Scandal! Kim's on St. Mark's busted for CD and DVD counterfeiting

from nytimes.com
>
Police Raid Video Store in East Village in
Piracy Case
>
>By THOMAS J. LUECK
>
>Published: June 10,
2005
>
>A longtime fixture in the East Village, Mondo Kim's,
a
>mecca for independent music and video at 6 St. Marks
>Place, was
raided and closed for five hours on
>Wednesday by police officers who left
with boxes
>filled with CD's, DVD's and computer equipment.
Five
>store employees were charged with
trademark
>counterfeiting.
>
>
>According to several
employees of the store, known
>widely for the its independent labels, and
sometimes
>ornery staff, the police arrived about 1 p.m.
on
>Wednesday, and ordered all customers to leave.
>
>Then,
all of the 20 or so clerks, managers and other
>employees who were working
in the three-floor store,
>which sells DVD's, CD's, books and
production
>equipment, were told to line up on the ground
floor.
>The police quickly identified four men and one woman
>and
led them away in handcuffs. They ordered everyone
>else to leave and
searched the store until about 6
>p.m., when officers filed out carrying
boxes.
>
>The police said yesterday that investigators
had
>carried out a search warrant for counterfeit
>trademarked goods
and that the material seized
>included nine computer towers, a CD burner,
a laptop
>computer, 471 compact disks and 53 videos.
>
>The
employees charged with counterfeiting were
>identified as Theo Frimpong,
39, of the Bronx; Diana
>Kinscherf, 19, of Queens; Donald Stahl, 26,
and
>Charles Bettis, 29, both of Brooklyn; and Craig
>Willingham,
32, of Manhattan.
>
>Mondo Kim's is on a block of St. Marks Place,
between
>Second and Third Avenues, that has long been a
>crossroads
of bohemian culture. It and three other
>Manhattan stores known as Kim's
Video and Music are
>widely known among the cognoscenti of
new,
>experimental and esoteric music and film.
>
>Many
customers seek out the four Kim's outlets for
>recordings they are unable
to find in even the largest
>music stores, and they often say they
patronize the
>St.
>Marks Place store despite the attitude of its
staff,
>which is not always welcoming.
>
>"It was a rite of
passage to go in there, rent a movie
>and get snobbed on by some
disdainful clerk," said
>Mike
>Doughty, the former singer of the
band Soul Coughing.
>
>Veterans of the East Village arts scene said
the store
>had a devoted clientele.
>
>"They fill a niche,"
said Mike Stuto, an owner of Hi
>Fi, a bar on Avenue A. "It's the
difference between a
>corner bodega and a special newsstand that
carries
>every publication you can imagine, but may not have
>Time
magazine."
>
>Colin Moynihan contributed reporting for this
article.
>
>