The Flesh Club's final chapter?
Below is a longer version of today's news story about how City Attorney James F. Penman and a band of cops rolled on the Flesh Club Thursday morning to enforce a court-ordered closure. The club will be closed for eight months after a judge found that lewd conduct and paid sex acts occurred there.
Penman has taken much heat over the years for burning time and hundreds of thousands of dollars in his quest to close the club, which he calls a house of prostitution.
Thursday night was Penman's time to shine, and he did, overseeing the (temporary?) death knell of the club while wearing a gray suit and a "San Bernardino City Refuse Department" ball cap (surely not a coincidental choice of garb).
Club owner Ryan Welty told this reporter, through a cell phone message relayed through a manager on site at midnight Thursday, that he had planned to close on time all along but wanted to coax Penman and police out to the club so "they'd all be on the clock," a fitting (final?) disrespect to the city attorney who has become his constant pursuer.
Enjoy ...
SAN BERNARDINO - At the stroke of midnight, the tubular purple lights
still glowed and the marquis still shone.
“We’re still open,” the marquis read.
But by then, the Flesh Club stage was deserted, and women who for
years have danced nude to patrons’ dollar-flipping delight were
fully-clothed and filing into the parking lot.
In the first minutes of Nov. 15, a caravan of cars containing about a
dozen police and City Attorney James F. Penman rolled into the adult
cabaret’s parking lot to enforce a court-ordered closure issued Oct.
30.
But the club‘s owners, who have struggled in a legal tangle of with
the city for more than a decade, had already opted to officially
close at 11:59 p.m., a timid concession after days of defiant
insistence that the court-ordered closure was one day later.
“We’re shutting it down,” said club manager Troy Neptune minutes
before midnight while standing in front of the club, watching for the
police’s imminent arrival.
A sequence of events precipitated Thursday’s midnight closure, which
San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Donald Alvarez had ordered
to take effect 15 days after his Oct. 30 ruling due to ample evidence
that paid sex acts and lewd conduct had routinely occurred at the
club.
Alvarez granted the 15-day period at the request of Roger Jon
Diamond, the club's attorney, to seek postponement of the order
pending an appeal.
But on Tuesday a state appellate court in Riverside denied Diamond’s
request, clearing the way for enforcement of Alvarez’ order that the
club be shut for eight months and forced to pay a $25,000 fine.
But Diamond maintained this week that his client would remain open
for business until one minute to midnight Nov. 15. 24-hours later,
setting the stage for confrontation.
It didn’t happen.
Around 7 p.m. Wednesday, uniformed police officers, accompanied by
Penman, arrived at the club and made entry. As a few startled patrons
looked on, managers, dancers and other employees were served with
copies of Alvarez’ order that business must halt by midnight, Neptune
said.
“They served papers to everybody,“ Neptune said. “Some of the girls
were upset, they didn’t really know what was going on.“
With the paperwork served and the promise of return five hours later,
management got the word from club owner Ryan Welty to close shop,
Neptune said.
The midnight scene wasn’t completely uneventful. A 27-year-old club
dancer, set to leave in jeans and a blouse, was stopped and arrested
just outside the front door of the club. Penman said that during the
earlier visit to serve papers, police had gathered names from
employees and ran warrant checks, revealing that the woman had
warrants for theft and traffic violations.
Police filed in and out, ensuring that all operations had ceased in
the building. Penman, who has waged war on the adult business that
sits on Hospitality Lane, the city’s jewel of dining districts, stood
outside in a gray suit and a city refuse department cap. Asked if he
accompanied the midnight raid to see his decade long battle come to
fruition, Penman replied that police requested an attorney and that
he didn’t want to trouble his staff with the assignment.
But Penman did allow that he had a feeling of satisfaction.
“After 15 years, this is a good evening for us,” he said.
Before police arrived, young women, some of whom have worked at the
club for years, plaintively asked Neptune about the circumstances and
whether they’d be able to come to work the next day.
“Nope,” Neptune told one woman, who shivered nervously, scanning the
parking lot for police. “This is it.”
Lets see..............the Crims round up working girls.
Must be nice to waste public money on stuff like this while ignoring shootings and murders.
Will this personal vendetta ever end? Was it worth it to the city?
Imagine if he didn't win the election. We would have had a end to this personal mission Pennman has had for years. Focus on bringing the killers of our city's children to justice. Not some club.
Attention people.....
The City Attorney's Office is not responsible for criminal prosecution or the crime problem in this city. Mr. Penman's office is "represents the Mayor, Common Council, all City officers in all legal matters involving the City, and prosecutes violators of the Municipal Code and certain state laws, including the Political Reform Act."
The functions of this office are as follows:
* Defend the City in court action, including tort suits, and commence court actions as directed by the Mayor and Common Council, or pursuant to law.
* Investigate and prosecute ordinance violators and violators of certain state laws.
* To issue legal opinions and provide advice to the Mayor and Common Council, department/division heads, boards and commissions on legal questions.
* Attend various meetings with the Mayor and Common Council.
