Trial of Accused Sex-Club Operator Begins : Court: Prosecution witness who attended $40-per-couple swingers parties at the Cowan Heights residence tells of topless dancing, pornographic movies and mattress-filled rooms.

In the heart of pricey Cowan Heights, Stephen M. Cohen operated a swingers club that held parties offering a smorgasbord of sexual activities for $40 a couple, a prosecution witness testified Thursday.

Sheriff’s investigator Charles Daly, testifying on the first day of Cohen’s misdemeanor trial, said he “heard a lot of moaning and groaning” and saw a number of sexual acts at the Brier Lane residence that he and a female officer went undercover to investigate.

Cohen, 44, of Trabuco Canyon, has been accused of violating zoning laws by operating an adult business in a residential area of Cowan Heights, a rural, hilly, upper-income community northeast of Tustin.

William J. Kopeny, Cohen’s attorney, admitted that his client ran what was called the Club but contended that it was a nonprofit, private, social organization for people with an “alternative lifestyle” and not a business.

“This was a club not engaged for profit,” he said.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Stephanie George said the $50-per-couple membership fee and $40-per-couple entrance fee totaled a significant amount of money, especially if the Club had thousands of members, as Cohen told Daly.

“He offered various forms of payment--cash, Visa, MasterCard, American Express,” George said. “He even had military discounts. . . . This was a business.”

During his opening statements, Kopeny asked the jury to focus on whether the Club was a business and not be swayed by the “highly emotional, exciting, interesting sexual activities” that occurred there.

Kopeny added that law enforcement officials in the county have been “trying for two years to persuade a court or a jury that this was an illegal activity.”

Cohen has never tried to keep the Club a secret, advertising in local newspapers and swing magazines for new members.

It was one of those ads that caught the attention of vice investigators with the Sheriff’s Department in March, 1989.

Daly testified that after responding to the ad, he and a female investigator, posing as a swinging couple interested in joining the Club, met with Cohen.

When they filled out an application, “we looked very nice, the kind of people they wanted for the Club,” Daly said.

The undercover couple went to three different swing parties at the residence, Daly said. While at the parties, they walked around the residence, mingling with more than 40 couples on one occasion, and tried to blend in and investigate at the same time, he said.

On another occasion, Daly said, in an effort to maintain his cover, he undressed and joined Cohen in a Jacuzzi to have a conversation.

Daly said that the bedrooms had been converted into several carpeted and mirrored “cubbyholes” where couples would pair off and engage in sex. The garage had been turned into a bar area, complete with tables, chairs and dance floor, where he saw women dance topless, he said. He was told that he had to bring his own alcohol but that the Club would supply mixers, ice and snacks.

There was even a room with wall-to-wall mattresses that he was told was “the place to go if you’re into the group thing,” Daly testified.

In another room, there was a large-screen television that played pornographic movies, he said.

“I spent most of my time there,” Daly said.

The trial continues today in Central Municipal Court.