When I turned 18 I worked as an exotic dancer in Oklahoma. There they had very strict rules about strippers. Club patrons can’t touch dancers when they were nude or semi-nude. In my case, in Oklahoma it was topless only so basically when you did a table dance for a guy, as they called it where I worked, you didn’t dare let the client touch you. The cops would actually come up, pull out a ruler and measure just how far you are away from the guy. If you are to close your butt is going to jail.
It’s nothing personal, that’s just their job – to enforce the law and the law in some states is, no touching the dancers.
Every state has their own rules. Actually every city within a state. For example, in Oklahoma City, you had to wear full bottoms and latex over your nipples, while in Tulsa in some clubs you can go fully nude.
As far as the Stormy Daniels arrest goes, they are reporting a vice cop witnessed a club patron touching the dancer (Stormy Daniels) and acted according to the law for their county. This was in violation of the law and as such, she went to jail.
We may not always agree with the law but the law is the law. If you break it, you have to pay the price.
Her lawyer tweeted that Stormy Daniels had been arrested for “allegedly allowing a customer to touch her while on stage in a non-sexual manner.”
He later said be released on bail “shortly” and that she would be charged “with a misdemeanor for allowing ‘touching.'”
The big deal here could be, and again I want to be clear I’m not a lawyer but from what I understand is, that in some towns like Las Vegas that require dancers to be licensed or get what is commonly called “Sherrif’s cards” – this could prevent her from getting approved to get that license in some of those towns and that could hurt potential future bookings.
33 Responses
I do know a bit about this one, As a rule Sheriffs cards are only a problem if you have a felony or in some cases a class a misdemeanor…In Dayton they arent required nor in Columbus as of the last time I was in OH. They are here in Atlanta. In some places feature entertainers are blanketed in. I cant think of anyplace except maybe Canada where this would be a problem….On another note from what I am getting on the news this sure smells like a set up….I mean technically anyone tipping a dancer touches her but I have never heard of any dancer being charged with it even in Dayton where touching the dancers was forbidden….I havent yet heard the circumstances of where and how she was touched but lets be honest she IS a target
More Info This is looking more and more like abullshit first the officer propositioned Stormy to “motorboat” her for those who dont know what that means its basically putting her boobs in his face such that if he blew it would make a motorboat sound…..she complied and that is what she was arrested for…Even more telling though is that this law has been on the books for more than 5 years and this is the FIRST time it has ever been invoked…..lets be honest here this is a set up…do I think Trump is behind it? NO he has more serious things to deal with do I think it is some local tinhorn politician/sheriff YUP…
I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say that several of the writers on this site don’t like Avenatti and/or Stormy based on the number of negative opinion pieces about them, but if he is telling the truth about law enforcing not knowing if this rule had been applied since its inception 11 years ago, then it’s pretty damning that they would choose now and against her to enforce it.
Only a fool would believe this was not a setup.
I said months ago this was gonna end badly for her, she has a target on her back now.
And about as quick as it happened all charges have been dropped…supposedly the law ONLY applies to dancers who regularly perform and Stormy had only performed once… Hey Im just telling ya whats happenin
Before y’all get your knickers all wadded up that police dusted off an unused law to target her specifically…per local news “The law has been used 88 times since it was established in 2007, according to court records. Twenty-five of those occurrences happened during 2018.”
The Community Defense Act is a watered down version of what a Cincinnati group wanted in 2007 (Citizens for Community Values) a Cincinnati-based conservative religious organization. The group proposed the act as an initiated state statute, prompting the General Assembly to pass watered-down legislation with similar provisions. Otherwise, the group could have gone to the ballot to put the issue to a public vote.
The heated Statehouse debate included oung women in tight, pink “Dancers for Democracy” t-shirts greeting lawmakers outside the House chamber. The women later violated House rules by unveiling a banner in the balcony during the floor debate.
oops was trying to edit…anyway word I got locally is this is one of the laws dusted off in recent efforts to combat human trafficking. Expect the language to be changed to eliminate the loophole as presented. If you look up Westerville Ohio (Columbus suburb) Massage Parlors it’s easy to find they are also being targeted including a recent 90day moratorium to open or reopen closed businesses.