* Attend various meetings with department/division heads, boards and commissions.
* Attend various quasi-judicial hearings and conduct order to show cause hearings on Municipal Code violators.
* Prepare or review resolutions, ordinances, leases and agreements.
* Coordinate preparation of Municipal Code amendments.
* Keep abreast of new laws and current court decisions.
If you want to blame someone for the rising crime in this city, blame the Police Chief, and his boss, the Mayor. The homicide count is 42 SO FAR THIS YEAR!!! Forcible Rape is up over 30% SO FAR THIS YEAR! Aggravated Assualts are up almost 10% SO FAR THIS YEAR!!!
The Mayor is more interested in his "social programs" like the Operation Phoenix Center opening last night than the 2 year anniversary of Mynesha's death.....
The Mayor's office is busy planning the Christmas toy give aways......Mr. Penman's office is at least trying to clean up this cesspool that the city has become. And as usual the Mayor's supporters are trying to shift the blame to Mr. Penman's office......
GET A CLUE!
Closure great. But once again, as if the hundreds of thousands of dollars already spent in this case were not enough, Mr. Penman and the police department have to provide a grand stage entrance and do so again with an unnecessary amount of staffing at tax payers expense. I think our law enforcement staff of a dozen or so would have brought in more criminals and more revenue to the city had they been patrolling our streets. One arrest at the Club which took 12 police officers plus Penman and others. What's wrong this picture?
what a waste of $$$$
As I read this article in today's paper, I wondered how many other city attorneys behave as San Bernardino's attorney does? Do they go out to see homes shut down, unwanted businesses shut down, do they really get any glory out of this? I don't see the worth of someone of this caliper . . . I thought this was the duty of code enforcement, police officers, fire personnel, where does the city attorney exactly fit in this category, to serve the warrant or what, where was the mayor, council representatives, police chief, why didn't they all go out to watch this most spectacular event?
Good for them. Those horrors of the flesh took my money and said I would get a blow J!!!
Great job city. Our city (San Bernardino) is one of the deadliest (not to mention ugliest)cities in the U.S. and our city is spending lots of money on making sure a strip club was shut down. A personal vendetta? Could be. A colossal waste of money? Certainly. I noticed one person posted that the city attorney is trying to clean up the "cesspool" in the city. How about the city attorney go to the westside and help clean up that "cesspool".
How many people have been shot and killed at Flesh? Maybe the city attorney and local officials should put it all in perspective. Flesh isn't turning San Bernardino into a "cesspool" or the capital of homicide that it is. Put the money toward something more meaningful-the SMASH team, building more parks, paying for more law enforcement in the city, rebuilding a very old, rundown downtown area, or doing something proactive about the homeless population. Mr. Penman, put it all in perspective.
The Mayor and City Council, not the City Attorney,made the decision to seek the Flesh Club's closure. Penman, as the attorney for the Mayor and Council did what they told him to do. They, not Penman, repeatedly voted the money to pay the outside attorney, and to appeal the judgment against the City which has now been set aside by the California Supreme Court. By the way, most of the money was spent on defending the City against the lawsuit brought by the Flesh Club. The Club refused the City's numerous offers to settle the case. Now they are on the losing side. You would know all of this if you followed the news stories in the Sun.
The Penman haters can keep spewing their venom but the fact is Penman did his job, represented the wishes of the Mayor and Council and won the closure they wanted.
He also won the election his enemies swore he would lose. They threw over $100,000 of lies and mud against him but he took them on and beat them down. With all the power of the Mayor and his cronies, democracy won out. The people have spoken, and you guys lost. Get over it. Penman is our City Attorney for the next four years - unless he gets elected Mayor first.
Let's see. A strip club opens right near a movie theatre, cool venues to hang out with friends and family restaurants. Restaurant row became rotten row because the naked skank club took the classy edge the area had and "fleshed it right down the gutter." I for one remember feeling unsafe in the area after the club opened. After leaving El Torito one evening and being approached by a drunken stupid greasy old man decided that the area was a hole and have not been back to El Torito or any other restaurant on Hospitality.
Things go down like dominos and Flesh was a bad domino and has caused major image challenges to Hospitality Lane. It will take years to reverse the damage. It's the same as when you have a house in your neighborhood that has shady characters hanging out and the good people who water their lawns and pay the bills leave town and you are left with tah dah . . . . San Bernarghetto!
BETTER YET!
SAN BERDOO-DOO
Isn't it sad that such a hub of opportunity become a scum bucket? That's what happens when you throw programs at problems and don't work to fix the source of the problem!
Code Enforment should have had a priority list like this:
No window painting at businesses unless for special occassion like a holiday
No homemade business signs over a business
Garage sale signs must be removed from telephone poles and street corners at the end of the day
Banners must be removed after 30 days
Any shoes hanging over phone lines removed within seven days
All street vendors must have a permit
Trash in front yard - zero tolerance, fine the OCCUPANT not the owner
Too many people in one home - ZERO tolerance
Okay, that's just a start . . .