FORT WORTH _ — The Fort Worth Police sent officers back to The Velvet Box in North Fort Worth shop for an inspection this morning, in response to a dispute over whether the store is operating as a sexually-oriented business and otherwise in violation of public ordinances.
"The business was in compliance and no violations were found. This location sells novelty items and does not fit the criteria of a sexually-oriented business," Sharron Neal, a police spokesman, said this afternoon.The store manager told the Star-Telegram three officers visited the store at 9100 North Freeway in the Sam Moon Center at Alliance Town Center, spent 10-15 minutes inspecting it, and told her they found nothing improper."They didn't see anything there, and they left again," the owner, Marcelle LeBlanc, said by phone from North Carolina, where she has been vacationing this week while the dispute blew up in a lawsuit filed in State District Court in Fort Worth by Alliance Town Center. Here's the Star-Telegram story about the lawsuit from Tuesday's paper.Police visited the store a year ago, for an inspection in connection with the initial complaint that the store was operating as a sexually oriented business, but the store wasn't classified then by police and the city planning and development department as a sexually oriented business.Alliance Town Center maintains in the lawsuit that the store also is in violation of Alliance Town Center covenants with the Sam Moon Center, which owns its property and is The Velvet Box's landlord.LeBlanc opened the 2,000-square-foot store in December 2009.Here's a post from yesterday in the Star-Telegram's Tarrant Business blog on reader reaction to the dispute.Scott Nishimura, (817) 390-7808
