Debate on fliers distributed on Strip becomes heated

Jace Radke

Friday, March 26, 2004 | 9:42 a.m.

The latest case in the ongoing battle over the distribution of fliers for adult entertainment and escort services along the Las Vegas Strip has been submitted to a federal judge.

U.S. District Judge Lloyd George began hearing evidence in February in the case that involves two outcall service businesses' challenge of a Clark County ordinance that would prohibit the distribution of handbills for commercial purposes.

On Thursday George heard testimony from Richard Soranno, owner of S.O.C. Inc., one of the outcall businesses challenging the ordinance along with the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada.

The plaintiffs argue that the banning of the dissemination of fliers and handbills on the Strip for commercial purposes violates the First Amendment.

Todd Bice, who represents the Nevada Resort Association and is part of a team of lawyers representing the county in the case, questioned Soranno about his business practices and whether he employed prostitutes.

In a sometimes heated exchange, Soranno said that to the best of his knowledge his company does not employee outcall dancers who have been convicted of solicitation for prostitution.

"As long as they are not a prostitute we can hire them, and the one way we can tell is if there is a conviction," Soranno said.

Bice also asked Soranno if outcall entertainers in his employ must take an AIDS test, and Soranno replied that they do not.

Attorneys for the ACLU, S.O.C. and another outcall provider, Hillsboro Entertainment Inc., will now have 10 days to file additional briefs to George. Attorneys for the county will then have a week to respond, and if more oral argument is needed, George said, he would hold a hearing.

If no further argument is deemed necessary, George could then issue a decision in the case.

Details about how Metro Police's prostitution stings work came out earlier in the trial, when two Metro officers testified that they had arrested several female dancers from S.O.C. and Hillsboro on solicitation charges.

The officers also testified that solicitation stings are sometimes recorded on videotapes that are later taped over or erased, prompting officials with the ACLU to question whether the department is destroying evidence and violating 14th Amendment rights.

Metro officials say that very few of the sting operations are recorded, and those that are are not for evidentiary purposes, but to help train undercover detectives.