It should be noted that there is a federal constitutional ban on a cop propositioning someone to commit a crime (it is called entrapment). From what Mike said that is the case here and is probably the real reason the charges were dropped. No prosecutor wants to spend tens of thousands of dollars appealing a local misdemeanor conviction all the way to the SCOTUS. Michael Avanetti and Stormy Daniels would certainly have appealed the conviction out of spite and principle if a judge were stupid enough to convict notwithstanding the constitutional ban on entrapment (not unheard of in cities with extreme conservative bents like the Columbus, OH area). Even Trump’s idiots on the SCOTUS aren’t stupid enough to (de facto) eliminate the entrapment ban as it would also affect conservative causes.
How stupid can her counsel be? Any prudent attorney would warn her client to follow all laws regardless.
Whatever credibility she may have had is quickly eroding, and to Mr. Avanetti: your 15 minutes is up. Basta bitch!
mharris127 STOP!!!
Columbus is liberal. Look up Franklin County and you’ll see how blue it is. Westerville straddles two counties; Franklin County to the south near Siren’s club and Delaware County to the north. The northern residential areas vote red, while the college campuses (Otterbein & Capitol) mixed business & residential downtown and the southern portion of Westerville in Franklin County all vote blue.
There is a push to stop human trafficking in this area which is why officers were at the strip club to begin with. The mistake comes in dusting off a watered down version of law with officers trained on it’s intent. Trust me when I say there are already people working on changing the language to this law. Avenatti earned his fee when he questioned the language and pointed out Stormy doesn’t ‘regularly’ appear at “that sexually orientated business” (Siren’s) and I have no doubt he also questioned the “employee” assumption. The words “employee”, “regularly” and “that” seem innocent enough until they are within the text of a criminal statue.
No employee who regularly appears nude or seminude on the premises of a sexually oriented business, while on the premises of that sexually oriented business and while nude or seminude, shall knowingly touch a patron who is not a member of the employee’s immediate family or another employee who is not a member of the employee’s immediate family or the clothing of a patron who is not a member of the employee’s immediate family or another employee who is not a member of the employee’s immediate family or allow a patron who is not a member of the employee’s immediate family or another employee who is not a member of the employee’s immediate family to touch the employee or the clothing of the employee.
That is a very small area of liberal in a large, conservative state, then. I will do my research now — it is hard to believe that Columbus could be that liberal with the area surrounding it but there appears to be an area there that is (relatively) liberal but the rest of the state (other than the largest cities) is very conservative (on another note I did just look at a map of the area and Mike’s old hangout of Dayton isn’t too far from there). Indiana and Michigan are worse but Ohio is known to be quite conservative in its own right. I guess I should have checked closer, anyway — even here in Michigan we have Muskegon, Flint and Detroit which vote blue consistently (almost, they somehow elect Holly Hughes from the Muskegon area to the state legislature but her district also includes part of Ottawa County — one of the most conservative areas of the state). Now that you have corrected me, even you have to admit that some “liberals” are against anything even remotely sexually based operating in their city/county. The trafficking argument doesn’t hold water, Stormy isn’t being trafficked and neither are two strippers working next to her — no strip club owner would risk that one by letting someone like Stormy work with sex slaves! This is anti-“sex” industry pandering, pure and simple. That is usually the tactic of conservatives (and the cop that entrapped them might be an arch-conservative, we don’t know) but a liberal or two has attempted it in the past as well.
As for Stormy in all of this, after getting arrested for literally nothing I would get the fuck out of Ohio as soon as I could, no reasonable strip club owner would hold her to her contract after being arrested and God knows what else while being held at the jail. Ohio needs to be put on the list of states where (almost) no feature dancer will work, Utah (I just verified that, they have strip clubs but no feature dancing whatsoever comes up online and their anti-“sex” industry laws are draconian) and a couple of others are already on that list. Derek Hay, I hope you are keeping up with the news on this — you don’t want to send a feature dancer into this rat’s nest, if you have any clients going to strip in Ohio in the next year or so, cancel the gigs immediately! Derek, if I recall you have sent feature dancers to Columbus in the past, probably unknowing about the rat’s nest that the city and probably state are for strippers. How would a feature dance agent (whether Derek or otherwise) know about this before Stormy’s arrest, no one can keep tabs on all of the major and secondary cities that exist for strippers to ply their trade in. For example, if I were to buy the strip clubs in Muskegon Heights, MI and contract with you for feature dancers, how are you going to be knowledgeable about any issues there that could entrap a feature dancer (fortunately, there aren’t any and no, I haven’t bought any strip clubs)?
