For the second time, a judge has ordered an adult baby goods store in Noblesville to close because it violated the city’s building code.
Hamilton County Judge Michael A. Casati ruled that My Inner Baby continued to violate Noblesville’s adult entertainment restrictions when it moved its store around the corner from its original location at 15480 Herriman Blvd.
The store is “prohibited from reopening its business in a Noblesville zoning area where sex shops are prohibited unless approved by a change of use or rezoning application from the city,” Casati ruled last week.
My Inner Baby co-owner Ryan Polokoff said he will appeal in state court and has filed a complaint.
My Inner Baby describes itself as a medical supply store that sells incontinence products such as diapers for adults, but also has baby bottles, pacifiers, stuffed animals and rompers in adult sizes in its range.
The city’s land use planning committee decided on August 1, 2022 that it was a sex shop and had to be closed.
City attorneys said My Inner Baby targets people with sexual fetishes on social media by using lewd hashtags on the images it posts. They said there is a “subculture” of Adult Baby Diaper Lovers with ties to people interested in sexual bondage, discipline, domination and submission.
A Hamilton County judge canceled a September 2022 sentencing hearing because the owners missed a deadline to submit certain documents.
The store filed suit in January 2023 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, seeking an injunction, damages and a jury trial, but the court dismissed the case.
My Inner Baby then appealed in federal court, but reached an agreement with the city before the hearing.
As part of the deal, My Inner Baby was able to move to a city-approved location that met zoning regulations, but instead the store moved to 15529 Stony Creek Way, two blocks from its original location.
The city again appealed to Hamilton District Court, demanding that the new location be closed because it was located in the same unlicensed industrial area where sex shops are prohibited.
But Polokoff said the store has revised its marketing strategy and no longer advertises on media sites that the planning authority said turned it into a sex shop.
“Simply put, (My Inner Baby’s) business operations, social media activity and marketing in 2024 are significantly different from its social media and marketing posts prior to 2022,” My Inner Baby wrote in a court document, noting that it had changed its business practices and the items it offered for sale, leading the city to label the business a “sex shop.”
The city had argued that the store was an adult entertainment business because more than 5% of its sales were considered sex toys under city ordinance and many of those items were marketed and advertised as sex accessories.
“The City of Noblesville appreciates the court’s swift decision affirming the position regarding zoning violations that the City has maintained in three separate court cases,” City Attorney Jonathan Hughes said in a prepared statement. “To our knowledge, the company is complying with the decision. We will continue to monitor ongoing compliance.”
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