Paris Adult Bookstore in northwest Dallas in May 2026.
Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News
Federal agents investigating allegations that sex trafficking was being run through a northwest Dallas adult bookstore searched the home of one of the store’s owners and hauled away gold bars, seven Rolex watches, laptops and at least 10 guns.
Gary Hartstein hasn’t been charged with a crime. Now he wants his property back and says the government went too far.
Hartstein holds ownership interests in AVM-AUS Ltd., which owns Paris Adult Bookstore on Harry Hines Boulevard, and Lone Starr Multi-Theatres, which manages Paris and other businesses. His home, Paris and Lone Starr’s Addison headquarters were searched Feb. 13 as part of a federal investigation into alleged sex trafficking and money laundering tied to the store.
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Hartstein declined to discuss the case in detail and referred questions to his attorney, Michael Villa.
“I wish I could talk because I’ve got a lot to say,” Hartstein told The Dallas Morning News. “I’m very aggravated with this thing.”
Villa also declined to comment when contacted.
Five months after the searches, a federal grand jury indicted eight people, six of whom investigators said worked at Paris. The charges include conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, sex trafficking through force, fraud or coercion, sex trafficking of a minor and money laundering. Some defendants also face firearms charges.
Prosecutors say Paris was used for years to facilitate prostitution and sex trafficking and funnel money from that activity into the business.
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But Hartstein and the two companies are now waging a separate fight in federal court. They say investigators went beyond the limits of the warrants, seizing personal belongings, computers and records connected to other businesses they say were unrelated to the investigation.
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Hartstein’s lawyer Villa in court documents says Paris represents only about 4% of Hartstein’s overall business interests. Hartstein also has interests in real estate, hospitality and retail businesses, some dating to the early 1990s. Lone Starr manages Paris and other business ventures, which the filings don’t identity.
In court filings, Hartstein and the companies argue agents were authorized to seize only property tied to specified crimes during a defined period and instead took property that fell outside those limits.
“The government has stonewalled [Hartstein’s] efforts to obtain the return of property without court intervention,” Villa wrote.
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Davilyn Walston, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas, said the office was declining to comment on Hartstein’s case, citing Justice Department policy against commenting on ongoing investigations or court proceedings.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandie Wade, who is prosecuting the eight-defendant criminal case, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
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Copies of the search warrants attached to Hartstein’s court filing show investigators were looking beyond what is alleged to have happened inside Paris.
The warrants authorized agents to seize “contraband, evidence, fruits and instrumentalities of” suspected sex trafficking, racketeering and money laundering, including financial records they believed could show where proceeds from illegal activity were kept or moved.
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Investigators specifically sought records related to what the warrant called “the financial aspect of the sex trafficking enterprise.” That included records from other entities or accounts controlled by Hartstein if they were involved in concealing, transferring or using money connected to the alleged crimes.
“Paris Adult Bookstore operated as a sexually oriented business, but the indictment alleges it was far beyond any legitimate business activity,” U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybold said at a July 28 news conference.
The case behind the searches
The allegations that led agents to Paris are extensive.
Prosecutors described Montre and Eileen Mason as managers of Paris. Aaron Betford, Montre Trelynn Love Mason, Larry Jones and Krishenda Doss also worked at the store.
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Those six defendants have pleaded not guilty and were released from jail while the case is pending, court records show. Online court records did not yet show pleas for two other defendants, Reginald Rose and Antonio Osorio-Avelar, as of Thursday morning. Investigators have described both men in court as pimps with prior sex-trafficking convictions involving people identified as victims in the Paris case.
A trial date in the criminal cases has been set for April 2027.
An attorney for Jones declined comment, while attorneys for Betford, Doss, Eileen Mason, and Trelynn Mason didn’t respond to phone and email requests for comment. Montre Mason’s attorney acknowledged a request for comment but hadn’t provided one by deadline.
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Prosecutors allege Paris had about 40 private arcade rooms where customers paid to watch pornography and sex workers met customers.
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Investigators testified in court in July and August that customers paid Paris $20 to use the back rooms — a separate charge from any payment for sex. The fee covered arcade access, viewing pornographic videos and either a condom and sanitary wipes or an employee tip.
Dallas County investigator Michael Grice, who works with the Homeland Security Investigations-led North Texas Trafficking Task Force, testified in July that investigators believed money from sex acts in the back rooms was mixed in with revenue from the store’s legitimate sales.
Investigators also testified that Paris employees escorted sex workers and customers to the rooms and enforced rules governing sex workers.
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Gold, watches and business records
The warrant for Hartstein’s Plano home authorized agents to seize evidence connected to alleged sex trafficking, racketeering and money laundering from Jan. 1, 2019, through the day of the search on Feb. 13. The Paris warrant also covered a firearm offense.
Court records reviewed by The News don’t explain why investigators chose Jan. 1, 2019 as the starting point. The federal investigation into Paris began in 2023, according to testimony from Grice.
The date still matters to Hartstein’s challenge because his lawyer argues agents could seize only property tied to crimes listed in the warrants from Jan. 1, 2019 onward.
At his home, agents seized credit-card statements, personal laptops, gold bars, at least 10 firearms and at least 11 luxury watches, including seven Rolexes, according to an inventory filed in court.
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Hartstein’s lawyer says in court filings that the government believes some of the watches and gold were bought with illegal proceeds and offered to return them if Hartstein produced receipts showing they were purchased before 2019.
Villa argues that gets the burden backward: The government, he says, should have to show the property is connected to a crime rather than force Hartstein to prove it is not.
As of Hartstein’s July filing, Villa said the government had not started forfeiture proceedings over the items or shown that the items were tied to illegal proceeds.
The companies make a similar argument in a separate court filing challenging the search of Lone Starr’s Addison headquarters.
Their filing says agents seized broad categories of financial, payroll and other records from an office that handled multiple businesses, not just Paris. The companies argue investigators failed to separate material tied to Paris from records belonging to other businesses they say were unrelated to the investigation.
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They say losing computers and records disrupted payroll, accounting, tax filings and other everyday operations. They asked judges to order property returned or require investigators to copy electronic devices they still need and give back the originals.
Federal judges approved the searches after finding probable cause that evidence of suspected crimes could be found at the locations.
Hartstein and the companies are now asking separate federal judges to order property returned. Both motions also ask for an evidentiary hearing if the judges determine one is necessary.