Strip club goes the way of all flesh as police enforce injunction

San Bernardino’s most notorious strip club was ordered shut down by police late Wednesday, giving the city at least a brief victory in its years-long effort to close up the Flesh Club.

Vice officers who entered the club were enforcing an injunction from a local judge who ruled last month that dancers were selling sexual services at the club with the approval of management. The order closed the business at the stroke of midnight for eight months.

City Atty. James Penman said Thursday that if the Flesh Club reopens it will not be allowed to offer lap dancing or any contact between patrons and dancers. All dancing will have to be on an elevated stage. The club’s VIP rooms, where most of the alleged prostitution occurred, will no longer have curtains.

“Their two main moneymakers were lap dancing and prostitution,” he said. “Given the parameters of the court order, they will no longer be able to engage in that. And if it does reopen it will be heavily policed.”

Roger Jon Diamond, the club’s attorney, said he would appeal the order to the state Supreme Court.

“In eight months, they will reopen as an adult cabaret and at this time they are working on plans about what to do during that eight-month interval,” he said. “I expected this possibility. We cannot win 100% of the time. We have won many times over the years, and the Flesh Club has made millions and millions of dollars.”

“Even if they didn’t reopen,” he said, “it would be mission accomplished.”

Club owner Ryan Welty could not be reached for comment.

The city has targeted the business for more than 12 years. The two sides have battled in court with the city losing more often than not because nude dancing is considered protected speech under the U.S. Constitution.

But for the last three years, San Bernardino has been building the case that the club is actually a brothel. It has sent in undercover police officers who have been propositioned by strippers. A former porn star, recruited by the city to work as a dancer, testified about the variety and price of sex services offered. And on one occasion, a private investigator working for the city spent $800 for a lap dance and sex with a stripper.

“Lewdness is lewdness, and covering it with a patina of ‘free expression’ is a fiction which the law will not tolerate,” San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Donald Alvarez wrote in a 15-page statement graphically detailing sexual activity at the club.

He then ordered it closed.

Diamond accuses Penman of going after the club for political reasons.

“He tries to manipulate the media. What Penman lives for more than anything is press coverage,” he said. “The question is, are the taxpayers of the city being well served by having all these police officers at the club while the homicide rate in San Bernardino skyrockets?”

Penman, who has been city attorney for 20 years and won reelection Nov. 6, denies carrying out a vendetta against the club. He said three separate mayors and city councils have agreed that the club is a nuisance and doesn’t belong on Hospitality Lane, which has numerous hotels and restaurants.

“We did a citywide poll before the election asking whether the city should keep trying to shut down the club or if it was a waste of time and money,” Penman said. “Well over 60% said they felt the club should close.”

And if the Flesh Club comes back, Penman promises to be vigilant. “We know if they reopen they will try to go back to being a house of prostitution,” he said. “If we find anyone getting a lap dance they will be arrested and so will the manager.”

david.kelly@latimes.com