Derek is dealing with his own drama with 4 porn girls accusing him of pimping them out. He has a lot on his plate right now.
Another comment — if the law is as Lurking recites it, I wouldn’t send a feature dancer to that state — period! It just isn’t worth the risk. The way that law is written simply hugging an old school chum in a non-sexual manner is enough to get arrested in Oh-fucking-io! That shit just isn’t worth it, there are enough states where the laws are more lax to feature dance in where states with laws such as Ohio should just not have feature dancers working in them. I would have to research Michigan law but at least in the past the clubs were allowing touching as long as no genital contact was involved (“genital” did not include the breasts or ass). If I recall, years ago Grand Rapids tried to limit contact, the strip clubs simply moved out of the city and into the surrounding smaller cities which didn’t give a rat’s ass. Of course, this was 20 or more years ago — I haven’t been in a strip club since I retired the first time. Maybe I will ask my brother’s “strip club” owner friend — he has a strip club license because the state required it for his thrice-yearly Wet T-Shirt and dancing (in bikinis) contests, he doesn’t actually have strippers in his club nor does his club location (15 miles out in the boonies) sit in a profitable location to run a strip club.
One possible out in that law, though. Independent contractors are not “employees”, some states have allowed strip clubs to classify their strippers as contractors and not employees (that might theoretically get them in trouble with the IRS but that is another matter). Is that enough to get around this law? Can a stripper be classified (appropriately IMO but accountants are known as very conservative people when it comes to legal accountancy-based designations) as an employee for IRS accounting and (maybe inappropriately) as an independent contractor for state purposes in Ohio — or is the IRS designation what Ohio’s anti-strip club law refers to? I have never taught or practiced accountancy in Ohio — I would likely know more even about Ontario (Canada) accountancy matters than Ohio’s.
Karma, I had heard that Derek was in trouble but hadn’t researched it. What headlines I saw implied that he raped the girls, not pimped them. If it is simple pimping, the question in my mind was were the girls there voluntarily or was he feeding them drugs/beating them into submission and them putting them out on the street? If they were there voluntarily, what the fuck is the problem? If he was forcing them onto the streets to fuck for crack rocks or something, there would be a big problem. The rumors about his Lee Network were that it was a pimping operation disguised as a feature dance agency but nothing concrete ever came out in that line. There was also a rumor that he was partners with some Adonia chick with a “porn companion” site pimping chicks out. I hope justice is served whether it be letting Derek off of baseless accusations or if he is a forcible pimp or rapist him serving life without in San Quentin or Pelican Bay.
Seriously Matt quit while you’re ahead …per Wikipedia
Columbus is the state capital and the most populous city in Ohio. It is the 14th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 879,170 as of 2017 estimates, and is one of the fastest growing large cities in the United States. This makes Columbus the 3rd-most populous state capital in the United States after Phoenix, Arizona and Austin, Texas and the second-most populous city in the Midwestern United States, after Chicago. It is the core city of the Columbus, Ohio, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses ten counties. With a population of 2,078,725, it is Ohio’s second-largest metropolitan area.
Dayton is 1.5 hours from here and the strip club is literally 10-15 minutes down the road from me despite being in a different county.
For the record no one in authority has accused Sirens management of knowingly or even unknowingly hiring trafficked dancers. The law they charged Stormy with was dusted off for use by trafficking task forces so don’t go conflating the two here. The ironic significance to this law being used by trafficking task forces is that the language in the law defeats the intent.
Trafficking task forces have been active in Central Ohio for years. They do not ‘randomly’ target any business and are held accountable on many levels from closed door meetings to open meetings with the ACLU in attendance. In Westerville they targeted a massage parlor after a call to a hotline, from evidence gathered there they targeted and entered other massage parlors which were found to be trafficking people. I do not know (yet) what prompted them to physically enter Sirens but I do know that they don’t waste time entering any businesses randomly on fishing expeditions. Let that sink in instead of spewing irrelevant crap about Utah or getting side tracked into the Avenatti media PR circus….someone gave the task force info that was verified as credible to get Sirens on their list of priorities. IMO that is a bigger deal than spewing assumptive political rhetoric.
