McDonald Pleads Not Guilty, Clears Out Shop

Visitors to Mill Valley have loved been accustomed to the rather crammed and cluttered state of , the novelty gift and adult video shop owned by Fairfax resident Dave McDonald that has been a fixture in downtown Mill Valley for more than 48 years.

But just nine days before he must vacate his tiny storefront at 74 Throckmorton Ave., McDonald is surrounded by disarray that far surpasses his norm.

Released from Marin County Jail on bail earlier this month, the 70-year-old McDonald hopes to put his life back together on the heels of his . He pleaded not guilty to those charges this week and is back in court Sept. 14.

“I’m getting there,” McDonald said of his efforts to vacate the store of decades of inventory, from posters and adult videos to a 350-pound piece of a diesel train engineer that serves as the base for a stool.

McDonald has no cash, as narcotics agents seized it in the  that led to his arrest. He was able to post bail through donations from friends and is now trying to raise money by liquidating some of the inventory he has amassed over the past 50 years, much of which is stacked up in his shop, the house he owns in Fairfax and the apartment he rents in Fairfax, as well as his multiple storage units in Marin.

McDonald needs to raise a few thousand dollars to pay back rent on those storage units and avoid having their contents seized. He has until July 31 to empty his shop, as his landlord, former Pacific Sun publisher Steve McNamara, evicted him at the end of March for failure to pay rent.

Despite the uphill battle ahead of him, McDonald has put back on some of the 30-plus pounds he lost in jail and appeared motivated as he moved boxes from his shop to his van outside on a recent afternoon.

But while the liquidation is something he can partly control, the criminal case against him .

What were once eight felony charges for possession and intent to sell methamphetamine, as well as a large quantity of a precursor to manufacturing it, have been whittled down to three. That’s largely because the substances McDonald allegedly sold to an undercover agent tested negative for what he allegedly told agents they were, according to court testimony last month. Additional charges related to the discovery of guns in McDonald’s shop were dropped because the guns were dust-covered relics.

But even if he sold fake drugs to undercover narcotics agents, McDonald faces three felony charges and several years in prison if convicted.

He said he remains optimistic that he’ll be exonerated.

“I’m just going to keep at it here,” he said.