Sullivan County, Tennessee Strip Bars Wars Update for 2002

Seems that Washington County, Tennessee and Nashville have gotten into putting "sin" out of business at the behest of Bible-thumping fundamentalists. True, adult bars aren't family oriented but that isn't the problem. They are legal as defined by law but public officials abuse the law to break the law. Most worrisome is this tactic being to shut down anything the local government or those in power think will threaten them. By using licensing and zoning ordinances and claims of safety or nuisance laws, they can shut even legal businesses. No matter how many loops one jumps through, that "adult entertainment" permits will never be issued.

In Bristol, Tennessee this tactic was used to stop people selling race tickets even when they had a business license and paid taxes. This was at the behest of Bristol Motor Speedway. In Wytheville, Virginia and elsewhere, it's being used to shutdown peddlers and flea markets. This is to protect local merchants (their friends) from competition. And most absurd of all is in Pound; Virginia where it's being used to shutdown a country-music dance hall because a local church claims dancing is a sin.

Oddly crime went up in Sullivan County after our two local strip bars, the Show Palace and Bottoms Up were run out of business. Crime had nothing to do with this. Local leaders said publicly "we will put them out of business" and did just that by making the regulations impossible to comply with. The corrupt Tennessee Courts went along. Who will be next and where does it end? Deal with real crime, not regulating the personal affairs of law-abiding citizens.

Washington County Adult Entertainment Board discusses definition of 'adult'
Washington County adult entertainment board rejects 19 applicants
Nuisance law, informants aid prostitution crackdown

Washington County Adult Entertainment Board discusses definition of "adult"

By CHELSEA SHOUN

JONESBOROUGH - Washington County's Adult Entertainment Board is in limbo, waiting for eight applicants to provide information necessary to complete the application process. But the board did discuss methods to determine just what classifies a business as "adult oriented" at a meeting Monday night. Ultimately, the board decided to take several factors into account including revenues, police investigations and complaints from the community at large.

Board members plan to initiate investigations based on complaints and using information from the sheriff's office. Suspected adult businesses will then be given the chance to show evidence to the contrary. If a dispute still exists and businesses won't comply with the county's law, the matter will be left up to a judge. "We cannot ignore the complaint system. That needs to be our bread and butter, so to speak, so we don't come off as a witch-hunt board," said Jeff Turner, a member of the board charged with regulating adult entertainment in the county. In 1998, Tennessee gave localities the option of regulating adult-oriented establishments by requiring businesses to obtain operating licenses, employee permits and other measures.

The Washington County Commission voted to enforce the regulations in October 2000. Budget limitations and the question of what county department would be responsible for coordinating the policy prevented enforcement until November 2001, when the Adult Entertainment Board started work. So far, the board has received nine applications. It received six before the application deadline from employees of the Mouse's Ear Exotic Sports Bar in Gray, but those applicants requested their applications be returned. Eight of the current applications are from employees of The Oasis, a club in Johnson City. But the applicants haven't made appointments with the Washington County Sheriff's Department for fingerprinting.

The ninth application is from an employee of the Fuzzy Hole in Johnson City. But the board hasn't received an application from the establishment for an operating license and decided not to consider the application for 30 days to give the business time to file an application. However, the Fuzzy Hole is not located in a properly zoned area of the city, and county leaders must leave it up to the city to take action. "I had assumed it would be left up to the city to close the business because they're not in the proper zone," said Roy McLain, chairman of the adult board. "But according to the law, we can't deny them," he said, adding that the county must consider an application if one is filed, regardless of what action the city takes.

Washington County adult entertainment board rejects 19 applicants

By TIM WHALEY JOHNSON CITY - Washington County's Adult-Oriented Establishment Board denied 19 applications for operating licenses and entertainer permits Monday evening, at least in part due to a failure of every applicant to provide fingerprints for state and national background checks.

Local background checks by the Washington County Sheriff's Department came back devoid of disqualifying convictions, although one entertainer did indicate she was charged with an offense that would disqualify her from being permitted to entertain, said County Commissioner Roy McClain, the board chairman.

Since it wasn't clear if the entertainer was found guilty, that alone probably wouldn't have disqualified her, County Attorney John Rambo said.

However, neither the entertainer in question, nor the two owners of two establishments - The Oasis and the Fuzzy Hole - nor any of the 16 employee/entertainer applicants supplied the required fingerprints.

That alone was sufficient to disqualify them, and the three board members present - McClain, County Commissioner Sid Campbell and Jeff Turner - unanimously voted one by one to disqualify all the applicants.