BTW The law she was charged with is a watered down version of what a Cincinnati religious group wanted after the industry fought it. Both sides accepted a compromise to avoid having the law with a six foot separation between dancers and customers from going to the statewide ballot. Governor Strickland (D) let it become law without his signature opting not to veto it. If anything this is a win for the industry lawyers who submitted compromise language back then.
You still haven’t said what “trafficking” was going on at that strip club. With them hiring feature dancers I would have to say there wasn’t any (who the fuck is so stupid as to hire outsiders to feature dance with sex trafficking happening right under their noses). That and the use of that asinine law in this case is what makes this a witch hunt. This was a “trafficking” task force, not a “bust every strip club we can so they GTFO of our county” task force. Law or no law they have the discretion to not be pricks about it and not strictly enforce the law — until someone proves that sex trafficking actually took place at Sirens I am sticking to my assertion that this is a witch hunt of some sort. Mike South essentially said the same thing. If I owned a feature dance agency I would not send any more feature dancers to Ohio. There are other, more accommodating states in which strip club owners would gladly pay for feature dancers and they wouldn’t have to worry about some prickish county sheriff or city police chief busting them over a consensual and entrapped “motorboating” incident. Whether some asshole made a false accusation of “sex trafficking” to the cops or not barely has any effect here, the cops could have ignored the prick that wanted Sirens and probably other strip clubs shut down or run out of town. You can bet your ass and your house cat that feature dancers won’t be working this club or probably any club in the Columbus area anytime soon. I also stand by my second post about this. When someone proves that sex trafficking is actually taking place at Sirens I will retract my post.
“Human Trafficking ” is the current media buzz word to cover almost anything sexual or porn related when the cops wanna make arrests.
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/porn-performers-accuse-top-agent-derek-hay-of-sex-abuse-trafficking-698337/
I’m not against Stormy Daniels at all. While I realize there are other authors on this website who may have different views than mine, I personally have spoken out in her behalf many times.
I was just stating the facts as I know them. We may all agree it’s stupid to punish a female when a male touches her – and not the male who actually touched her but the law is what it is.
@ Kelli
FWIW I think Stormy was in the wrong place at the right time.
When this law was being hashed out there were heated exchanges about the way it was originally written. Opponents were all pissed ‘ giving your spouse a kiss could land you both in jail’ while the zealots pushing for the law were all outraged that dancers might kiss or fondle each other over their costume as part of their performance. Can’t help but chuckle at how that exchange influenced the law as currently written. (Keep in mind same sex marriages weren’t recognized in Ohio until June 2015 and this law was approved in 2007)
“No employee who regularly appears nude or seminude on the premises of a sexually oriented business, while on the premises of that sexually oriented business and while nude or seminude, shall knowingly touch a patron who is not a member of the employee’s immediate family or another employee who is not a member of the employee’s immediate family or the clothing of a patron who is not a member of the employee’s immediate family or another employee who is not a member of the employee’s immediate family or allow a patron who is not a member of the employee’s immediate family or another employee who is not a member of the employee’s immediate family to touch the employee or the clothing of the employee.”
@mharris
I said I do not know “YET” what info the task force had to prioritize a visit to Sirens. Nor will I speculate beyond stating the policy as I know it. Contrary to Avenatti accusations I know this is not an isolated or random visit intended to ‘target Stormy’ or set her up.
“Franklin County Municipal Court records show 23 similar cases this year, including the charges against Daniels, 14 last year and six the year before.”
There is no way Sirens wasn’t aware of Ohio Community Defense Act or the task force. Stormy appeared across town in a modified performance sand touching at Vanity last night. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess Stormy wasn’t going back to a club that didn’t tell her about or enforce the local rules…yet stuck around to perform at Vanity for her Columbus Ohio fans…if so …kudos to her.
BTW before anyone gets their knickers in a serious wad …the right time reference is to the PR opportunity the arrest & getting the charges dropped presented. If she had simply appeared at Sirens Columbus it would have just been another day.
