Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 9, 1994 TAG: 9408090091
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Billy Hooker Harbour had earlier appealed the decision of a General District judge who ruled in April that Harbour aided and abetted in the performance of a bikini-clad dancer who violated the ordinance by dancing too close to patrons.
As part of a plea agreement reached in Roanoke Circuit Court, Harbour pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charge. Judge Clifford Weckstein took the case under advisement.
If there are no other problems at the nightclub, and if Harbour is not involved in its day-to-day management, the charge will be dismissed after six months. If there are additional problems, Harbour would face the sentence he received in General District Court - 10 days in jail, suspended, and a $250 fine.
In January, Harbour and a dancer at his Franklin Road nightclub, Kathi Price, became the first people to be charged under a 1990 city ordinance that regulates nude or exotic dancing.
Price's attorney had argued that her dancing fell under an "expressive dance" exemption to the ordinance. Prosecutors maintained her performance, in which Price stripped down to a bikini top and bottom, did not include an "expression of story, theme or idea" as required under the expressive dance exemption.
No one claimed that Price's attire was in itself a violation of the ordinance. The illegal part came when the bottom of her outfit slipped as she executed a kick step, leading to what Melissa Kane, Harbour's attorney, has called "the case of the wayward wedgie."
Price was dancing in front of a table at the time, violating a provision in the ordinance that restricts such dancing to an elevated stage equipped with a 4-foot barrier to maintain a distance of at least 6 feet between dancers and spectators.
Price - who has testified that she was following orders from Harbour - also was convicted under the ordinance. She received a 10-day suspended jail sentence and was fined $250.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Dennis Nagel said there have been no illegal "table dances" since charges were filed in January. "We got everything we wanted out of the prosecution," he said.
by CNB