Has anyone been in a club when it's been busted or raided? What was it like? Were the cops cool or jerks? Did the customers freak? What did the manager/ owner do? Did anyone get charged or fined? What was the fallout?
-paul lee
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Has anyone been in a club when it's been busted or raided? What was it like? Were the cops cool or jerks? Did the customers freak? What did the manager/ owner do? Did anyone get charged or fined? What was the fallout?
-paul lee
LOL, I think everyone has been in a place that has gotten raided once in their lives! In NJ, the music goes off, all the lights go on, NOBODY is allowed to leave the club. Everyone MUST show their id. In a lot of cases, the cops will come in with a drug sniffing dog to try and find drugs on the dancers. So besides the bs charges that they get the dancers on for busting in the first place, they try and get a more serious charge levied. The customers are normally just told to leave after they have been checked out. And no the cops usually dont act like jerks, cuz I dont think that they really even want to do it in the first place. They are just doing their jobs. So if you are a customer, dont worry, your name wont make the paper and you wont have to worry about your wife seeing it! LOL. But the dancers have to be more careful.
Oh yeah, been there done that several times in several states. The outcome can be dramatically different depending on local laws, the true intent of the bust (political mileage in an election year, versus sending a message to a clubowner who isn't playing ball with the other clubowners in town, genuine reports of dancers swindling customers or drugs), and how pissy or co-operative the clubowner and dancers are with the cops.
have a look at . I wrote this a year or so ago on this very subject.
The closest thing we've had recently was a group of deputies coming in and putting heat ont he girls - they were looking for a dancer with a warrant on her. Thank God, after all IDs were produced, it turned out to be a girl who had moved on to another local club!
But it killed the "groove" for all of us for the rest of the night, and ran every customer out.
McCain
McCain
Has anyone actually been arrested by the cops? Why kind of charges do they make? Are they bogus? What about undercover cops with video cameras? I know in Anaheim, CA, they're REALLY stringent in enforcing no touch rules. Some dancers I know won't dance there because they don't want a prostitution arrest if their hair accidently brushes a customer.
oh yes - for violation of a local anti-dance club ordinance (which I was technically guilty of - that's what I get for trusting the club and dancers and not doing my own reserarch), all the way up to a prostitution charge (which i was absolutely NOT guilty of but which cost me two round trip plane tickets to appear for appeal and thousands in legal fees to eventually prove my innocence!). We're not talking about sleazy clubs here either, just a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time i.e. tight mayoral race in an election year or a new club opening up which pissed off the owners of existing clubs.
In every case the local cops treated us girls like the scum of the earth. One time the arresting officer wanted to handcuff me and transport me to the police station in the nude, fortunately his partner let me get dressed first! Trust me spending all night in the 'holding tank' waiting for a judge to show up the next morning to set bail is no picnic. It's even less fun if you haven't set aside $500 in cash to make bail! If you haven't already done so, please read the article about this at
The big three all got raided last week during Comdex in Vegas: OG, CH2, and Cheetahs.
Although I saw nothing, I hear the Vegas cops are just completely out of line. The girls that got arrested were just doing the norm: a little grinding, sitting on laps, kissing cheeks and ears. However, they were arrested for prostitution.
It s always low key there though: they can't stop business, so no lights or music were turned off. However, word spreads fast in the locker room, and the floor guys become much more vigilant about contact.
Did the customers also get arrested? Why only those clubs?
Kind of sad to hear about those raids in Vegas Britney. Particularly in a city where the yellow pages is 100+ pages thicker due to the "full service" escort advertisements, not to mention the Mexicans out on the Strip handing flyers and business cards out in front of families w. kids for such services. Haven't the cops there have anything better to do? >:(
To understand what's happening in Vegas you need to understand two facts - #1 that slow Vegas business in general has the chamber of commerce trying to now sell Vegas trips as "suitable for the whole family" - of course this is bullshit because guys spend money in Vegas because of the vices they can find there, but hey the headlines look good for the advertising campaign, right?
