Word: hurlbut
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...city known for world-class pornography, Hurlbut has carved a swath of reform. An executive-search consultant in his more mundane life, the burly 59- year-old launched a second career as an anti-vice crusader a decade ago. He began by leading a covey of angry citizens in stamping out sex shops in his own blue-collar neighborhood of Aldine. He then expanded the drive, harnessing the muscle of police and prosecutors to close nude bars, massage parlors and so-called modeling studios across a stretch of Harris County. Today, thanks largely to Hurlbut, service roads and strips that...
...battle against sin, a warrior is only as good as his freshest kill, and that is why Hurlbut is riding shotgun this gray Friday afternoon during an assault on a trafficker in lewd videos. At the house, tires screech, and officers leap out with drawn .45s. "If anything's going to go wrong, it's in the first two minutes," says Hurlbut, taking it all in from the Chrysler. Nothing does, but the raid nets only a few small-time video wholesalers. However, clues quickly lead deputies eight miles away to a cramped trailer that proves a cornucopia of hard...
...investigators gather evidence and make more arrests, Hurlbut browses through rows of Hefty Mamas, Leg Show, Bizarre Fantasies and other beckoning titles with the indifference of a hardened vice cop. "Victimless crime -- crap," he whispers. "Follow me." The white-haired Hurlbut eases his 225- lb. frame through an entrance marked PEEP SHOWS and into a darkened warren of viewing rooms. In each of the empty plywood cubicles, VCRs still hum, and the trappings of recent sexual activity abound. "The average guy has no idea what scumbags these places are," he snaps...
Though the raid is a success, the skin shop is open again in a matter of hours. That doesn't faze Hurlbut, who has lost his share of go-rounds with crafty defense lawyers. He'll simply try again. "Sex shops are like fungus," he says. "If we don't apply the antibiotic, they'll sprout again anywhere." For Hurlbut, the medicine involves marshaling public awareness and applying legal pressure. "We're not on a moral crusade," he insists. "The porn people are folks like you and me, trying to make a living. We just want them to obey...
Porn's big profits ensure that Hurlbut will never lack for work. The station wagon is now deep in the piney woods northeast of the city as he searches vainly for the site of another nude bar, one that he has chased from two other prospective locations. "We'll get him sooner or later," he chuckles. On the drive home, he wheels up to a fading stucco relic aside the four-lane. Shut down long ago, the nude club's blue canopy still flaps amid the weeds and litter, and a garish neon sign towers skyward. "Twenty warrants for prostitution...