Porn Valley- I had a conversation with Mary Carey who was hassled by cops over the weekend. Carey had been in Lakewood, Washington to dance at Club Paradise, and Carey believes she was being targeted by the police because the club there has been having some problems. “They had a grand opening with another feature about two weeks ago,” says Carey. “It was a porn girl. She’s asked me not to mention her name but she had a lot of legal problems while she was there.” Carey said she had been unaware of a lot of this until she got to the club Thursday night.
“I’m tired and stressed out,” Carey was telling me. I tell her the story’s out there that her boobies were exposed. “It happens all the time on Playboy TV,” Carey’s telling me, laughing. Carey goes on to explain another hassle that was involved in getting a dance permit. “In a lot of states it’s like that,” she says. “That’s the way it’s run to make money. You charge the dance a permit fee.” According to Carey, the system’s also setup to have you running around like a chicken without a head. “You go to one stop. You get finger printed and have a picture taken. That takes an hour. Then you have to go somewhere else to a notary. I had to make like four or five stops. This was weird. It’s a long time.”
Carey said she had heard the stories about another porn girl getting arrested. “And there’s all these undercover cops fining girls every day. Their rules are really strict. You’re only allowed to be fully nude on the stage. But that’s at least 8 feet away from the customer,” she says. “The lap dances there the girls have to be fully covered and they have to be four feet away.” [Which is kind of contradictory to the term, lap dance.] Carey said she was determined to be very careful while at the club. But, obviously, not careful enough. Carey also avoided taking Polaroids. “The evidence against the girl who was there two weeks prior are photos of her being fully nude on an undercover’s lap. That’s illegal. I made sure I didn’t go near the customers.” Carey said normally she’d go up to a customer and get in their face. “But I stayed back,” she says. “There’s a three-level stage and I stayed back far on the stage. But the problem is the stage is only four feet away from the customers. Technically, if they wanted to be assholes, you’re breaking the 8-foot rule there no matter what.”
Carey said it was after her second show that she had a robe on. “I went to the front door to say hi to a friend of mine. He wanted to see if he could get in the club. I had my robe wrapped around and I was talking to him. I guess I didn’t have it on me properly. And some police officers came in. That was kind of scary and I decided to leave. As I was leaving the cops came over and they stopped the car. That’s when they handcuffed me.” Carey feels the whole incident was entirely unfair. “I didn’t do anything wrong in the club. I asked what was wrong. They said you should know, they read you your rule book when you got your permit. I said I have two witnesses. No one read me any rules. They went they probably should have given them to you on paper. I said, nope. I have witnesses. And they never read me my rights. They just cuffed me shoved me in the cop car naked. I was in pink fish nets and stripper heels with my robe. I was holding the robe with my hands. When they went to cuff me, my robe kind of fell down. I looked like the epitome of a hooker.”
Afterwards, Carey, was re-cuffed with her hands in front of her. “I have poor circulation and diabetes,” she explained. “But my arms are bruised from the cuffs anyway,” says Carey noting that, nonetheless, the guy cops were fairly decent. “You know I ran for governor I said. They said we read all about you. Obviously they knew I was coming to town and didn’t want me here. They also don’t have porn in this area. They’re just trying to get this club gone. They also arrested two managers at the club and another dancer. But when I got to the station I was out very quickly. I posted bail before I even finished processing. But the cops knew who I was. They were all talking. They were like little boys joking and asking questions.”
A friend of Carey’s, Christopher, was also being asked how he got to meet Carey. “Did you win a contest on a website?”
Carey said it was fairly obvious that the police were on a fishing expedition. “The girl from a couple of weeks ago was the first arrest. But I could see her case,” she says. “She didn’t have a permit and there was the naked Polaroid.” For her part, Carey doesn’t think they have anything on her. “No girl touched me on stage and I did not break the rules. That was another thing they were trying to say that I passed the 8-foot limit. And I didn’t do any Polaroids. I didn’t even do fully clothed Polaroids because I didn’t want to risk being too close to the customers.” When Carey sold her 8 by 10 glossies, she made the customers stand on one end of the pool table with her on the other. “They’re picking on me on purpose,” says Carey. “They’re trying to find anything they can wrong with me.”
To make matters worse, Carey says she’s never been arrested before. “It really stinks. I couldn’t do Polaroids and I couldn’t sell movies.” Carey said the club told her they’d pay for her legal fees. “But I don’t think they are. They’ve been picking on this club and harassing them.” Carey suspects that a lot of the problems stem with the previous owner that other clubs in the area might get occasional citations. “But this club day after day after day, they have nothing better to do than go after this club.” Carey said she’s been talking to her attorney and may have an harassment case before this is all over.
“They wanted to make sure they got me and two managers. I guess this is exciting because they don’t have anyone well known come through Lakewood, generally.” Because Playboy TV is popular in that area, Carey said a lot of people knew her from that.
“I’m just glad to be out of that state,” she says. “It’s raining all the time. I don’t know how people can deal with that.” Carey, who’s going to New York this week, says she’s never seen rules like this. While in The Big Apple, she’ll be doing the Opie & Anthony radio show as well as a few other media gigs. “And I’ll be hosting some parties with Tawny Roberts,” she adds. “Next week me and Tawny Roberts are doing a dancing duo act. It’s our first time in Arizona and we’re calling ourselves the Heartbreakers. I love Tawny. She’s great.”