Lingerie boutique owner appeals eviction ruling

And a District Court judge yesterday ruled that the lease for Posh and Naughty, the Portsmouth retailer of lingerie and sex toys, gives the landlord the right to evict the tenant for even a single late payment on the rent.

But the lawyer for Trisha Smith, owner of the provocative boutique, immediately filed an appeal to Superior Court.

The appeal stays the ruling by Judge Stephen Erickson, who allowed the landlord, Samuels Realty, to evict Smith’s business.

Yesterday, Smith’s lawyer, Susan T. Perkins, said she believes David Bazarsky, the owner of Samuels Realty, wants to evict Smith as “retaliation against her marketing techniques.”

“I don’t think it was a fair decision,” Perkins said of the District Court ruling.

In most eviction cases, landlords do not want to throw out tenants as long as they get their money.

Smith covered the check in December as soon as she learned it had bounced, Perkins said.

“It was an honest mistake,” Perkins said, and Smith has paid the rent on time since then.

Trouble between Smith and Bazarsky first surfaced last November, when Bazarsky sent her a letter telling her to stop appearing in brief costumes in front of the store on busy East Main Road, just south of Turnpike Avenue.

But Smith refused, saying she was exercising her First Amendment right to freedom of speech by using her ingenuity to promote her business — an approach she labeled “guerilla marketing.”

At Christmastime, the buxom blonde Smith appeared in a “Santa Baby” ensemble featuring a strapless top and a short skirt. She waved to drivers from a post outside her shop, which is painted bubble-gum pink.

When a bounced check made Smith late with the rent for December, Bazarsky sent her an eviction notice.

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