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Joanne Webb, the Felonious Sex Toy Selling Housewife of Cleburne, Texas, has had all charges dropped against her.

A woman who received nationwide attention when she was arrested for selling two sex toys to undercover police officers posing as a couple is no longer charged with violating the state's obscenity law.

The case against Joanne Webb was dismissed by a judge, Johnson County Attorney Bill Moore said Friday in a statement. He said he asked the judge for the dismissal to prevent wasting county resources, but he didn't give a date for the dismissal.

No one answered the phone at Moore's office Saturday.

Webb, a former fifth-grade teacher, started selling erotic toys and other adult products as a Passion Parties Inc. consultant in June 2003. She hosts what she calls Tupperware-type parties for suburban housewives who feel more comfortable buying marital aids in a private home than at an adult bookstore or on the Internet.

Webb was arrested Nov. 13, about a month after the officers approached her at her husband's business in Burleson, about 10 miles south of Fort Worth, and bought two products. She had faced up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine, if convicted.

Webb's attorney, BeAnn Sisemore, said she and her client were pleased.

"We knew that it was a possibility, but we weren't contacted," she told the Cleburne Times-Review for its Sunday edition.

Webb learned from a reporter that the charges had been dropped.

Moore said a pending federal lawsuit filed by Sisemore would determine the constitutionality of the state obscenity statute Webb was accused of violating.

The Cleburne Times-Review story is here, if you want to fill out their noxious registration screen. Mrs. Webb expresses some defiance after this outcome.

The former elementary school teacher, a mother of three, called the dismissal by Johnson County "the wisest action they could have made."

"The fact that they arrested me in the first place shocked me," Ms. Webb said. "As far as my family and I were concerned, jail was a possibility. This is a cloud that has been hanging over us for the last eight months. We finally feel like we can breathe again."

[...]

Despite the charge, she said, she never stopped promoting the Tupperware-style parties, though she stopped staging them in Johnson County. And she has no plans to stop now.

With the charges dropped, Ms. Webb vowed to continue fighting to repeal an obscenity law she described as outdated and selectively enforced. She plans to join a federal lawsuit seeking to declare the law unconstitutional. She had not been allowed to participate in the lawsuit while her case was pending.

"My personal battle has been won, but the battle to attack this law is just beginning," she said.

The "Sisemore" mentioned in the Chron clip is BeAnn Sisemore, Mrs. Webb's attorney.

Webb's attorney, BeAnn Sisemore, said she and her client were pleased with the dismissal.

"We knew that it was a possibility, but we weren't contacted," she told the Cleburne Times-Review for its Sunday edition.

[...]

Moore said a pending federal lawsuit filed by Sisemore would determine the constitutionality of the state obscenity statute Webb was accused of violating.

According to the state's obscenity code, an obscene device is a simulated sexual organ or an item designed to stimulate the genitals. Adult stores get around the law by posting signs that say "sold only as novelties."

Webb is not named in the lawsuit, but she may join it as soon as next week, Sisemore said.

The dismissal of the misdemeanor charge is "a victory, but absolutely it's not the end of the fight," Sisemore said. "Now that real fight can begin."

Oh, I can't wait.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on July 19, 2004 to Crime and Punishment | TrackBack