Prostitution charges against seven lap dancers were dropped Feb. 22 by officials here, in a case which put the home of Disneyland in the spotlight for a time in the war between adult entertainment and localities trying to restrict or muzzle it.
"Hopefully this will be the last chapter in a long path that has cost taxpayers a lot of money and my clients a lot of anxiety," says Roger Jon Diamond, the attorney for the women, to the Los Angeles Times.
Undercover police videotaped the dancers during lap dances at the Sahara Theater in 1997, capturing them brushing their scantily-clad bodies against patrons. They were convicted of both prostitution and violating an Anaheim law banning touching between exotic dancers and customers. California law does not require sexual intercourse for prostitution charges.
Last September, though, the 4th District Court of Appeal threw out the convictions on grounds the jury was instructed improperly not to consider lap dancing artistic expression, the Times says. The court also struck down Anaheim's no touching ban for going too far by criminalizing such actions, the paper continues. The State Supreme Court refused to hear the case, meaning the dancers could be re-tried on the prostitution charges alone.
"We decided we would not be able to prove the case based upon the standards that the [appeals] court had created," Anaheim City Atty. Jack L. White tells the Times. But he says Anaheim will continue applying its standards on adult entertainment stringently, the paper says.
