LINCOLN PARK, Michigan — www.thenewsherald.com- The legal case for seven strip club employees cited for not being licensed to work in an adult-based establishment has been postponed after they hired an attorney to fight the charges.
They originally were due in court Monday, but that has been postponed until May 6 to give their lawyer, Ricky Nelson of Allen Park, time to research the matter.
The two men and five women ticketed were working at Bada Bing!, 863 Dix-Toledo, on the night of April 3 when undercover Lincoln Park officers were on a sting operation.
Of the 16 employees inside the fully nude club, seven were not licensed as a city ordinance requires. They face up to 90 days in jail and a fine of up to $500.
Five of the seven cited were nude dancers. The other two were a bouncer and the manager on duty.
Of the seven not licensed, four of them — all female dancers — had outstanding warrants for their arrests. Officers declined to elaborate on what the warrants were for, but said the majority of them were for failing to appear in various courts on other criminal charges.
Nelson, who is a magistrate at 24th District Court in Allen Park, did not return calls seeking comment.
The club made headlines in 2007 when it operated under the name Atlantis Lounge. It was there that a 17-year-old Wyandotte girl worked illegally as a nude dancer. She was hired after showing an older friend’s driver’s license.
A couple of days after she began working there, Stephanie Michelle Brown left the club with two patrons and died a few hours later of a drug overdose.
Deleon Alexander II, a former Ecorse Community High School volunteer basketball coach, was charged with providing Brown with the cocaine that killed her.
He was the first person convicted in Wayne County under a new law that holds dealers responsible when their drugs kill someone.
Alexander is serving an 11- to 20-year prison sentence for delivery of a controlled substance causing death.
In November, Brown’s family filed a $1 million wrongful death lawsuit against the nude club and its owner, Nagy Mickhail.
Attorney Jennifer Salvatore said she’s “not terribly surprised” to hear of the recent incident at the club.
“I think it’s very consistent with what’s been going on at the Atlantis from the very beginning,” she said. “This is further evidence of the willful violation of the ordinance.”
According to the ordinance, City Clerk Donna Breeding has the authority to suspend the club’s operating license for up to 30 days if it’s determined that the club has knowingly violated the ordinance.
Salvatore said that employing people who are unlicensed is enough to warrant the club being shut down for a month.
Breeding said she has no immediate plan to take additional action and intends to wait for the employees’ legal matter to be resolved.
Salvatore said this incident will be used in her lawsuit if it ends up going to trial.
“It’s a big issue in the case,” she said. “People ask, ‘Why is the club negligent?’ It’s because they were not complying with this ordinance.
“Had they been abiding by this ordinance … Stephanie never would have been dancing there, would never have been offered the drugs by Deleon Alexander and never would have died.”