Fact #2 is that, after years of low key dance club operation (i.e. unspoken agreements between existing clubowners, local cops and politicians), recently new clubs have opened under new management and these clubowners do not want to "play by the same old rules". There have also been a couple of highly publicized nasty incidents (i.e. bouncer at a certain club beating a customer to death based on the word of a rip-off dancer) which required some sort of local government/police response to avoid political backlash. This is why 1000 escorts are allowed to offer sex for money in Vegas but the local cops have stepped up their presence in the clubs. Also it's my understanding that customers are NEVER busted, which fits the same theory - after all if a visitor is hassled by Vegas cops he'll go to Atlantic City next trip!
Probably the worst part about these prostitution busts is that, unless the dancers put up the legal fees to prove their innocence on appeal, they will probably be found guilty of prostitution or plea bargain. Even though this probably involves a relatively small fine and no time, once the court papers are filed these girls will have their Vegas dancer's licenses revoked putting an end to their Vegas dancing careers. A prostitution charge on a dancer's record will also virtually guarantee that she won't be able to get a dancer's license in the ever increasing number of other cities that require them. This is the whole reason I spent thousands to appeal my own bogus charges in order to be sure my own record was clear so i wouldn't have problems with licensing in other cities.
Again, if you haven't yet read it, please take a few minutes and check out .
That's odd that they did it during Comdex (which was really down in numbers this year), you would think they would have hit during SEMA (which just finished) or CES (which is right around the corner). I also heard that this is the last year Comdex is in Vegas, because of the poor turnout.Quote:
The big three all got raided last week during Comdex in Vegas: OG, CH2, and Cheetahs.
Not if you stop and think a minute - if it was a known fact that COMDEX isn't being scheduled in Vegas again than the Vegas authorities had nothing to lose by scheduling raids then (COMDEX visitors won't be returning anyhow) and everything to gain in the way of political mileage, headlines etc. Odds are the clubs won't be touched during the week of the CES - too many future technobucks at stake.
The point to really understand is that these busts aren't about a serious effort to clean up Vegas clubs. If Vegas was actually cleaned up, virtually nobody would want to travel there! The busts are actually about business principles (principles invented by Vegas pioneer Bugsy Seigel if you catch my drift), they're about political survival in a town where registered voters aren't the ones really contributing to the local economy (nor to re-election campaign funds/police benevolent funds if you catch my drift), and they're about national PR to attract more "fun for the whole family" business to Vegas to try and make up for negative 9/11 aftereffects.
yes our bar has been raided several times..they usually hit all the bars at once so one bar cant warn another bar
the fine is 300 your knee cant even be touching a customer .. it depends how snotty you get with the cops too i think i know one girl who said "what the hell are u looking at" when the cop peeked his head in the vip room...had she not have been so bitchy she wouldnt have gotten the biggest ticket out of all the girls :'(
in our bar the managers pay your tickets for u if your not a troublemaker or get caught letting customers touch u all the time.
Yep, same thing....Undercovers came in looking for 2 dancers with a warrant. Just simply took them out in handcuffs. We do have undercovers who hang at the club at times. I like that! We all know about them, one was a street cop a few years back. They chill, never drink or talk to us. One guy will stand inside/outside the club at times when we have too many people over the limit. Fire laws...you know! Then when 3 people leave 3 more can enter. On and on untill closing at times. Usually only happens when we have special events going on!
Pamela
Honestly, this issue scares the shit out of me. I am working full-time, live with my parents (embarrassing, but I just graduated from my undergraduate and trying to save money), and have the hopes of becoming a professor at a renowned academic institution. All of this being said, I cannot risk the possibility of being arrested, and then having a prostitution charge on my record. How likely is this to happen? If anyone knows about my area (northern NJ or Rockland County, NY), can you tell me about past raids and the political climate. What should I know? How can I best protect myself? Please, any information may put my mind at ease.
