Battle over Lauderhill’s only strip club heats up

Judge to hear arguments over city trying to force Vegas Cabaret to close

No late nights, no drinking and hands off the dancers.

These are just a few of the rules Lauderhill has issued to the sole strip club in the city — Vegas Cabaret.

The dispute between the city and the club will come to a head Friday, when a Broward judge will hear arguments about the city trying to force Vegas Cabaret to shut its doors.

This is a battle they have fought before.

The local haunt, which opened in 1995, was vigorously protested by the city commission. Both the club and the city took it all the way to federal court, where a judge ruled that the cabaret’s owners had the right to open and operate the club.

In 2016, a decade after the original lawsuit, the city commission changed an ordinance that governed how adult entertainment venues are run. The change allowed them another chance to regulate Vegas Cabaret.

The city’s newer ordinance says adult entertainment businesses can lead to “personal and property crimes, human trafficking, prostitution, potential spread of disease, lewdness, public indecency, obscenity, illicit drug use and drug trafficking, negative impacts on surrounding properties, urban blight, litter, and sexual assault and exploitation.”

The ordinance bans Vegas Cabaret from serving alcohol, staying open past 2 a.m. and hosting fully nude performances.

Dancers must stay on the main stage at least 6 feet away from patrons.

The city gave them 90 days to comply with the new rules.

It has been three years. The club in no way denies that it’s breaking the ordinance. That isn’t its main argument.

Instead, lawyer Daniel Aaronson and his team claim that these rules are unconstitutional and violate the owners and dancers’ First and 14th Amendment rights.

In court documents, the club argues that dances are a form of personal expression akin to free speech. Banning such performances infringes on the dancers’ First Amendment rights.

It also says “these forms of expression, speech and communication to the public is a beneficial social activity.” The club also claims that the ordinance is too vague and can be “triggered solely by the wearing of a costume amounting to a conservative bikini.”

Vegas Cabaret is counter-suing for damages and says the ordinance has “diminished the value of the business, has destroyed its marketability and has interfered with Vegas Cabaret’s ability to secure and retain performers and employees.”

Lauderhill has hired an outside lawyer, Scott D. Bergthold, to plead its case. In court documents, it accuses the club of “currently operating a sexually oriented business that is selling alcohol and allowing paid sexual contact with nude and semi-nude persons.”

Bergthold said that Lauderhill’s code is no less strict than others in surrounding communities. Oakland Park has a nearly identically worded ordinance.

He also pointed out that Vegas Cabaret has had violent incidents within the past few years. In 2017, a patron drowned in the canal behind the club after he fought with the bartender and was chased out by bouncers. In April of this year, a man stabbed a security guard.

Bergthold has submitted studies to the court that connects these kinds of violent incidents with the consumption of alcohol.