Man pleads guilty to sex charges involving girl

Jeffrey Libby

Thursday, May 24, 2001 | 10:13 a.m.

A 43-year-old Atlanta strip club security manager pleaded guilty Wednesday to seducing a 13-year-old exotic dancer and transporting her across state lines for sex.

Allan Charles James, 43, told District Court Judge Sally Loehrer that he and the girl arrived by Greyhound bus in Las Vegas April 13.

Police alleged the girl prostituted herself in the bus station and on Main Street for four days before Metro Police arrested her and James April 16.

"I brought a minor to Las Vegas, and we did have a consensual sexual relationship," James, a former manager at Club Nikki's V.I.P. in Atlanta, said. The teen traveled with him on the bus voluntarily, James said.

James pleaded guilty to one count of statutory sexual seduction and one count of second-degree kidnapping, under an agreement worked out between state prosecutors and public defenders.

James could face up to 20 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced July 23.

Deputy District Attorney Vicki Monroe said she negotiated the plea agreement -- James was originally charged with two counts of statutory sexual seduction and first-degree kidnapping -- to avoid going to trial. The chances of the teen reappearing at a future court date to testify "were almost nil," Monroe said.

"For the purposes of this case, she was a runaway," Monroe said.

A missing persons report was filed by the girl's mother in Atlanta, Monroe said.

The teen returned to Atlanta, where she was briefly reunited with her mother before running away again. James was not charged in the prostitution allegations in Las Vegas, but in Atlanta he could face the felony charge of pimping, in addition to other related charges, according to Atlanta prosecutors.

Police there say James helped the teen get a job as an exotic dancer at Club Nikki's V.I.P., which lost its liquor license in 1999 after an investigation revealed numerous violations. The Georgia Supreme Court upheld the decision last month, despite numerous appeals by club.

Police have arrested 10 dancers at the club on sex-related charges since last year, according to stories published by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

At a news conference at Atlanta City Hall May 9, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said that within days he would charge James, accused of being the teen's pimp, with a list of crimes, Erik Friedly, spokesman for the Atlanta district attorney's office, said Wednesday.

More than two weeks later, though, the alleged crimes have yet to result in a formal indictment by the district attorney's office.

"He (James) hasn't been indicted. He is still being investigated," Friedly said. "We have a case and we're looking into it, but we have not yet taken it to a grand jury." Friedly said the Atlanta DA's office will wait until the Las Vegas charges are resolved before taking the case to a grand jury.