Rambo and McLain said as a board "courtesy," every applicant was sent a certified letter explaining that fingerprints, or at least getting an appointment to be fingerprinted, would be required. The requirement was also included in the application, and the follow-up letter was not required by the law under which the board operates.

In addition to failing to provide fingerprints, King was denied for failing to demonstrate that her proposed business was located in the industrial zones required of adult-businesses in Johnson City. There was some question if the board could consider zoning, but further legal review indicated that is a reason for denial, and the business address is listed as a commercial zone.

Several entertainers also failed to file their paperwork in triplicate, left a question on criminal background unanswered, and/or failed to file a photograph depicting facial features. All applicants will be refunded half of their application fees, as required by law. The fee is $100 for employees and $500 for business owners.

To "streamline" operations, the board agreed to pay the sheriff's department $25 from every application fee to do fingerprints, shoot photographs and issue identification cards. Also, every future applicant will be required to submit a $24 certified check or money order to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation for conducting in-depth background checks.

Finally, separate application packets for owners and employees - complete with a yet to be finished to-do "checklist," will be provided to the county clerk's office, which distributes applications.

Owners and employees can be denied a permit for a conviction of any number of sex-related crimes, including prostitution, rape, statutory rape, aggravated sexual battery, rape of a child, or purveying adult-oriented materials to children.

At this point, with funding pulled by the County Commission, McLain serves as administrator, handling and processing paperwork. McLain said the board intends to seek a "reasonable" budget from the commission to hire a part-time clerk/administrator to do the job. If no money is forthcoming, McLain said he couldn't say yet if he will continue to serve as administrator for the board. "The County Commission has voted three times to keep this law and enforce this law," McLain said. "I think they will be willing to fund a reasonable budget."

McLain said the board also has work to do in defining what type of establishments will be classified as "adult-oriented." Meanwhile, McLain said he will meet with Rambo and the sheriff's department today to begin proceedings to seek an injunction against The Oasis, which is operating. It's not clear if the Fuzzy Hole is open for business.

Nuisance law, informants aid prostitution crackdown

By SHEILA BURKE

After years of making many prostitution arrests with little effect, Metro officials said that it took good use of the nuisance statute and confidential informants to begin to drain the swamp. Officials at Mayor Bill Purcell's office have repeatedly denied that the mayor is behind the effort targeting businesses that promote prostitution. Instead, officials in Purcell's office credit the Department of Law and the police with the initiative.

The 2½-month crackdown on prostitution that has seen the closing of 31 adult businesses actually began more than a year ago, when the Metro Department of Law went after strip clubs operating outside the adult business zone. So around the end of 2000, Metro lawyers started taking the businesses to court to try to shut them down. "For some of those cases, it simply involved an officer going in and seeing people dancing naked,'' Law Director Karl Dean said.

It worked. A number of the businesses that the department targeted either shut down or stopped hiring strippers. Then, the Department of Law got complaints about two nightclubs that police said were the sites of frequent gunbattles and fights. City lawyers petitioned the court to have the Tropicana Dance Club in south Nashville and The Underground club downtown declared a public nuisance.

The Department of Law learned from the experience of District Attorney Torry Johnson, who had previously gone after clubs that police said were havens of criminal activity. With the nuisance statute, Dean said, ''We got better every time we did it." Police in east Nashville then called the Department of Law about a Dickerson Pike motel they said was a front for prostitution.

The police conducted an undercover sting operation. Then Dean asked the court to close the motel, saying the owners rented rooms to known prostitutes, charged per customer and supplied condoms. On Nov. 9, with a court order in hand, police padlocked Apple Annie's Inn, accusing it of operating as a brothel.

The city forced the owners to agree to stop peddling prostitution and to sell the motel. It was the first time the Department of Law used the nuisance statute to stop prostitution, and it was a huge success, Dean said, because police put a strong case together. One of the problems vice officers had was that prostitutes in businesses had become cautious and wanted customers to start proving that they were not police officers. They were so wary of police that many asked patrons to take off their clothes before discussing the transaction - something undercover vice officers will not do.

Metro Vice Squad started paying informants to go into massage parlors and sex clubs to find out what was going on. The informants have been very effective. All but one of 32 businesses identified by police have closed down, including every massage parlor in town, police said.

Update for 2008: all appeals have failed and the local laws have been upheald.

Overview of Religion
Deism Christianity Judaism Islam Gnosticism Unitarianism

Zoroastrianism Pantheism Fundamentalism Evolution Original Sin Trinity

End Times Apostle Paul Apostle John John Calvin St. Augustine Pelagius

Martin Luther Real Jesus Identity Willie Martin Royal Race Pat Robertson

Also see New Age Religion and What is paganism?

About Me Guestbook

http://www.sullivan-county.com/