Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza refused Monday to block enforcement of a Jacksonville ordinance that operators of the city's only late-night strip club said will ruin them.
The ordinance requires clubs licensed to serve alcohol to close at 2 a.m.
The owners of Club Illusions Inc. -- which does business as Sensations cabaret -- wanted Piazza to halt enforcement of the ordinance, which goes into effect today, until its legality is decided at trial. Sensations is licensed to stay open until 5 a.m.
The judge declined, saying club operators will have a hard time proving that Jacksonville had no good reason to impose the restriction.
The City Council passed the ordinance as a crime-fighting measure, said City Attorney John Wilkerson of the Arkansas Municipal League. The city clearly has the authority to pass such an ordinance, and the law is legal because it treats all clubs the same, Wilkerson said.
Police reports show that Jacksonville crime and car crashes increase after 2 a.m., Wilkerson told the judge.
The ordinance was approved in April and affects all liquor-licensed clubs in the city, but club attorney Robert Frazier said Monday that Sensations -- the only gentlemen's club in Jacksonville licensed to serve until 5 a.m. -- would suffer "special harm." Club operators sued in May, disputing the legality of the ordinance.
"This ordinance is not reasonably tailored to do what they want it to do," Frazier told the judge. "Because of the nature of this business, it's not the same as the other clubs. There will be no harm to the city [if enforcement is delayed], but there will be irreparable harm to our client."
Sensations' owners have made significant investments in the club, and the 60 days between ordinance approval and implementation is not enough time to recoup that expense or relocate the club, he said.
Sensations manager Darren Gambill told the judge that the club's profits come primarily from alcohol sales, with 45 percent to 60 percent of those sales coming Friday and Saturday nights between 1 a.m. and last call at 4:30 a.m.
He said Sensations is the only strip club in Jacksonville licensed to sell alcohol overnight since rival Peaches went out of business. A significant portion of Sensations' clientele comes to the club after other bars close, he told the judge.
Sensations costs about $6,000 per week to operate, Gambill told the judge. He estimated that a 1:30 a.m. last call would cost the club $5,000 per week.
Customers have threatened to start going to clubs in Little Rock and Maumelle that are also 5 a.m.-licensed, Gambill testified.
The club's performers are independent contractors who work for tips, Gambill said, and when they start to lose money because of declining patronage, they'll go elsewhere to entertain, which will acerbate the loss of clientele.
"I believe a lot of our customers will go somewhere else," Gambill testified. "It's a downward spiral."
Owner Billy Marfoglio has spent more than $640,000 on renovations and improvements, most recently a $55,000 remodeling of the club's facade, Gambill said.
The club has been located at 6715 John Harden Drive for more than 30 years, although its current owners purchased the club in 2004 for $150,000, Gambill said. During most of its existence, the club has operated outside city limits until Jacksonville annexed it in 2011, he said.
He testified that the club has experienced minimal crime.
In 2005, Sensations drew national attention when three strippers and two club workers were arrested after a patron complained that one of the dancers had spanked him so badly when he celebrated his birthday at the club that he suffered serious bruising.
Spanking was part of a birthday performance package sold at the club for $25, police said.
The strippers disputed that the man had complained and said he willingly participated.
Jay Leno joked about the case on The Tonight Show.
The five were charged with felony second-degree battery but were allowed to plead guilty to disorderly conduct with a $1,000 fine each.
The spanking implement, an 18-inch wooden paddle drilled with 16 holes and emblazoned with the stage name of one of the women, Velvet, and the word "ouch" in capital letters, was subsequently destroyed at the insistence of prosecutors who were concerned the national publicity of the case might allow someone to cash in on its notoriety.
The club reached a confidential settlement with the man and was also fined $350 by state regulators, in part for the spanking incident.
Metro on 07/01/2014