Live! Nude! Girls! can dance another day in Iowa, after a state Court of Appeals ruling Wednesday seen as a victory for strip clubs.
The criminal case was settled almost two years ago, when Hamburg strip club owner Clarence Judy was acquitted of three misdemeanor charges in connection with a naked performance by an underage girl at his club, Shotgun Geniez.
Still, much was at stake with the case, according to those involved. If you ask the Attorney General's Office, it was an opportunity for the court to clarify a section of Iowa law that allows minor children to be sexually exploited without repercussion for anyone involved.
From the perspective of some Iowa strip club owners, a new interpretation of the law could trample on their freedom of expression and make it difficult to keep their businesses running.
But the court declined to weigh in, saying “no useful purpose would be served” because double jeopardy prevents the original case from being retried. The dismissal was, in effect, a win for the strip clubs.
“I said all along, there really wasn't much else they (the state) could do,” Judy said. “I couldn't even see why they (the court) would even hear the appeal in the first place.”
Judy has long said that he didn't realize the 17-year-old girl who danced nude on stage was underage.
The law in question exempts theaters and other performing arts centers from being subject to Iowa obscenity laws. At trial, Judy and his attorney, Michael Murphy, argued that Shotgun Geniez was a theater under Iowa law, because it has a stage, lights and chairs, among other attributes. Fremont County Judge Tim O'Grady agreed and said the obscenity law did not apply because of it.
Bill Roach, attorney general spokesman, said the state plans to ask the Iowa Supreme Court to review the decision. The obscenity law's intent to “shield minors from being sexually exploited” is being thwarted by the theater exemption, Roach said.
“The district court's broad interpretation of the exemption for establishments that have a stage and lighting and call themselves a theater severely undercuts the protection to minors afforded by the statute,” Roach said.
The theater exception to obscenity laws has helped strip clubs defeat several court challenges. In two separate cases in 1998, Scott County District Judge Gary McKenrick found in favor of two separate strip clubs accused of violating obscenity laws on the basis of their status as theaters.
Davenport attorney John Moeller, along with Lansing, Mich., lawyer Bradley Shafer, filed a brief on behalf of several Iowa strip club owners. The attorney general, Moeller said, was trying to close down the state's strip clubs, not just clarify the law as it pertains to minor children.
“I think the Attorney General's Office was hoping for a ruling that would read something along the lines of, any club where clothes are taken off cannot be a theater,” Moeller said. “. . . That's scary if you think about it.”
Moeller said he probably would continue to argue in favor of O'Grady's ruling if the Iowa Supreme Court agrees to review the case.
Contact the writer:
444-1310, elizabeth.ahlin@owh.com
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