Councilmember Tommy Wells Announces Serious Inroads in Effort to Stop Pornographic Fliers Littering Southwest DC

On Friday, April 11, 2008, Councilmember Tommy Wells announced a partial victory for Southwest residents against pornographic promotional fliers and cards that litter streets and sidewalks in this neighborhood. A consent decree was entered into by the District and one of the companies sponsoring event space that many of the cards were promoting, not to distribute any fliers anywhere in the District in the future.

“While there is more to be done, I’m thrilled to win the first battle in putting an end to these pornographic fliers that are left on cars, dumped on sidewalks, and otherwise strewn around the nightclubs in Southwest DC,” commented Mr. Wells.

The consent decree is a result of Councilmember Wells’ efforts with Office of the Attorney General (OAG) which filed suit in DC Superior Court under DC v. Eric Hudson, Wayne Mason & CD#15 CL2001, Inc. seeking a temporary restraining order to stop distribution of the offending fliers.  The case is scheduled for an initial status conference on May 23, 2008. 

There remains an outstanding issue to determine with accuracy and specificity the responsible owner of the flier distributor company, MetroMac.  The OAG has been working diligently and aggressively on this case, but has been unsuccessful in identifying and locating the owner to date. 

In addition to the offensive nature of the promotional fliers, residents have complained that the cards are left as trash and litter on the streets around the nightclubs in this neighborhood. The Department of Public Works (DPW) reports that there has been no further distribution of these fliers since the consent decree was signed.

“I’m proud of our work with the OAG to get this agreement and I’ll continue to stay in close contact with their office to ensure that these pornographic fliers are not distributed in Southwest, or anywhere else in the city,” added Mr. Wells.

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