Jeffrey J. Douglas, a Santa Monica lawyer, also said the company is complying with federal record-keeping requirements and has documents verifying the legal ages of all the 18- to 21-year-old men featured in the videos filmed and sold by Coast.

Douglas refused to say where those records are kept. Adult entertainment companies are required to keep the records accessible to federal authorities at a physical address. The San Diego address for Coast is a locked postal box.

Mervine, 55, who resigned his $208,000 job last week as executive director of the Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority, has refused to talk about Coast.

Douglas contacted The Tampa Tribune after a reporter made numerous calls to a San Diego man listed on documents as the person who receives mail for Coast.

The man, Ken Eckert, who also is known as Kenneth Eckert Pitts, began renting a postal box for Coastal Productions in January 1999. Three months later, in May 1999, Mervine used the address to file with San Diego County for the fictitious business name of Coast Productions, which is the name used since by the company.

Reached by telephone in San Diego on Tuesday, Eckert Pitts said any comment would come from Douglas.

The documents obtained by the Tribune list another man, Thomas C. Neal, as also having access to Coast's postal box at 3841 Fourth Ave. in San Diego's Hillcrest neighborhood. Attempts to locate Neal were unsuccessful.

Background checks for both men list ties to Florida. Eckert Pitts has family in Lee County. Neal has a previous address in Polk County, where Mervine has owned a home for 13 years.

Both men are shown as having previously lived at the same address in San Diego. That address also appears on the January 1999 application to rent the postal box.

"The reason for me calling you is you've been making a number of inquiries. You're calling people's employers," Douglas said. "Everyone associated with the business would just as soon they don't get a phone call from you."

Eckert Pitts works for Paradise Marketing Services, described on its Web site as America's No. 1 distributor of condoms and lubricants.
How Is FBI Involved?

The documents about Coast's postal box obtained by the Tribune also included the business card of a special agent with the FBI's San Diego field office.

It is not clear when or whether the agent visited the business, Hillcrest Postal Express, where Coast's postal box is located.

John Nettles, the owner, said he bought Hillcrest Postal Express in July. He said Monday that he had not been contacted by an FBI agent.

A spokesman for the FBI in San Diego declined to say whether the agency had previously looked at Coast.

An FBI spokeswoman in Tampa said she could not confirm or deny that an investigation is under way. She said agents in her office have spoken with the bureau's San Diego office about the matter but would not discuss the details of those talks.

Federal law states that adult businesses that film, distribute or produce materials featuring hardcore sexual activity must maintain records detailing the legal age of each performer for each separate film or photo shoot in which they appear.

The FBI recently started inspecting adult businesses for their records to determine compliance with the law.

The records must be at a physical location, have a designated custodian in charge of the records and be available for inspection by federal authorities at least 20 hours a week.

The law specifically says a post office box is not allowed.

Coast Productions, on two Web sites that were active until last week, listed the postal box address as the location of its records. The company, until last week, advertised 19 DVDs for sale featuring men at least 18 years old.

Douglas, a Santa Monica lawyer who has represented members of the adult entertainment industry since 1982, said the company is not in violation.

The law, he said, "requires that certain kinds of records be at a street address. It does not require that all business records be maintained at a street address."

He refused to say whether he only learned the business' address was a postal box after the Tribune reported it.

And he could not say what, if any, records Coast kept at the postal box address.

"I don't know the answer to that question," he said.

The federal law states that documents listing actors' names and ages must be kept in a building accessible to federal authorities. The postal box for Coast Productions was empty Monday.

"Without doubt," a company would be in violation if it listed a postal box on its Web site as the address where records are kept, said Paul Cambria, a Beverly Hills criminal defense lawyer and general counsel for the Adult Freedom Foundation, which represents the adult entertainment industry.

Noncompliance with the law is a felony and can result in a five-year prison sentence.

The law recently was amended to more clearly address content produced by Web-based companies. There has been one conviction to date, which resulted in a $2.1 million penalty for the California producer of "Girls Gone Wild" videos for failure to properly maintain records.
Lawyer Declines Details

Douglas refused to say when Coast shut down. Two Web sites affiliated with the company were inactive as of Saturday, and an adult Yahoo group posting video clips and photos from its DVDs had been deleted.

Coast's phone number was disconnected as of Sunday.

"I don't know the answer," he said. "The business is no longer active."

Nettles said Monday that someone retrieved mail Saturday from Coast's postal box.

Douglas refused to say how long he has represented Coast. He refused to identify individuals affiliated with Coast. He only would say that no minors appeared in the videos produced.

"Are they 18 years and older? Yes," he said. "Is there documentary proof of that? Yes."

Douglas also refused to say who is in charge of the company's records. The two Coast Web sites listed its custodian as a "D. Stone," however the Tribune has been unable to find anyone in San Diego County matching that name.

The newspaper has called nearly two dozen listings for individuals with the first initial "D" and the last name "Stone."

"I believe that is a real person's legal name," Douglas said.

The newspaper discovered Mervine's ownership of Coast while reviewing his business dealings outside the expressway authority.
Documents Link Mervine

In addition to being listed on county documents requesting the fictitious business name, Mervine's name also appears on an application for a business license for Coast Productions with the city of San Diego.

The license was received in July 1999. Coast has one employee, according to the application. The name of the employee is not listed.

The license has been renewed each year for $49, according to the city.

Coast also has maintained a seller's permit since April 2000, according to the California State Board of Equalization. That allows Coast to sell merchandise and remit sales tax to the state.

The permit lists Coast as a sole proprietorship, and state law prohibits releasing the name of a sole proprietor. The state also will not say whether sales tax has been remitted by Coast.

The permit, according to the state, is for video production and distribution.

Reporter Baird Helgeson and researcher Buddy Jaudon contributed to this report. Reporter John W. Allman can be reached at jallman@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7915.