Stories about clubs all over the United States
Elpaso Strip Club Owners Trail starts Monday
http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_125823…ce=most_viewed
Strip-club owner’s trial starts Monday
By Adriana M. Chávez / El Paso Times
Posted: 06/13/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT
EL PASO — After five years of legal wrangling, a 66-year-old businesswoman is to stand trial Monday on charges that she prostituted dancers at her now-defunct El Paso strip club.
Jeannie Coutta is charged with promotion of prostitution and four counts of engaging in organized criminal activity.
Coutta and her business partner, Phyllis Woodall, were arrested in 2004 after a 14-month police investigation of their Naked Harem club at 6345 Alameda.
Police began the investigation because of allegations that minors were working as strippers at the club. This led to Coutta, Woodall and two of the club’s managers being charged in the prostitution case.
A jury in 2006 convicted Woodall, 52, of engaging in organized criminal activity and aggravated promotion of prostitution. She was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
In a 2005 court affidavit, police said two 15-year-old girls and a 17-year-old girl worked as a strippers at the club and were paid to perform sexual acts on customers in the club’s VIP rooms.
During Woodall’s trial, dancer Mari Snider, who worked at the club for six months in 2003, testified that Woodall said sex was not allowed in the club. But, Snider said, another dancer told her that sex for pay was allowed if dancers were willing.
A former El Paso County sheriff’s deputy, Ramon Alvarez, testified that he had frequented the club for years and paid for sex several times. He said he stopped going to the club after he learned of the police investigation. In
an interview last year, Coutta said she and Woodall were “set up” by employees who hired underage girls.
Jurors for Coutta’s trial were chosen Friday. Opening statements will begin at 7:30 a.m. Monday before District Judge David Guaderrama in 243rd District Court.
The two club managers arrested in the prostitution case, Maria Brooks, 53, and Sandra Zepeda, 44, are awaiting trial. Brooks’ trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 22. Zepeda’s trial date is still pending. Adriana M. Chávez may be reached at achavez@elpasotimes.com;
LAP-DANCE “CANARIES”
Last updated: 10:09 am
June 12, 2009
Posted: 2:06 am
June 12, 2009
BY: LAURA ITALIANO
A lineup of loose-lipped lap dancers from what cops call a $20,000-a-night Midtown brothel has put the screws to their husband-and-wife bosses.
A Manhattan judge yesterday refused to toss the case against Louis and Betty Posner, former proprietors of the raided and padlocked Hot Lap Dance Club on West 38th Street — crediting, in part, accounts the much-more-than-strippers gave grand jurors.
“Big Lou,” or “Daddy,” as he was called at the club, must now face felony pimping and money-laundering charges — even though he had argued he had no idea prostitution was occurring at the club.
Meanwhile, his wife is still on the hook for charges of falsifying records, including listing the business in bank forms as “catering.”
Included in the ladies’ vivid testimony, according to new court papers:
* Louis Posner regularly booked himself as a customer in his own joint — with records indicating “no charge” or “comp.”
* He referred to condoms as “bubble gum” and made them available to the dancers.
* Posner often boasted that he had inside police sources — “contacts” who never came through in time for the July 2008 raid.
laura.italiano@nypost.com
Canton Inn Shuts Down
By ELAINA ATHANS — WMDT 6/10/2009
A Gentlemen’s Club has closed its doors after the Department of Justice says prostitution was taking place inside.
“It’s no longer going to be the Canton Inn in Seaford as we know it,” said Representative David Short of Seaford.
Delaware’s Department of Justice says plenty of illegal activity happened behind closed doors.
“Undercover agents went in there and a dancer would come up to them and say ‘I will perform a sexual act on you in exchange for money,’” said Deputy Attorney General Philip Bangle.
The State says because of an undercover investigation the Canton Inn closed.
The gentlemen’s club was closed under Delaware’s Nuisance Abatement Law, which means that charges could either be brought forth or the owner could close the establishment. The Department of Justice says Owner David K. Lui chose to close its doors.
Bangle said, “This is an act we’ve been using over the last couple years to deal with properties that are havens for crime.”
The Club posed a threat to the public’s health, safety and welfare, according to the state. And Representative Daniel Short agrees.
He said, “A lot of citizens in the community didn’t want to see it there to begin with. It was close to a housing development across the street, there have been complaints of its existance.”
Lui could not be reached for comment. The State says the criminal charges against Lui have been dropped, but a civil lawsuit is now pending