from www.bizjournals.com – City Attorney Dennis Herrera has moved to shut down a North Beach strip club, charging that the adult establishment has continued to operate in defiance of repeated City notices of violation, cease and desist orders, and police citations for prostitution dating back more than a year.

In his 20-page pleading filed in San Francisco Superior Court Wednesday morning, Herrera petitioned Judge Charlotte Walter Woolard to declare the Heaven Mini Theatre at 1054 Kearny Street a “public nuisance” for operating in violation of state and local laws, and to issue a preliminary injunction that would close down the illicit enterprise.

Heaven Mini Theatre was implicated in an April 9, 2009 shooting, in which a witness informed police investigators of his belief that an alleged Heaven employee was the gunman who shot two doormen at the Broadway Showgirls Nightclub in apparent retaliation for a physical altercation a week earlier. The victims, who had been shot in the thigh and neck respectively, survived.

“Naming a business ‘Heaven’ doesn’t place it beyond earthly laws and regulations, but that appears to be exactly what the operators of this illicit enterprise think,” said Herrera.

Heaven recently sued the city, charging the police and planning departments of “selective enforcement.” Herrera counters that the “Police and Planning Departments have been thorough and persistent in enforcing the law and doing their jobs.”

“The reality is that this lawless endeavor has no intention of obeying the law in San Francisco, and the court ordered injunction I’m seeking is necessary to shut it down,” the city attorney said.