I have never worked at a club that was busted while I was there. I did however work for an escort agency that was busted.....1 week after I quit. Thank God I ony worked there for about 2 weeks, I was THEE ONLY person who did not get arrested and get my name in the paper!!
MissB
Athena, T&A's is bustproof cuz the owners are 'good ol boys'. Blue Moon is bustproof also for the same reason (i.e. some well placed contributions to the local police 'widows & orphans' fund if you catch my drift). The Lace family of clubs doesn't 'play ball' this way in New York so the odds of being busted in one of their NY clubs is significantly higher.
In Jersey, any club in the borough of Lodi right now is risky, but you'll be busted for an ordinance violation not prostitution. Lace in Wayne is bustproof though cuz the mayor and most of the council are regulars (and there is no ordinance)!
Ummm, Melonie, did you read in last weeks Bergen Record about Lace in Wayne? If I can find it I will post it hear. It WAS busted last year, and their court case is coming up now. When a place is busted, it has nothing to do with the local town, but the ABC which is run by the state. They only notify the local police if a raid is going to happen so a local cop can be there. And most of the time, the ABC already has people sitting in the club so it will be too late for the town to notify the club. No place is bust proof!
OK, I found the article, and by the way, up until last year at least, Wayne had a female mayor. And I dont think she hung out there!
WAYNE - The management of Lace - the township's only exotic dance club - is headed to court to dispute 23 charges of liquor license violations after a state agency's investigation turned up evidence that the female entertainers were exposing an illegal amount of flesh, authorities said.
Pacific Entertainment Inc., the company that owns Lace, on Galesi Drive, has been charged with seven counts of associated prostitution and eight counts of lewdness and immoral activity. The charges stem from two inspections conducted by the state Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control last year, in which enforcement officials for the agency posed as patrons.
State laws prohibit "lewd and immoral activities," including the exposure of genitals and breasts, where alcohol is served. Such establishments are able to stay in business because entertainers wear bikini-like costumes.
Earlier this year, the company pleaded not guilty to the list of 23 liquor license violations that allegedly occurred on Sept. 27, 2001, and Oct. 11, 2001, but was unsuccessful in reaching a settlement agreement with the ABC. The matter is now being referred to the Office of Administrative Law, said Paul Loriquet, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office. No court date has been scheduled.
If any of the administrative charges are proved at the hearing, it could result in revocation of the bar's liquor license, Loriquet said.
Michael Orecchio, owner of Pacific Entertainment, was not available for comment Wednesday. Orecchio also owns the strip club Stiletto's in Carlstadt.
Employees at Lace declined to comment and referred a reporter to Orecchio's lawyer, Dennis Oury. Oury did not return calls for comment Wednesday.
Local police reported no involvement in the case.
"I've never had a problem with Lace," said Wayne Police Sgt. Ron Gaeta, who heads the department's narcotics and vice squad. "We rarely receive any complaints about them."
Gaeta said he didn't observe any liquor license violations during an ABC inspection he conducted last month at Lace. However, he noted that it's difficult for him to pose as a patron.
"I'm a little bit high-profile," Gaeta said. "I'm undercover, but they [the managers] know who I am."
Loriquet said the state agency routinely conducts undercover investigations of establishments where liquor is served.
In 1994, the management of Lace pleaded guilty to similar charges brought forth by the ABC and settled out of court for $50,000, a spokesman said. Because more than two years has passed since then, the administrative court will view the newer charges as a first offense.
Lace has operated in a commercial area off of Route 46 for nearly a decade. In 1993, township officials briefly withheld a certificate of occupancy, claiming Lace's owners did not reveal the type of club they intended to open when they sought permits. But, because there was no ordinance to regulate adult entertainment businesses, township officials could not prevent the bar from opening.
In 1994, the Township Council adopted an ordinance banning adult entertainment businesses from operating within 500 feet of each other, or within 1,000 feet of a house of worship, funeral home, day-care center, school, and a number of other public places. The ordinance had no bearing on Lace, which was protected as a preexisting use.
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