhauled the county code—with provisions drafted by Bergthold that place more restrictions on sexually oriented businesses.
East Cobb commissioner Bob Ott told Wiggins that other businesses that misrepresented themselves have been shut down, especially restaurants that don’t sell enough food to meet requirements to hold an alcohol license.
“You did not make your case,” Ott said shortly after midnight, near the end of a contentious hearing.
Tokyo Valentino has been embroiled in legal disputes in other metro Atlanta jurisdictions, but this was its first store in unincorporated Cobb.
In June, the Marietta City Council revoked the business license of a Tokyo Valentino store on Cobb Parkway for 180 days, saying the store inventory didn’t match what was on its application.
Tokyo Valentino is appealing that decision in Cobb Superior Court. The East Cobb store is likely to remain open with an expected appeal of the commission’s decision.
Wiggins hinted at possible legal action Tuesday, citing the Equal Protection clause of the U.S. Constitution, as well as the First Amendment.
Lisa Cupid, the only attorney among the commissioners, told Wiggins that she wondered if “there was an intent to mislead when you don’t list the core of the business. It makes me perceive that there is some desire to mislead.”
Wiggins said later that he “would hate to see a county revoke a business license because some people—a small majority—don’t like it.”
He said his client “did its best within the bounds of the law to complete the application.”
Before the vote, however, chairman Mike Boyce said “I can’t get over an application by somebody who bowed out,” a reference to Hugley.
“I have a lot of questions about that.”
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