Owner of Raided House Vows Party Will Continue

As George Pettit sees it, the Saturday night police raid on a nudist party at his secluded Sunland home came off like a farce.

“The Marx Brothers or the Three Stooges couldn’t have done it any better,” Pettit grumbled in an interview Monday.

Two vice-unit officers attended the Halloween party disguised as police officers. They carried toy guns and wore cowboy hats and bogus badges. What they saw after paying $55 at the door, police and Pettit agree, were 40 adults liberated from all or most of their clothing.

Two of Pettit’s friends were cited by an inspector from the city Department of Building and Safety for using the two-bedroom home as a business--because they allegedly charged admission.

Pettit, 67, who owns the home, said that the $55 paid by party-goers was a donation.

And the partying will continue twice a month, he vowed, despite City Councilman Howard Finn’s hope that last weekend’s police raid “closes them down.”

Police scrutiny focused on the Pettits’ house last week after Finn’s office complained that some neighbors found the nudity objectionable and worried about parking congestion and brush-fire risks. A petition citing those objections was circulated six months ago.

Pettit insisted that he and his wife, Elizabeth, 66, are not members of the group that uses the house, Sandstone Reflections. Sandstone members are friends, he said, who have used his home on the quiet, woody 9600 block of Green Verdugo Drive for weekend parties for two years.

Owners Out of Town

What’s more, Pettit said, he and his wife were out of town during the raid, as they usually are on weekends.

Sandstone Reflections is the heir to Sandstone Ranch, a private club in the Santa Monica Mountains where sex between adults was part of the activities in the 1970s. Author Gay Talese lived at the center to do research for his controversial best-selling 1980 book, “Thy Neighbor’s Wife.”

Officers said they found no indication that minors were at the party or that liquor was being sold in violation of state law. They also saw no sexual acts, although “the bedrooms were full of mattresses,” according to Officer James Rahm, who participated in the raid.

Pettit dismissed suggestions that Sandstone Reflections is a “sex club” and added that the group will consult an attorney about the building citations, which carry fines of up to $85.

“It’s not a sexual activity club,” he said. “It’s just a social sunbathing group.”

Pettit said that, when the sun goes down, party-goers come inside, play jigsaw and crossword puzzles, strike up conversations and relax with wine and cheese.