Texas Housewife Busted for Hawking Erotic Toys

[Theophylact]

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

A Texas housewife is in big trouble with the law for selling a vibrator to a pair of undercover cops, and the Brisbane vibrator company she works for says Texas is an "antiquated place'' with more than its share of "prudes.''

Joanne Webb, a former fifth-grade teacher and mother of three, was in a county court in Cleburne, Texas, on Monday to answer obscenity charges for selling the vibrator to undercover narcotics officers posing as a dysfunctional married couple in search of a sex aid.

Webb, a saleswoman for Passion Parties of Brisbane, faces a year in jail and a $4,000 fine if convicted.

"What I did was not obscene,'' Webb said. ""What's obscene is that the government is taking action about what we do in our bedrooms.''

The arrest of Webb in Cleburne, a small town 50 miles southwest of Dallas, was the first time that any of the company's 3,000 sales consultants have been busted, said Pat Davis, the president of Passion Parties. She said the company was outraged by the charges and stood behind Webb.

"It makes you wonder what they're thinking out there in Texas,'' Davis said. "They sound like prudes, with antiquated laws. They must have all their street crime under control in Texas if they're going to spend tax money arresting us.''

For the past year, Webb has sold the company's line of vibrators, gels, lubricants, strawberry-flavored nipple cream and "edible passion puddings.'' The merchandise is offered for sale in private, Tupperware-style parties to women who may be reluctant to visit an adult novelty store.

Among the company's top items are a $12 jar of passion pudding in chocolate and strawberry flavors ("apply head to toe, wherever you want your lover to linger"), a $9 jar of nipple cream in strawberry, raspberry and watermelon flavors, and battery-powered vibrators that sell for $17 to $140. The company also offers such lubricants as Slippery Stuff ($13), Lickety Lube ($12) and Lucky Stiff ($11.50), and a $22 battery-powered item for men known as Jelly Julie ("with soft jelly silicone lips").

"Our products are not obscene,'' Davis said. "All we're trying to do is help people build loving relationships.''

Webb suspects she got in trouble because she ruffled feathers in town by daring to join the Chamber of Commerce with her sex toy business. She said her arrest had caused her husband of 20 years to suffer a nervous breakdown.

Webb said she was amazed that the town's narcotics squad would be put on the case.

"We have a real problem with drugs in our schools,'' she said, "and they're using our narcotics officers to entrap me for selling a vibrator.''

[Crix]

i fail to see the problem with selling things like this in private? its not like she was on a street corner shouting about it or anything...

[Bill in SD, CA]

Ho Ho Ho!!

Merry Christmas!!



Bill

[J-Excel]

Just one 'ho'.

[Target]

Thats obscene!..... and I'm not talking about the items Mrs. Webb was selling either.

I'd offer up my broomstick for Texas lawmakers to shove up their ar$e, but I suppose then I too would be guilty of obscenity by providing them with a sex aid.

Its utterly amazing to me that undercover narcotics officers were either (1) put on this case by their superiors, or (2) decided on their own to persue this issue/case rather than seeking out and halting the activities of "real" criminals........

You Texans should be proud to know that your tax dollars are hard at work, and while your schools and neighborhoods aren't free from drug dealers and the like.... you have at least successfully prevented Mr./Mrs. John/Jane Doe from experiencing pleasure in the privacy of their own homes, and likely forced Mrs. Webb into unemployment.

[desmocat]

I don't think they were calling her that bill....

To set the record straight, she was arrested in Burleson, not Cleburne.
And we are a lot closer to Fort Worth than to Dallas..

That is where I live, (Burleson)and the cops were stupid for pursuing this IMO, based upon the fact that she was selling her products not to passers-by in public, but by invitation only parties IN PRIVATE..

[fritz the cat]

I used to live in that town. Now you know why I moved up north!

[RADAR1797]

Theo seems to have a problem with the entire state of Texas.

-RADAR

[Uncle Bob]

Lived in Orange Texas for a while. About all there was to do was chase woman,drink, work on cars.

[crystaldragon]

I don't see how they even got that one through the booking process. What did she do forget to make sure they were over 21?

Next it will be Tupperware for "drug paraphenalia" and Avon for "controlled substances"