Lurk, in my opinion a legal kidnapping and hostage situation by what can more accurately be characterized as pigs isn’t worth the PR — whether someone gets off on handcuffed arrest scenarios or not. Stormy probably had to pay bail (which she may or may not get back depending on how it was paid) and an attorney to get the charges dropped. I can’t speak to Columbus, OH area jail conditions but God only knows how she was treated while being legally held hostage. Stormy had balls performing at another club in the state and especially the same area of her legal kidnapping. I would have got the fuck out of town ASAP! It was hers and her agent’s responsibility to consult with an adult entertainment attorney from the area before performing there but this sounds like a witch hunt to me considering reports are such a bust hadn’t taken place there and there obviously wasn’t any sex trafficking going on — the stated (although not actual) intent of the law.
A few stories the last month or two of clubs she was appearing at being ghost towns with few patrons. Perhaps this will fill the rooms up when she comes to town to perform.
Karma, I have toured several jails and juvenile halls as part of consulting gigs (yes, sometimes accountants and accounting professors consult for county sheriff’s departments). I have also spoke at length with people about their experiences in jail and prison (both former inmates and correctional officers). I don’t care if someone paid me a million dollars, I don’t think serving time is worth it — and I haven’t spent a minute under arrest or as an inmate. As a relatively weak woman (she appears to be the type that would have trouble picking up a can of tomato juice off of the store shelf) I think Stormy would even more emphatically say that than I am. If my recollection is correct that Stormy didn’t do sexual bondage scenes or BDSM private activities I can’t even imagine her feelings and fear when her hands were cuffed helplessly behind her (I saw a picture of her being escorted into jail — her hands were definitely cuffed helplessly behind her) and she was thrown into a squad car by what I would more accurately characterize as pigs. Almost no one would be aroused by an actual arrest but this was likely only the second time she experienced being so helpless (she was arrested for domestic violence about ten years ago), even if she wasn’t obviously crying or resisting she was almost certainly scared out of her mind that night.
@mharris I have no idea where you get your info from
“It was hers and her agent’s responsibility to consult with an adult entertainment attorney from the area before performing there but this sounds like a witch hunt to me considering reports are such a bust hadn’t taken place there and there obviously wasn’t any sex trafficking going on — the stated (although not actual) intent of the law.”
The law has been 23 times this year, 14 times in 2017 and six times in 2016. No need to call a local entertainment attorney as the clubs are very familiar with this law for over ten years and actively fought it before it passed the legislature.
The law has been used locally a total of 88 times since it passed. Nearly half of those charges were made since the law was dusted off by the anti-trafficking task force. NO ONE HAS SAID SIRENS WAS TRAFFICKING ANYONE INCLUDING STORMY.
The law was originally proposed by a zealot group trying to impose a six foot barrier between dancers and club patrons, the compromise was no touching. That group may have been on a witch hunt but Ohio is not on a witch hunt to shut down strip clubs nor are strip clubs the primary target of the task force that was there.
The task force was trained to enforce the ‘no touching’ intent of the law. Stormy was not the only dancer working that night and word I have is neither she nor the other two dancers arrested were in any way related to the info the task force verified as credible before doing the on-site visit.
The kind of information this task force acts on is first hand from actual victims of trafficking. The Westerville massage parlors were shut down AFTER the owner of each establishment was convicted of human trafficking; the moratorium on reopening them was about reviewing current policy to make sure the city didn’t get bogged down in all kinds of kneejerk proposals that would negatively impact existing above board massage parlors in the process.
Bottom line a strip club in an area where a ten year old law has been dusted off and used more and more frequently needs to inform dancers of the risk of arrest for touching. Kelli had it spot on from the start using her experience to basically say …when in Rome.
update…per local news tv10.com
“Daniels will be doing two shows Aug. 1 and 2, according to General Manager of Vanity Kenneth Kopras. When her show at Sirens was canceled following her arrest, Vanity opened its doors.
“Stormy was great, Columbus was great and my employees did a (heck) of a job,” Kopras said.
Kopras said Daniels was originally slated for the Aug. 1 and 2 shows, but they were canceled when she booked with Sirens ahead of her scheduled date. With her return to Vanity, Kopras said it made sense to put the deal back in place. Charges against Daniels from her performance at Sirens have been dropped. Columbus Police Chief Kin Jacobs issued a statement saying “a mistake was made.””
On a side note there will be plenty of tourists & vendors arriving early for the Dublin Irish Festival.
