Local News in Brief : Santa ‘Hot Line’ Sues

The operator of a “North Pole hot line,” who complained that children reached dial-a-porn numbers by mistake last month when they tried to phone Santa Claus, has sued Pacific Bell and two sexually oriented message companies.

Robert H. Lorsch alleged in a $1-million suit filed Monday in San Francisco Superior Court that the phone company and “976” adult lines based in Valencia and Scottsdale, Ariz., violated federal and state laws prohibiting the sale of pornography to children who misdialed his Santa Claus number.

Instead of hearing a recorded story about Santa and his reindeer, children who were a digit off in dialing the North Pole hot line reached sultry-voiced women talking about sex, Lorsch said. Lorsch has alleged that operators of explicit-message lines purposely requested $2-per-call numbers that are similar to his 2-year-old service and could be mistakenly dialed by youngsters.

But Louise Ricks of Arizona-based Premier Communications, operator of one of the sex lines, denied wrongdoing. “I don’t believe in the Santa Claus lines or kids’ lines,” she said. “I think that’s ripping off kids.”