The ex-wife and daughter of Tampa strip club boss Joe Redner are facing charges today after they were arrested for alleged prostitution.
Reyline Charelle Redner, 36, and Bonnie Worbington, her 55-year-old mother, were arrested on June 22 for soliciting men for sex, according to the St. Petersburg Times.
Joe Redner is the owner of Tampa’s Mons Venus strip club and is known for his legal fights with the Tampa City Council over restrictions on strip clubs some of which have reached the U.S. Supreme Court. He also runs the voiceoffreedom.com Web site aimed at supporting 1st Amendment rights.
Joe Redner told the newspaper that his daughter is “her own worst enemy,” citing previous run-ins with the law on similar charges.
Police spokesman Larry McKinnon said Reyline Redner and her mother parked their car near New Orleans Avenue and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and sat on a bus bench around 1:30 a.m. when undercover officers spotted them.
An undercover officer soon picked up Worbington and then Redner who were then arrested on prostitution charges.
Redner also faces charges of criminal transmission of HIV after she admitted she was infected with the AIDS virus. She was held without bail, while her mother was held in lieu of $500 bail.
Joe Redner said he doesn’t plan to bail out his ex-wife, from whom he has been estranged for more than 30 years, nor his daughter. He said he was married to Worbington for three years and that he knows little about her recent history.
According to police, Worbington was first arrested in 1973 by Tampa police for prostitution, followed by two other arrests on the same charge that year. Her rap sheet includes 18 months in prison for selling barbiturates and several arrests including one in 2005 involving possession of a controlled substance.
Reyline Redner was first arrested in 1989 for indecent exposure, though it’s unclear how that case was resolved. She has since been arrested numerous times on various charges and was released from prison in February after serving three years on assault on a police officer, drug possession, criminal transmission of HIV and resisting arrest.
