SHORT TAKES : Dallas D.A. Charges Retailers for Selling 2 Live Crew Album

DALLAS —  The Dallas district attorney’s office today filed misdemeanor obscenity charges against two record stores for selling the controversial rap group 2 Live Crew’s album “As Nasty as They Wanna Be.”

A Florida judge earlier declared the album obscene, triggering a nationwide controversy.

Assistant Dist. Atty. David Pickett said the office decided to prosecute Sound Warehouse and Hastings Records stores after a 13-year-old boy accompanied by an undercover officer bought the album Tuesday.

Neither record store commented on the misdemeanor charge.

Prosecutors said that the album lacks serious or literary value and fails to meet accepted community standards in Dallas, and that its lyrics contain hundreds of references to male and female body parts.

The prosecutor claims studies have shown that such material has an addictive effect on society and desensitizes normal relations among youth.

Brad Lollar, an attorney representing a group of lawyers who have volunteered to defend any Dallas store charged for selling the 2 Live Crew albums, questioned Pickett’s motives.

“What we have here is censorship and prior restraint of free speech,” Lollar said. “Movie videos, records, tapes, whatever. Mr. Pickett wants them to listen to them first, and then if they think the Dallas D.A.’s office might arrest them for selling it, then they should take it off the shelf.”