Editorial: A promise made …

Friday, Sept. 17, 2004 | 8:48 a.m.

There really wasn't any choice for the Las Vegas City Council when it voted Wednesday to refuse a permanent liquor license for Treasures. The strip club opened here a year ago after its Texas owners barely qualified for a temporary liquor license. The owners, Hassan and Ali Davari, ran clubs in Houston known for illegal sexual and drug activities. Because of these clubs' reputations, the City Council was inclined to deny granting the Davaris a liquor license, without which a strip club is doomed. To allay the council's concerns, the Davaris' local attorney, Mark Fiorentino, promised on the record that the Davaris would give up their liquor license without a fight if even one activity on Treasurers' premises resulted in a conviction.

Last month, a dancer was convicted of soliciting prostitution while performing at Treasurers. After the woman was charged, Fiorentino tried the old "I was an idiot" defense, claiming that he had no idea what he was saying when he made the promise. When that didn't work, he tried painting the Davari brothers as near-saints, saying they've really worked hard lately to run clean clubs here and elsewhere. On Wednesday he claimed that the City Council is singling out Treasures, applying more pressure to it than other strip clubs. To its credit, the City Council didn't buy any of it, even after Fiorentino made dark references to a private eye whom he hired to document illegal activities at other Las Vegas clubs. The difference is that those clubs didn't have nefarious reputations at the time of their license applications, and do not have promises to uphold.

If the city had voted to grant a permanent liquor license to Treasures, no promise ever again made to the City Council would have any merit. Now the council must stick to its decision, and withstand the barrage of other Fiorentino-style defenses sure to come.