Thursday, June 17, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

LIQUOR LICENSE: Attorney retreats on pledge

Club's dancers face charges, undercutting vow to council

An attorney's promise that no dancer at the Treasures strip club ever would be convicted of soliciting prostitution could cost the $30 million club its license to serve alcohol.

Three strippers have been charged with soliciting prostitution. In a hearing on whether Treasures can keep its liquor license, attorney Mark Fiorentino retreated Wednesday from the pledge he made three years ago.

"I never should have made a promise our firm cannot live up to," Fiorentino told Las Vegas City Council members. "I was an idiot. I had no idea what I was saying."

Fiorentino pleaded with council members to release him from his vow.

The council voted 4-0 to postpone a decision on the club's liquor license until Sept. 1, and members said they could not take action until the dancers' criminal cases are resolved.

Mayor Oscar Goodman excused himself from Wednesday's two-hour hearing because his son, attorney Ross Goodman, represents Treasures. Councilman Michael Mack abstained from the vote because he is a paid consultant to Treasures.

Councilman Gary Reese made clear that a conviction could doom Treasures.

"If there had been a conviction today, there would have been problems," Reese said. "The bottom line is there was a promise. I don't know how anybody can look back on a promise."

Liquor licenses are crucial to the profitability of topless clubs, as owners of the Jaguars club learned last year.

When Jaguars temporarily lost its license in December, midweek beverage sales plummeted from an average of $3,000 a night to $50.

Fiorentino, who represents Treasures, made his promise to the City Council when board members expressed concern about Ali and Hassan Davari's troubles with their Treasures topless club in Houston. The council granted the club owners a temporary liquor license that expires Sept. 15.

Before the club opened in September 2003, Fiorentino vowed the Davaris would set a new standard for Las Vegas topless bars by adopting strict rules with harsh penalties for those who violate them.

But the solicitation allegations and citations for breaching the city's exotic-dance code prompted Councilman Larry Brown to suggest looking into a new ordinance that would require a 6-foot separation between customers and dancers.

"I don't know how detectives can do their job if there is no distance requirement," Brown said.

Fiorentino listed measures in place to prevent illegal acts such as prostitution. The owners keep logs of dancers who have been warned about illicit behavior, strippers who were cited and the punishments they received.

The Davaris conduct random drug searches using a trained narcotics dog and perform regular background checks on dancers, Fiorentino said.

But the measures will not stop solicitations for prostitution, Treasures attorneys said. A dancer can solicit prostitution in a private conversation with a customer. Thousands of dancers and customers combined with pounding music make monitoring every conversation impossible, attorneys said.

Treasures attorneys also argued that Las Vegas police scrutinize the club.

The lawyers said they were told authorities would not enter a plea agreement with any Treasures dancer. At competing clubs, strippers accept plea deals in 85 to 100 percent of the cases, Fiorentino said.

"What a moron I was when I said there would be no convictions," Fiorentino said. "It is absolutely beyond (the owners') control."

Police detectives said because Treasures representatives promised to be "pioneers of a new day" for strip clubs, officers have focused on the club.

Dancer Barbara Lewis is one of the three Treasures strippers arrested last year on suspicion of soliciting prostitution.

Lewis, wearing a short denim miniskirt, a white T-shirt and red Nike sneakers, appeared in court Tuesday with attorneys Ross Goodman and Louis Palazzo.

Lewis was working a slow Halloween night at Treasures last year when she plopped down at Leon Desimone's table and struck up a conversation, not realizing he was an undercover police detective.

Desimone spent two hours trying to get Lewis to leave the club and have sex with him for $600.

Lewis responded "cool" to the detective's suggestion that he pay her, that they leave the bar, have sex, hang out and go to a night club. Desimone testified that response was the evidence used to arrest Lewis.

She never left the bar, but she was arrested after Desimone pulled out his wallet to give her the promised cash.

Palazzo argued that the sting amounted to entrapment because during much of the conversation, Lewis insisted on staying at the club to make money. Palazzo said the detective could have been pulling his wallet out because he owed Lewis money for a $20 lap dance he received.

Las Vegas Municipal Judge George Assad asked that attorneys submit briefings on entrapment and return to his courtroom Aug. 30.

Prostitution is not the only problem plaguing Treasures.

The Davaris are the subject of a federal money-laundering investigation in Houston.

The Davaris made hundreds of deposits and withdrawals on bank accounts in amounts slightly less than $10,000, officials allege. The IRS requires that transactions above $10,000 be reported.

City officials said the unusual bank transactions began taking place as the Davaris were building their Las Vegas club at 2801 Westwood Drive, near Sahara Avenue and Interstate 15.