No-touching convictions may be erased
The Columbus city attorney’s office is prepared to erase the convictions for women who pleaded guilty to cases filed under what it says is a problematic state law prohibiting strip-club dancers from touching patrons.
City Attorney Zach Klein said the action is consistent with a July 18 announcement that his office will no longer prosecute anyone under the law after dismissing the misdemeanor charges against adult-film star Stormy Daniels and two central Ohio women.
Since that decision was announced, Klein’s office has dismissed cases against eight other women who were charged in recent months with violating the no-touching law, according to a Dispatch review of Franklin County Municipal Court records.
After determining that those women should not be prosecuted, “it would be unfair not to look backward” at those who were convicted after being charged under the same statute, Klein said.
There are at least 15 cases in which strip-club employees have pleaded guilty — always to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct — after being charged with touching patrons during nude or semi-nude performances since September, when Columbus vice detectives and state liquor agents began an enforcement effort, court records show. Those convicted received fines ranging from $25 to $250. None got jail time.
Columbus defense attorney Brandon Shroy, who represents eight of the women who pleaded guilty, said he has been told by the city attorney’s deputy chief prosecutor that they are willing to reopen those cases.
Klein said women who pleaded guilty in a no-touching case can file a motion asking to withdraw the guilty plea. His office will not object to the motion, and will dismiss the case after the plea is withdrawn.
The exception will be cases in which a defendant also was charged with another offense, such as soliciting, which would affect at least two women in recent months, records show.
Although Shroy commended the city attorney’s office for the decision, he expressed frustration that the cases were filed in the first place.
“Stormy Daniels comes through, and suddenly you don’t like the statute,” he said. “I’ve been telling them all along that the statute is a mess.”
Klein issued a memo detailing concerns about the law after questions emerged following the arrest of Daniels, who was charged with touching undercover officers while she was performing on July 11 at Sirens, a Northeast Side strip club.
The city attorney’s office dismissed the charges within hours, saying the no-touching law didn’t apply to Daniels, a guest performer, because it refers to “an employee who regularly appears” at the club where the offense occurs.
Within a week, Klein dismissed charges against two Sirens employees charged the same night, saying in his memo that “there is a glaring, inequitable application of the law, which treats people differently for the same conduct based on the frequency of their appearances at sexually oriented businesses.”
He also raised questions about the law’s definition of “patron,” which he said doesn’t apply to the lawenforcement officers who said they were touched — or had their faces placed between Daniels’ breasts — during the performance.
Columbus Police Chief Kim Jacobs announced two weeks ago that the motivations behind the officers’ actions in the Daniels’ case would be reviewed internally.
Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, has gained notoriety for her claim that she and Donald Trump had a sexual encounter in 2006 and that Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid her $130,000 during the 2016 presidential campaign not to disclose the relationship.