Judge Voids City Ban on Topless Bar

A Superior Court judge has overturned the recent Los Angeles City Council decision prohibiting a Tarzana bikini bar from going topless, but city officials said Monday they still hope to block the change.

Judge Dzintra Janavs ordered the City Council to set aside its Dec. 15 action denying permission for Dino’s Show Bar on Oxnard Street to convert to topless dancing. She ruled that the city failed to show that there are other locations in Los Angeles where such a constitutionally protected business could operate legally.

“Although reasonable people may question the wisdom of placing the burden on the city to find and identify specific available business locations for adult businesses, precedent, which this court must follow, so holds,” Janavs said in the ruling dated Jan. 28 and received by attorneys over the weekend.

Roger Diamond, an attorney for the Oxnard Street bar, said he believes the ruling requires the council to grant permission for topless dancing.

But Deputy City Atty. John Cotti said the judge remanded the issue to the council, which could revisit the application and provide the proper evidence to ban topless dancing in conformance with the judge’s order.

The council denied a request by the bar for an exception to operate an adult business within 500 feet of homes, saying there are plenty of other locations where the business could operate.

But Diamond argued that because topless entertainment is constitutionally protected free speech, the city had an obligation to identify the locations.

“The burden was on the city to demonstrate where there are places for us,” Diamond said. “In my opinion, the judge’s order gives us the exception.”

The judge gave Diamond until Feb. 9 to file a new proposed judgment.

The court decision frustrated city officials and residents who had fought the bar.

“I’m disgusted,” said Helen Itria Norman, president of the Tarzana Property Owners Assn. “It’s of great concern to the homeowners because it’s an inappropriate location for that kind of business.”

Councilwoman Laura Chick of Tarzana said she has asked the city attorney to do whatever is necessary to make sure the council action is upheld.

Janavs said the courts have spoken clearly on the issue of adult entertainment.

“Adult entertainment, including an entertainer’s right to bare breasts, is constitutionally protected, although the majority of the U.S. Supreme Court . . . observed that ‘few of us would march our sons and our daughters off to war to preserve the citizen’s right to see ‘specified sexual activities’ exhibited in the theaters of our choice,’ ” Janavs wrote.