Dance clubs battle city on alcohol violations

Denise Cardinal

Thursday, May 28, 1998 | 10:18 a.m.

Two erotic dance clubs recently cited for allowing alcohol in their doors are taking the city of Las Vegas to court for improperly conducting investigations.

Little Darlings, at 1514 Western Avenue, was fined $50,000 by the City Council in December for allowing alcohol to be consumed without a liquor license. Talk of the Town, at 1238 S. Las Vegas Boulevard, was given a three-week suspension last week for the same offense.

At both establishments, licensing officers went into the clubs with alcohol and drank it -- without being asked to leave by employees. The officers did this over a period of a few months, visiting each club with alcohol several times.

"We wanted to make sure it was not an isolated case basis," said Jim DiFiore, manager of the city's licensing division.

Attorneys for Little Darlings and Talk of the Town contend that those investigations -- and the prosecuting methods that resulted from them -- were nothing short of constitutional violations.

"The City Council is not a court," said Allen Lichtenstein, attorney for both Little Darlings and Talk of the Town. "The same people that are investigating and prosecuting the defendants are advising the council, which acts like a judge even though it's not."

Little Darlings paid the fine, Lichtenstein said, but has since filed a case against the city in Federal court -- asking that licensing officers be prohibited from using the same sort of investigation practices again.

"Under their own code, they have no right to issue fines for prior behavior," Lichtenstein said. "It's just really a question of emphasizing a process. If a government can arbitrarily decide to punish a business then what's to prevent the city from doing this against anyone else?"

Talk of the Town, according to attorney Dominic Gentile, will be filing a suit against the city as soon as the city files its order of suspension with the club, which is expected to happen this week. In that case, Gentile and Lichtenstein are maintaining that the council has no right to suspend a non-privileged license for allowing alcohol -- an offense that if prosecuted in court would be a misdemeanor and hold a maximum fine of $1,000.

During the Council hearing last week, Gentile openly criticized the process, pointing out that since the investigation was undercover and extended -- it was impossible to find witnesses for his client. He also complained about the licensing officer's drinking of alcohol and then driving of city-issued vehicles during the investigations.

"They're lucky no one wrapped a car around a pole, or a pedestrian," he said.

DiFiore defended the city's investigations practices, pointing out that the clubs were in fact, breaking the law.

"We've done this before with child care centers, telemarketers and other rip-off business deals," he said. "We've done what we've needed to do to gather the evidence to prosecute in court or to prosecute in City Council. The main point here that may have been overlooked is that they were doing an illegal act."

Henderson Licensing Director David Lee said that he's never conducted an undercover investigation in his 20 years in the department. If there is the need for investigations, he said, he'd hand the case over to the police.

"They are trained in those things," Lee said.