ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 13, 1996 TAG: 9602130125
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITE
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on February 14, 1996.
Opponents of Juicie's Exotic Cabaret in Plum Creek submitted two
batches of petitions Monday to the Montgomery County Board of
Supervisors. One had 260 names, and the other contained 269 names, for a
total of 529, said organizer Deborah Weddle. The signatures were
gathered by the Christian Growth Center Church and the Merrimac
Pentecoastal Holiness Church. The total was reported incorrectly in an
article Tuesday.
The show won't go on in Plum Creek. At least without a bikini, it won't.
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors on Monday passed a "bikini ordinance" aimed at putting the kibosh on topless and nude dancing at Juicie's Exotic Cabaret, a Plum Creek nightclub.
The new law makes it a crime to appear in public without one's buttocks, breasts and genitals fully covered. It also makes it a crime to hire someone to do so.
Juicie's owner, Keith Guthrie, vowed to fight the attempt to force his dancers to cover up. "None of my girls own anything that covers their butts," he said afterward.
Apparently, they found something. Juicie's opened after the vote, but dancers wore bikini tops and shorts.
Lance Hale, the club's attorney, took the stage and told patrons about the supervisors' action and urged them to get involved in the local political process and "vote out these supervisors."
"These ladies cannot give you the show ... that they came here to do today," Hale said as six of the club's dancers stood around him. "Because of a narrow-minded view of a few ... you lose."
A violation of the new law - which took effect immediately - is a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine.
Radford City Council also passed ordinances Monday night aimed at a nightclub similar to Juicie's that opened last weekend.
A former bar called Bumpers Cafe reopened in downtown this past weekend, featuring semi-nude dancing for the first time.
A crowd of more than 150 people greeted the Montgomery County supervisors' 7-0 vote with enthusiastic applause. Many of the onlookers jammed the county courthouse to protest the club's continued existence.
"I don't care how many clothes you have on or off; if it's perverted, it's perverted," Mary Hinkley said.
"Such places as these are so anti-family and promote the exploitation of women as sex objects," said Arneada Elmore, who presented an anti-Juicie's petition containing more than 260 names. Her petition also asked the supervisors to ban NC-17 movies such as "Showgirls," a flick from last year that celebrated erotic dancers in Las Vegas. The board didn't go that far.
Debbie Weddle said the Montgomery County community "is here tonight to speak out in favor of higher standards."
Rich Chabala, associate pastor of Merrimac Pentecostal Holiness Church, held a Bible as he argued that places such as Juicie's degrade women and lead to teen pregnancy, abortion and divorce.
Hale, Juicie's lawyer, was the only one of 13 speakers at a public hearing before the vote to criticize the new law, which he called unconstitutional. He said the Virginia Supreme Court case on which Montgomery's new law is based was decided in 1972. But a 1991 U.S. Supreme Court case specifically protected nonobscene nude dancing performed for entertainment as free expression, Hale said.
County Attorney Roy Thorpe said the Virginia Beach case is still the law in Virginia.
Hale turned in his own 91-name petition against the new law. He said more people would have signed it, but that "silent majority" didn't want to come out and be legislated to by "rabble-rouser Bible thumpers."
"This is the essence of the few railroading the majority," Hale said.
Guthrie said statements linking Juicie's to a culture war on the country's morals and other wrongs were based on assumptions about his business, not facts.
He said he doesn't serve alcohol at his club and won't admit intoxicated people or anyone under 18. Guthrie said he's had no fights or trouble of any kind in his club.
Monday's decision is the latest chapter of a tale that started in November with the opening of Juicie's in Plum Creek, a rural community near Radford. Almost immediately, the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office charged three female dancers with indecent exposure and Guthrie and another man with promoting an obscene performance. In the wake of the charges, Juicie's closed.
But last month, Montgomery County Commonwealth's Attorney Phil Keith dropped the charges after deciding the dancers' acts were symbolic expression protected by the First Amendment. Keith suggested the Board of Supervisors beef up its local obscenity law.
That's what the board did Monday, but not before Supervisor Nick Rush blasted Keith for failing to prosecute the Juicie's case initially. "He allowed some lawyer, real nice-dressed, slick lawyer from Roanoke, to intimidate him into dropping this case, and I felt that was a shame," Rush said.
Rush urged the county attorney to prosecute cases under the new ordinance if Keith will not.
Thorpe said because the new law involves a potential violation of a county ordinance, he could try a case after the Sheriff's Office makes an arrest.
Back at Juicie's, Krista Snow, 24, who's been an exotic dancer for two years, said the new law will hurt her paycheck.
Snow, whose performance includes "a Southern belle" tribute danced to the song "Sweet Home Alabama," said she makes good money as a dancer and isn't embarrassed to bare it all.
"No, it's what God gave me. I'm not ashamed of it. You see more on HBO than you do in this place." She said she earns at least $100 a night and on one occasion earned $675.
In nearby Radford, City Council on Monday passed two ordinances that make indecent public nudity and/or the distribution, performance or exhibition of obscene materials a Class I misdemeanor, the same as in Montgomery County.
The only discussion before the passage of the ordinances was led by Council member Polly Corn, who wondered if language could be added that would require the courts to hand down the maximum penalty. But City Attorney John Spiers said he was leery of straying from the carefully worded ordinance.
Undaunted, Corn requested that the language be added, preferring to let the courts sort the matter out later. "That's why we carry insurance," she said.
Council further moved to dispense with the ordinances' customary second reading, making them both effective immediately. The swift passage brought a round of cheers from the audience of 50.
Spiers said that, unlike in counties, no public hearing is necessary before cities can pass an ordinance.
Staff writers Kathy Loan and Kristen Kammerer contributed to this story.
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