ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 25, 1996 TAG: 9601250041
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
A Montgomery County nightclub shut down by authorities in November because it featured partially nude dancing reopened this week after charges were dropped against three dancers, the building's owner and the club manager.
Juicie's, in the Plum Creek community on U.S. 11 between Christiansburg and Radford, was closed after deputies from the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office watched a performance and returned to warn the dancers and proprietors that the act was, in their judgment, illegal.
But a General District Court judge dropped the charges Wednesday, at the request of the Montgomery County commonwealth's attorney.
Juicie's had reopened Tuesday night.
Commonwealth's Attorney Phil Keith said Wednesday that the acts the dancers engaged in are protected by the Constitution. But the county Board of Supervisors may consider whether to put more teeth into a local obscenity ordinance.
Amber Dawn Rucker, 18, of Vinton; Krista Ann Snow, 24, of Roanoke; and April Melody Wendell, 19, of Troutville, were charged with indecent exposure and giving an obscene performance.
Keith Wayne Guthrie, 38, of Boones Mill was charged with managing a location for the purpose of an obscene exhibition.
And Ray Leo Price, 48, of Christiansburg, was charged with owning, leasing and permitting a place to be used for an obscene exhibition.
Keith had been consulted before deputies charged the five. But recently, Keith said, he and defense attorney Jeff Rudd "discussed the constitutional issues in more detail, and I did some research, and I decided that it was possible to prosecute them, but it probably was not what should be done, given the Supreme Court ruling on symbolic expression."
In Barnes vs. Glen Theater Inc., the court ruled that nude dancing performed in an adult bookstore or a lounge is expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment. However, Keith said in a letter to Rudd, the court also said that nude dancers could be required to wear pasties and G-strings.
"As long as the dancers wear this scant amount of clothing, the state cannot forbid the performance," Keith wrote.
Virginia's law on indecent exposure - one of the charges lodged against the dancers - doesn't address nude dancing, Keith said.
Rudd agreed. "Indecent exposure is when some guy walks up in a trench coat and flashes me."
The deputies who entered the club Nov. 17 said they saw two bare-chested women wearing G-strings that exposed their buttocks. A third dancer wore pasties over her nipples. The dancers' routines included bending over with their bottoms in patrons' faces, and a "cat crawl" across the dance floor.
Keith said Wednesday that "we did have probable cause" to place the charges, "but as far as getting a ... conviction, I don't think that was possible.
"I felt like they had a defense that could carry the day."
Keith said he has told County Attorney Roy Thorpe that the county "needs some sort of ordinance saying what is permissible and what is not permissible where nude dancing is part of the entertainment fare ... "
The county "can't ban it but can give some reasonable regulation," Keith said, as long as the ordinance is not "overly restrictive of their right to express eroticism."
Thorpe said he will share Keith's letter with the Board of Supervisors. "This is the first time this has come up" in the 11 years he's been county attorney, he said.
Guthrie, the club manager, had said in November that Juicie's show was similar to one performed at Girls, Girls, Girls on Franklin Road in Southwest Roanoke. Guthrie said he and Billy Harbour, who's also the manager of Girls, Girls, Girls, wouldn't fight to keep Juicie's open.
That apparently changed when the five people charged decided to retain Rudd, a Roanoke lawyer, to defend them.
Guthrie said Wednesday that he decided to fight the charges and stay in Plum Creek after taking an opinion poll and getting letters and phone calls "that showed us signs that maybe the community wasn't the problem there."
He said there "was no reason for us to leave and there was a demand for it."
No alcohol is served at Juicies. Nonalcoholic beer and soda are available for patrons, who are charged a $5 cover.
"I see nothing abhorrent about what goes on [there] or at Girls, Girls, Girls on Franklin Road in Roanoke," Rudd said. "It is something the dancers seem to enjoy," and they "make a ton of money."
Rudd points out that no alcohol is sold at Juicies and the dancers "make a ton of money."
Women who become strippers do it because "they like the money and it's power. They're in control," Rudd said. "They're capitalizing, literally, on men's primitive urges."
Guthrie says another part of the attraction for the dancers is "the limelight, too ... just being on stage, the spotlight on you."
LENGTH: Medium: 91 linesby CNB