San Diego
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Sex club operator Elbert (Thad) Poppell was fined $500 and given a 180-day suspended jail term for operating without a business license and in a residential neighborhood.
Poppell, 55, was ordered not to operate his businesses without a license or in a residential zone under conditions of his three-year probation.
San Diego Municipal Judge Raymond Edwards Jr. warned Poppell that, if he violates the law again, “you are going to spend a year in County Jail.”
In a one-day, non-jury trial on June 28, Edwards found Poppell guilty of four misdemeanor zoning violations involving a home on Monroe Avenue in the Talmadge area of San Diego. They included operating a business in a residential zone and operating a business without a tax certificate.
Poppell is well-known throughout the county for setting up sex clubs and charging $25 admission for men and a lesser amount for women. He could have received six months in jail on the recent offenses.
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