CARTHAGE, Mo. – What could be called the first shot in the looming legal battle over an adult video store proposed for the intersection of I-44 and County Road 100 was fired on Monday.
William Fleishaker, the Joplin attorney representing Ernie Doyon, sent a letter to the Jasper County Commissioners accusing them of “unreasonably denying my client’s application for a business license.”
The letter also accuses Commissioners of “attempting to enforce a political agenda,” because one of the residents leading the opposition to the adult video store, John Putnam, is the chairman of the Jasper County Republican Party Central Committee.
Doyon has been building a building on the lot of the convenience store at County Road 100 and I-44. Initially, residents were told it was going to be a strip club and dozens of people who live nearby organized into a group to oppose it.
The Jasper County Commissioners passed an ordinance strictly regulating strip clubs, then residents spotted a sign indicating the business was going to be an adult video store. Last month, Doyon applied for two business licenses, one for an adult video store and one for a proposed bar.
Fleishaker’s letter said one of Doyon’s employees was told on Friday that the business license would not be issued because the property did not comply with a state statute requiring that private viewing booths be open and not have doors.
“Frankly, I am quite surprised that the Commission and the Sheriff’s Department are not aware that the statute was struck down in December of 2006 by the Missouri Supreme Court in the case of Missouri Association of Club Executives Inc. v. State of Missouri,” Fleishaker wrote in the letter. “It is clear that the commission has gone well beyond its statutory and constitutional duties and authority and is attempting to enforce a political agenda upon my client.”
The letter demands that the county provide Doyon with a list of remaining requirements or his business license no later than 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
Jasper County Commissioner John Bartosh said the county is responding to the concerns residents who are complaining about the business.
He said Prosecutor Dean Dankelson and Assistant Prosecutor Blake Wolf told him Fleishaker may be correct about the ordinance being struck down by the state supreme court, but the topic of doors on the private booths is covered in a county ordinance now being reviewed by Dankelson.
The commissioners have not yet approved the ordinance, but they plan to vote on it either this week or next week.