Crow washes hands of voyeur Internet site

By KATHERINE GAZELLA

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 7, 2001

TARPON SPRINGS -- Less than two weeks after describing himself as a "hired gun" for a voyeur Web site that shows activities of women in a Tarpon Springs house, state Rep. Larry Crow said he has decided to do no more work for the company.

Crow, a Republican from Palm Harbor who has a private law practice in Tarpon Springs, said Monday that he will not have anything to do with ucanwatch.com, a company for which he is listed as the registered agent in state corporate records. He previously said he might represent the company in any zoning battles with the city of Tarpon Springs.

He now says he will not act as the company's attorney on any issues. He said he made the decision in April, when he first filed the corporate papers for ucanwatch.com, although he did not mention the decision during interviews with the St. Petersburg Times in late January.

He said he made the decision after learning that the company would offer sexual content on the Web site. Initially, he said, the company was going to offer video and audio streaming for a variety of things, possibly including sporting events, he said. He knew the voyeur site would be a portion of the company's work, but he initially did not think it would include objectionable activities, he said.

"What the corporation started out to be and what it ended up being are two different things," Crow said. "The adult nature of it was not my understanding at all."

The Web site promises "unlimited access to 12 live nude girls every day" and provides links to hardcore sexual images.

"It was supposed to be a voyeur location with no sex, no drugs," Crow said. "It turned out not to be that at all."

Crow, now in his fourth term in the House, also said he does not want to represent ucanwatch.com because of his position as a state legislator. He said he does not want to be associated with something opposed by many people in Tarpon Springs, where he practices law.

Since the Times reported on Jan. 27 that Crow did legal work for ucanwatch.com, he said he has heard both from supporters and from people who did not like the Web site.

"The people of Tarpon are too important to me," he said. "And there's a larger role I have to protect."

Crow's House district stretches from Pinellas Park to the southern part of Tarpon Springs, including parts of Largo, Clearwater, Dunedin and Palm Harbor.

Mike Schriver, who runs the Web site, declined to comment Tuesday.

Crow said he never had strong ties to ucanwatch.com. He prepared the corporate filings for the company in April, for which he was paid about $600, he said.

In an interview in late January, he said he may lend his expertise with zoning issues if the city of Tarpon Springs were to go after the company. At that time, he said he had moral objections to the content of the Web site, but that he was just the company's "hired gun."

This week, he said he never meant that he personally would represent the company. He said his comments were about his law firm's representation of ucanwatch.com.

"Maybe I wasn't clear," he said.

For the most part, Jerry Theophilopoulos, his associate in his Tarpon Springs law firm, deals with ucanwatch.com, Crow said. Crow said on Monday that he does not know if the firm will continue to represent the company.

"It would be very easy for me to say, 'The public doesn't like it, we're not going to represent them,' " Crow said. "I'm not going to say that.

"We're not picking law clients as a popularity contest," he said.

Ucanwatch.com follows the activities of up to a dozen women living rent-free at a 7,000-square-foot home overlooking Kreamer Bayou. The Tarpon Springs Police Department is investigating the activities at the house.

Police Chief Mark LeCouris said the company has never gotten the necessary occupational license to operate a business out of the house. He said the Police Department also is looking at other laws and ordinances the business may be violating.

Schriver has said the house does not need an occupational license because no buying or selling takes place there, and the company's computer server is in Tampa.

- Staff writer Katherine Gazella can be reached at (727) 445-4182 or gazella@sptimes.com.

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