The iconic Foxy Lady, a strip club in Providence, Rhode island frequented by local celebrities and in business for 38 years, as AVN.com reported, got a new, if tentative, lease on life Christmas Eve, after the club had been closed by local licensing authorities after three dancers were arrested earlier this month on sexual solicitation charges.
The closure reportedly would have left approximately 200 employees on the street just as the holiday season was getting underway. But on December 24, a hearing officer with the state’s Department of Business Regulation overruled the Providence Board of Licenses, according to a report by The Providence Journal and granted the club a stay of the closure order—on the condition that the Foxy Lady reopen as a regular nightclub, without performances by nude or semi-nude dancers, which of course is where the money is.
The stay is good only until next Monday, New Year’s Eve, when the state regulatory board will hear the Foxy Lady case again, after the club has met with the Board of Licenses to discuss a business and security plan. But with no meeting currently scheduled, it remains unclear when the club will actually reopen, with or without strippers.
The Rhode Island Supreme Court will hear the club’s case to get its full license back when the court reconvenes sometime after the turn of the year.
The Department of Business Regulation head Liz Tanner said in her ruling that the licensing board’s decision to close the club was inconsistent with other, more lenient decisions issued by the licensing board in similar, earlier cases, according to a report by the Go Local Providence news site.
Tanner cited a 2013 case in which a strip club received only a 20-day suspension of its license following a prostitution arrest there, even though the club had created private lap dance booths that appeared specifically designed to conceal such illegal activity.
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