Lurk, it might not have been a witch hunt against just Stormy (I still doubt that but believe Mike is right that Trump didn’t have anything to do with it — the law hadn’t been enforced at Sirens and they just happened to do the first sting operation at that club the night she was there, I think it was an asshole Trump supporter cop that wanted to “get her” as revenge) but it definitely is against strippers in general. The legislature had the option to pass a more lenient law to torpedo the voter initiative or even pass a state constitutional amendment to make it moot (methods to amend state constitutions vary by state, some are a simple 2/3 majority of the legislature and a governor’s signature). Police have the discretion not to enforce laws which are patently unconstitutional (which unfortunately this might not be) or detrimental to society if enforced (which this definitely is — it is obviously designed to run a type of entertainment business out of the state and force a perverse morality on residents and strippers). An example of using police and prosecutorial discretion is the Michigan fornication law. Many (unfortunately not all) police agencies and county prosecutors simply refuse to enforce it (rightfully), the same logic should apply to the stripper law Stormy supposedly violated. You and Karma both brought up that this was likely “intended” to stop sex trafficking, if that is the case than they are off base with this one and should only be using this law (if they use it at all) against known sex traffickers. Any other use is a witch hunt against strippers intended (at least by legislators and the religious groups that bullied them into passing this asinine law) to run them out of town or even the state.
As for feature dancers consulting with a local adult entertainment attorney before agreeing to strip somewhere, that should be common sense. If Stormy had done that she would have known what the lay of the land was and could have rejected the dates based on legal risk or followed the law to the letter. After this if I were a feature dance agent (such as one at the Lee Network) I would simply reject all strip clubs in the state of Ohio — period! Strippers that can’t touch or be touched by their clients aren’t really strippers IMO. Feature dancers and agents should do likewise, it simply isn’t worth the risk when other states don’t have laws obviously designed to keep feature dancers out of the state (to me the “trafficking” argument doesn’t hold water due to the way the law is written). An ethical strip club would have informed Stormy and any agent she was using about the law before she signed on the dotted line but “I didn’t know” doesn’t get someone off of criminal charges in the US therefore she needed to protect herself. I do agree that “when in Rome”, though. Or better yet, in cases like this don’t perform in “Rome”! It just isn’t worth it when cops are entrapping people, (legally) kidnapping them then holding them hostage for ransom (the bail). God only knows what else these assholes did to Stormy while she was being held at the jail or police station, I doubt they raped her or anything remotely similar but they could have beat her a bit with a nightstick or clamped the handcuffs down too tight/left them on her too long, claimed “resisting orders” on the arrest report (we don’t know) then told her to keep her mouth shut or they would make her life a living hell (they could have pushed the charges through to court, if the local prosecutor wouldn’t play ball they could have involved the state Attorney General, that would have required her not to leave the state for a few days at minimum and that assumes the AG declines to prosecute).
@mharris
Okay so you believe Avenatti ‘look at their Facebook pages’ PR spin over facts. What evidence do you have that these cops decided on a whim to dust off this law and go get strippers? There are over a dozen clubs in Columbus so even if these three charges were the first to happen in Sirens it’s safe to assume they heard about the other 20 this year doubling down on the 14 last year.
You’re correct that this law limits strippers and dead wrong to say the legislature could have passed a more lenient law to avoid a ballot measure. I was there, saw and listened to all the strippers & supporters in pink shirts fighting this as a proposal in it’s entirety.
“You and Karma both brought up that this was likely “intended” to stop sex trafficking, if that is the case than they are off base with this one and should only be using this law (if they use it at all) against known sex traffickers. Any other use is a witch hunt against strippers intended (at least by legislators and the religious groups that bullied them into passing this asinine law) to run them out of town or even the state.”
You’re conflating many disparate statements & issues to justify assumption the task force dusted off this law to target or harass strip clubs or dancers completely overlooking the nature of what the task force was investigating or that process. They need documented information that has been verified as credible before they enter a business. The task force was trained to use the law in a ‘plain sight’ way and the majority of charges are dropped. Pause the witch hunt rant to consider the risk speaking up openly poses to anyone with info and the increasing number of successful human trafficking convictions made in this geographic area where the very best criminal defense lawyers have torn this process apart looking to get their clients off on a technicality. Every case is gone over in minute detail from the very earliest stages of investigation looking for a poisonous tree that bore bad fruit. The task force uses strip club law in strip clubs the same way they use laws specific to massage parlors, grocery stores, auto repair in those establishments.
