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.

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).

“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.

“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.