Originally Posted July 10, 2008
New Jersey State Police arrested a 47-year-old man, whose allegedly display of a topless Barbie doll and explicit porn magazines inside his car caused a stir at a Garden State Parkway rest area.
Robert Martin, of Dennis Township, N.J., had women's underwear on a platter, in addition to the naked doll on the dashboard of his car, investigators said.
The car is still at the Ocean View Service Plaza but the porn is not; state police seized it. But people there said they certainly haven't forgotten the graphic images they saw inside.
"There was just stuff strategically placed and all of it was based around pornography," Christie Ostrander, who saw pornography in the car, said.
It was a XXX eyeful that Ostrander said she got when she looked inside the Lincoln parked at the busy Ocean View Service Plaza on the Garden State Parkway in Dennis Township.
"Very explicit pornography," she said. "It was a mixture of pornography, a Bible, cross, it was all laid out perfectly. Nobody should have to really be exposed to that."
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Ostrander works at the New Jersey information center and said people began complaining a couple weeks ago about porn DVD cases and magazines on the seats and center console along with a topless Barbie doll on the dash board.
"There was a thong on a gold platter," Ostrander said.
"It's crazy, I mean, anybody could see that stuff. That's no good, especially for kids," Chris Kelley, who saw pornography in the car, said.
"I didn't think that possessing porn inside your car, in the back seat, was a public display," Robert Martin said. "It was not on public display, it was not a public shrine."
Martin admits the car and the porn belong to him.
"It was majorly way overblown," he said.
New Jersey State Police arrested Martin early Wednesday morning and charged him with maintaining a public nuisance. They arrested him after he parked the car at the service plaza. He's done that for months, in order to catch a ride to his job at a boat yard in Atlantic City.
He was released after posting bail.
"I didn't fathom the depth of having something like that in your car could be considered public view," Martin said. "The only way anyone would have known anything was in there was for somebody to walk up and look in that car."
Martin said he had the explicit material in the car because he's in the process of moving to a new apartment. The porn is now in the hands of state police as evidence.
"The only regret I do have is probably having the Barbie doll up on the dash board. Being topless, maybe that drew some attention," Martin said.
Martin was also charged with possession of a weapon after investigators also found a pointed shank in the car. Martin said he used that shank to pop tapes out of the vehicle's cassette player.
"I can just say anybody that's out there, if you have any pornographic material in your car whatsoever, do not have it in your car," Martin said.
