Sanctions Are Sought Against Ventura Club

VENTURA —  No one in the audience at Ventura’s Metro Nite Club filed a complaint last September when enthusiastic female patrons and five muscular male dancers simulated various sex acts during the performance.

But state regulators say they were there taking color photographs of dancers engaging 26 women in various forms of sexual contact on 66 occasions that evening. And the regulators say laws were broken that prohibit such activities in any place where alcohol is served.

At a hearing Tuesday in Ventura, Alcoholic Beverage Control officials sought sanctions against the club to ensure that such public liaisons will not reoccur.

State regulators are seeking a two-year probationary period for the downtown club, during which its liquor license can be rescinded if further violations occur.

Also, state officials are seeking to suspend the club’s liquor license for 30 days and add nine conditions to its license outlining in explicit terms what activity and conduct by dancers and customers is banned.

Officials with the club, which courted regulatory punishment last year because of a weekly bondage show that has since been discontinued, did not dispute the charges at Tuesday’s hearing.

But club officials requested more lenient treatment, including a $2,500 fine and a shorter liquor license suspension of five days.

“We don’t think the punishment fits the crime,” said Ventura attorney Earnest Bell, who represents the club’s owner. “This is not a troubled club that’s been giving everyone a hard time.”

The administrative law judge conducting the hearing has 30 days to issue a recommendation to officials at the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control who will make the final determination on the appropriate penalty.

“Certainly, the women who were there that night were not complaining,” said department attorney Matthew Ainley after the one-hour hearing. “It’s not that we’re a bunch of prudes or opposed to nude dancing. . . . This kind of behavior has been found to be acceptable outside of alcohol [serving] premises.”

During a club show dubbed “Men of the Hollywood Strip,” dancers strip down to G-strings and women customers may pay to sit in the “Hot Seat,” where the dancers perform a lap dance, Bell said.

But state law mandates that clubs selling alcohol keep dancers, who are required to be on a stage more than 18 inches high, at least 6 feet from customers.

By contrast, at the club’s Sept. 12 show, male dancers and female customers allegedly went beyond what the law permits.

“[Dancers] were exposing their buttocks and they were allowing patrons to touch their buttocks,” Ainley said. “They were simulating sex acts with the patrons. . . . One of the dancers was actually opening up the blouse of one of the women--putting his head up the blouse.”

State officials had been tipped off about the conduct of the dance troupe, he said. At a subsequent show in Long Beach where similar activity had allegedly occurred, some offended female patrons walked out of the club, he said.

Still, Bell questioned why the state was cracking down now, when he said essentially the same risque routine had been performed on Friday nights for the past five years.

“Ventura PD has been in an out of the nightclub many times, but nobody said anything about it,” Bell said. “But why does the ABC come out and request a nightclub be shut down for 30 days after a 14-year good record?”

He said the club has only had three minor infractions of the ABC rules in that period.

But Ainley said while nude dancing is constitutionally protected, that protection does not extend to clubs such as the Metro that sell alcohol.

“Alcohol and sex don’t mix, let’s face it,” he said. “They say they’re going to comply with these rules from now on. If that’s true, this hearing served its function--we’re not interested in putting them out of business.”