Bouncer at sham Las Vegas sex club given probation
A bouncer at a Las Vegas business set up to squeeze money out of men who thought they were paying for sex was ordered to serve five years probation Friday.
Jamison Ahearn was found guilty of racketeering and multiple transactions involving fraud or decent in April along with five other people who worked at Club Exclusive II.
Operator Gia Buford and others who used reflexology treatment as a front for the business were sentenced last week.
Once the clients, mostly male tourists, paid an entrance fee, they were encouraged to fork over more cash, as women suggested they would offer sex, prosecutors have said. When the men realized they were being duped and got nothing for their money, bouncers would shoo them out the backdoor and into a waiting cab.
At Ahearn’s sentencing Friday, District Judge David Barker said he wanted to send a message to others working at businesses that used the illusion of sex to pilfer money from unsuspecting tourists.
“If individuals find themselves tempted by this conduct there will be consequences,” Barker told Ahearn, who had served as an aircraft mechanic during Desert Storm.
Barker also ordered Ahearn to spend 180 days in the Clark County Detention Center, with credit for 149 days already served. Ahearn can no longer work in an “adult-oriented” business, like a strip club, the judge added.
Buford, convicted on 16 felonies, was ordered last week to serve between five and 12-and-a-half years in prison, while Brittani Lampkin, 27, Nicole Seaton, 24, James Balgas, 46, and Jennifer Munoz, 26, were given probation.
In operation for nearly four years, the club at South Polaris Avenue near Spring Mountain Road offered kickbacks to cab drivers who took passengers looking for sex to Club Exclusive II, with promises of “hot showers,” “hot girls,” and “one-on-one time,” prosecutors said.
The club pulled in at least $130,000 a month in credit card sales, along with cash transactions, according to the prosecutor.
Six others — Roberta Gutierrez, Leah Montes, Danielle Martin, Cynthia Barragan, Jamie Seaton and the owner of Club Exclusive II, James Buford, Gia Buford’s husband — took plea deals and agreed to testify against their co-defendants in exchange for lesser charges.
