In Iowa, in the land where they let the children cry, a man is on trial after police learned a seventeen-year-old girl had twice performed at his strip club... or is it his performing arts center?
Clarence Judy owns a venue called Shotgun Geniez in the town of Hamburg. (We had to check to make sure this was, in fact, in the United States and not Germany before writing this.) No one is questioning this or the central event of the case, that
a 17-year-old got on stage at Shotgun Geniez
and danced fully nude twice the night of July 21, 2007. The pivotal
question was whether or not that was permissible under the Iowa law
that exempts theaters, concert halls, art centers, museums, or similar
establishments from public decency laws.
Judy argues that, for several reasons, he isn't responsible for what happened, claiming that because performers are independent contractors, they are not employees. He also says they are not required to perform in the nude, although he admits that most attendees are there for the T&A. He hands out sketchbooks, which is hilarious bullshit from our point of view, hoping that either a) patrons will draw the models like it's some sort of night class or b) people will actually believe he's trying to turn his girls into artistic nudes.
Judy testified that the girl was snuck into the club by her friends and that he didn’t see her go in.
“If I would have seen her I would have ID’ed her because I didn’t know her,” he said in court.
He said the group of eight was crammed into the small entry way and blocked his view from the window purposefully.
The venue's website calls itself a "Sensual Entertainment Theater," although the web address contains the phrase "stripclub": http://shotgungeniez.iowastripclubs.com/
Via Nebraska City News-Press (Iowa.)
