By Jeff German

Published Monday, June 23, 2008 | 8:18 p.m.

Updated Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008 | 10:15 a.m.

U.S. District Judge Philip Pro refused late this afternoon to order the U.S. Marshals Service to seek a temporary liquor license from the Las Vegas City Council to operate the Crazy Horse Too.

Pro said he didn’t have authority to order the marshals to do that. But Pro kept open his options of intervening to save the government’s efforts to sell the topless club.

Following three hours of arguments at an emotional hearing, Pro said he would issue a ruling later this week on whether to take the “extraordinary” measure of ordering the city to extend its June 30 license deadline to allow the marshals to continue their efforts to sell the club.

Bill Henry, the city’s senior litigation counsel, argued that such an order would infringe upon the city’s zoning authority.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Johnson, who sought the postponement of the deadline on behalf of the marshals, said it was necessary to give the government more time to sell the Crazy Horse Too at its highest price. As much as $29 million is needed from the sale to pay off the club’s creditors, including the government and a Kansas City area man Kirk Henry, who is owed $9 million stemming from a broken neck he suffered in a 2001 altercation at the club.