Judge Upholds Lap Dance Ban in La Habra

Lap dancing is still illegal in La Habra. That’s what U.S. District Judge Gary L. Taylor ruled last week in his Santa Ana courtroom, dismissing a lawsuit filed by a strip club owner who alleged that such a ban was unconstitutional.

The attorney representing Bill Gammoh, who owns Taboo Gentleman’s Club, said he would appeal the decision to the U.S. 9th District Court of Appeals.

The judge said contact with customers was not a right guaranteed to dancers under the 1st Amendment, and that the ban did not infringe on protected expression.

At issue is a city ordinance that prohibits dancers from being within two feet of customers. Taboo Gentleman’s Club, which opened in 1998, is the only adult cabaret in La Habra. Gammoh took legal action soon after the club’s opening, protesting the required separation between dancer and patron.

The ordinance “unfairly impedes on your right to expression and speech,” said Scott Wellman, the attorney representing Gammoh.

City Atty. Richard D. Jones said La Habra must regulate the activities of adult clubs to prevent “secondary” effects.

“The city’s concerned about potential for prostitution and other criminal activity” that stems from such physical closeness, Jones said. The possibility of the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases is also a factor, he said.

In the lawsuit, Wellman argued that such claims were false. “I can’t find any evidence ... that shows dancing between two clothed individuals with no alcohol leads to prostitution, drug dealing or STDs,” Wellman said.

Wellman said the dancers are dressed, at minimum, in a bikini.

The city uses such restrictive measures against adult clubs because they don’t want them there, he said.

“They know clubs won’t be able to survive” without lap dancing, Wellman said.

Attorney Deborah Fox, who represented the city in court, said that that argument lacked teeth. “They also claim that they’re not doing physical touching, and they are doing major physical touching, gyrating and grinding,” she said.

La Habra spent at least $800,000 arguing the case, Jones said.

In an unrelated case, Gammoh received a $2-million settlement from Anaheim in March after successfully arguing that the city prevented the opening of an adult club by the same name there, which resulted in lost profits.

The Los Angeles City Council briefly banned lap dancing last year in strip clubs, before repealing the ordinance following aggressive opposition by the industry.