5 Are Charged With Running Sex Club in Porter Ranch

Criminal charges were filed Thursday against five persons accused of operating an illegal sex club in a four-bedroom house on a quiet middle-class street in Porter Ranch for “swingers” who paid a $50-per-couple entrance fee.

The charges stem from a May 11 raid that followed an undercover investigation of the alleged sex club by vice officers from the Devonshire Division of the Los Angeles Police Department.

The defendants are charged with 15 misdemeanor counts each of violating city zoning, fire and building codes, said Deputy City Atty. Henry A. Burr III. Each charge is punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

The alleged zoning violations included running a sexual encounter establishment in a residential area and operating a business in a residential area. Most of the fire and building violations relate to the conversion of a two-car garage into a hot tub room, Burr said.

Identified in the case as the owners of the sex club were Studio City residents Robert Eugene Dow, 47, a restaurant manager, and his wife, Sharon Messina Dow, 39, a TV engineer.

The couple allegedly ran the sexual encounter business out of a house they rented at 18927 Kilfinan Street. The owners of the residence were not charged because they were apparently unaware of the violations, Burr said.

On May 11, Los Angeles police officers, with help from undercover male and female officers posing as a “swinging couple,” raided the house, arresting the Dows and three of their employees, police said. About 30 patrons present during the raid were not arrested.

“Some were clothed, some weren’t,” Burr said of the patrons at the time of the raid. A woman who performed in sex shows at the parties approached and touched the male undercover officer, according to an affidavit filed by the city attorney’s office in the case.

A city attorney’s news release said the club provided its patrons with condoms, sexual lubricants and towels, as well as access to rooms designated for group sex.

The Dows had given sex parties there every other Saturday since at least January, Burr said.

The Dows declined to comment.

The others arrested, the city attorney’s office said, were Judy Kirk, 40, of Marina del Rey, who performed in the sex shows, Michael Samson, 44, of Harbor City, who was tending bar, and Andre Lebel, 61, of Woodland Hills, the doorkeeper.