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LOS ANGELES Neighbors protested Saturday outside the home of a registered sex offender who is allegedly running a sex club out of his home, near a school and Dodger Stadium.
The neighbors, some with bullhorns and signs reading "no pimps" and "our kids deserve safe streets" gathered outside the home of Charles Diorio in the 700 block of Solano Avenue.
"He lives right down the street from a school," said Alisa Carvey, who lives next door to Diorio. "Obviously, you can see the neighborhood is packed with kids. We know sex offenders need to live somewhere, that's not a problem. It's the sex business that is a problem. It doesn't belong in a residential neighborhood. It should be moved to an industrial or commercial area. The municipal code says that sex businesses can't be in a residential area, and he has to go."
Diorio said he is running a dating service for adults in search of alternative life styles.
"I run a dating service," he told reporters. "It's not a sex club, it's not a swing club, it's not an escort service, it's not a brothel. It's not anything that is illegal."
Neighbors disagree.
"We want him to go, we don't need him here," Cynthia Nava Jr. said. "Registered sex offenders should not have sex clubs. I've gone on his (Web) site. It's not a dating service."
The neighbors said Diorio has been having sex parties at his home for the past four years.
"Last year we had a woman come running out of the house saying 'he's trying to rape me,"' Carvey said. "We brought her to our home and called 911. Her clothes were ripped off and she was absolutely terrified."
Diorio denied the incident happened and said he is being unfairly targeted because he was convicted of rape in New York nearly two decades ago. He said he served his time for that offense.
"Morality is a very flexible thing, and your morality and my morality are completely different," he said. "I'm not hurting anybody and I'm not doing anything that is untoward or illegal."
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