Facts *the ‘no touching’ law is well known in Ohio; *the officer asked to motorboat the same way regular patrons ask and the dancer said yes instead of ‘if I could I would but not allowed’; *her lawyer questioned the laws language *the prosecutor agreed with Avenatti interpretation and wrote a memorandum in support to drop the charges; *Facebook pages were not a part of the legal process.
It’s not realistic to assume every feature dancer has access or means to consult with an entertainment attorney for advice about every jurisdiction they visit. It is realistic and reasonable to expect the club to give visiting dancers the lowdown on local rules. The fact that Stormy performed the same day she was released and is returning to Columbus next week stands in opposition to all your jailhouse fantasies.
Lurk, you mentioned my “jailhouse fantasies” (at least here in Michigan they unfortunately aren’t “fantasies”). Here is my quote about her jail stint: “. . . Or better yet, in cases like this don’t perform in “Rome”! It just isn’t worth it when cops are entrapping people, (legally) kidnapping them then holding them hostage for ransom (the bail). God only knows what else these assholes did to Stormy while she was being held at the jail or police station, I doubt they raped her or anything remotely similar but they could have beat her a bit with a nightstick or clamped the handcuffs down too tight/left them on her too long, claimed “resisting orders” on the arrest report (we don’t know) then told her to keep her mouth shut or they would make her life a living hell (they could have pushed the charges through to court, if the local prosecutor wouldn’t play ball they could have involved the state Attorney General, that would have required her not to leave the state for a few days at minimum and that assumes the AG declines to prosecute).” I even say “I doubt she was raped or anything remotely similar” and instead mention standard police practices to anyone the cops don’t like (i. e. Stormy) anywhere in the country of overtightening her handcuffs, leaving them on her too long or (essentially) claiming she resisted on the police report to justify beating her a bit with a nightstick (not so much that police brutality charges would be pressed against them). I don’t believe the Columbus pigs are stupid enough to punish someone as infamous as Stormy with sexual assault arranged by cop (if it happens in their jails, I don’t have that information), that would be ridiculously stupid of them and place them, their city and their department in risk of bankruptcy or worse. It has been established that she was entrapped, a cop asking for an illegal act directly is entrapment no matter the situation and is patently unconstitutional — period! Even if the DA or AG pressed further the charges would have eventually been struck down (likely — Trump would likely have had three of his justices on the SCOTUS at that point — he has one, has nominated another and Ginsburg is 9/10 in her grave so he will likely have #3 by this time next year, it only takes five to uphold or strike down anything and this would definitely have been appealed all the way there), she might have had to serve the jail time but again, the police, city, and county would all have faced bankruptcy from the likely eight or nine figure judgements for false arrest, (extended) false imprisonment resulting from a jail sentence and any problems resulting from it. As it is the city and cops involved are possibly (read: probably — Stormy isn’t a moron) facing a lawsuit although what ended up happening doesn’t call for more than a few million dollars in judgements from a civil suit from Stormy. Go read up on entrapment, Lurk. It is real, it is unconstitutional and some courts do hand down money judgements for it in civil judgements against cities, counties and police officers. At least Stormy fills out a pair of handcuffs quite well, she should try them in some of her movies.
Lurk, help me out here. You claim I believe the “look at Facebook pages” bit (evidently) from Avenetti. I haven’t even heard what the guy said about this other than what is in this article and comments section. Where do I say that? I can’t find it and don’t recall making that claim — considering this is the first I have heard of it. More than likely a pig drove by Sirens, saw her name on the marquee or some pig saw a poster advertising Stormy’s scheduled nights somewhere in town and set all of this into motion. It is possible but I would be shocked if Sirens doesn’t have some sort of marquee or sign outside of it to advertise their feature dancers and happy hour specials. I am not stupid, there is more to this than meets the eye but I will not assert that pigs in Oh-fucking-io are monitoring porn chickies “Facebook pages” looking to bust them. It should be noted that it is (as I interpret it) against Facebook rules to directly promote a feature dancing gig on the site.
mharris no one is accusing you of being stupid. I did call you out for talking out of your ass assigning all kinds of political motives that just weren’t there. Attempts to being this back to basic facts are lost on you.