or several of them - to keep a courthouse audience rapt. And that's what observers in Broward County court got last Friday, in a trial involving raids at two adult clubs here.
The apparent star of the show, though, was a vice detective who wore a hood during her testimony to protect her identity due to the undercover (no pun intended) nature of her work.
The detective, Lisa McElheney, testified for three hours about her observing nude patrons engaging in what she called lewd and lascivious behavior, from cuddling and fondling sexual organs to outright intercourse - "just about everything you can imagine."
She testified she wore a towel and nothing else at the club - and kept a death grip on the towel - because that with a condom was required dress to get into the back rooms at the Trapeze II and Athena's Forum.
But McElheney said under cross examination that she had not seen the signs advising those offended by sexually-oriented behavior to leave, the paper says, nor did she also read documents advising that sex could occur at the club.
The testimony was part of a hearing involving a bid by the defense to have second-degree misdemeanor cases thrown out against 24 defendants. The raids on the clubs have become the subject of jokes by talk show comics, says the Miami Herald, and of unhappy calls by talk radio callers, not to mention at least 50 e-mail and phone messages a day to the paper.
The defense claims the raids violated First Amendment rights. More than 50 patrons and staffers were arrested in January and February. At least five more police witnesses - including two other vice officers - will testify on a final dismissal hearing 8 October.
Ten defendants agreed to join a diversion program and paid a fine, with cases against a male Broward teacher and a woman employee of the Trapeze II thrown out. The rest of the cases will be heard by various judges, the Herald says.
