Deputies Raid ‘Sex Party’ of 200 Men, 12 Strippers

Stunned deputies, checking out an anonymous tip about an unknown disturbance at a Windsor Hills banquet hall, stumbled upon a wild “sex party” involving about 200 men and at least a dozen paid female strippers, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reported Monday.

“We respond to calls about parties all the time,” said Lt. Mike Grossman, who went to Ashton’s Shatto Banquet Hall on Sunday evening with five deputies. “But this was just bizarre--that’s the best way to describe it. I’ve never seen anything like it.

“The front door was open and we walked right in,” Grossman said. “We saw anything that money could buy. There were women without clothes on throughout the entire room, laying on the tables, laying on the floor, performing various sexual acts with the men.”

Several women present at the party gave a different account, maintaining that a birthday bash got out of hand when one stripper had sex with three men and the rest of the crowd began demanding the same. The women said they were dressed and attempting to flee when deputies arrived on the scene in the 3700 block of West Slauson Avenue.

Deputies ended the party and detained about 30 people, questioning those who were caught in the act or appeared to be organizers of the affair, Grossman said. The deputies cited four women for lewd public conduct but did not cite any of the men.

Grossman said that was because the men, being more numerous, were tougher to identify than scantily clad or naked women. He and Lt. Dennis Slocumb, head of the morals division of the Sheriff’s Department vice unit, said that investigators are reviewing the incident and may consider filing charges of pimping and pandering against additional people--both men and women.

One woman, who said she is a stripper but would not identify herself, said the party was wilder than any of the bachelor parties or other affairs at which she has performed.

“I was disgusted,” said the 22-year-old woman. When the one stripper had sex with three men, she said, “all the men expected that of the other girls, but they had nothing coming. . . . I’m not saying all the girls were angels, but we do our songs, we get tipped, and that’s all it’s supposed to be.”

“I was thrilled when the police came,” added another woman. “If they hadn’t, women could have been raped.”

Ashton B. Jones of Los Angeles, the owner of the banquet hall, refused comment on the incident.

Area residents said the rental facility is normally the scene of quiet weddings, anniversary parties and the like.

“That place never, ever had anything like this,” said one neighbor.