Proposed Modesto Strip Club Fight Laid Bare In Lawsuit
MODESTO (CBS13) — A proposed strip club controversy is hitting center stage in Modesto.
Across from the downtown Doubletree Hotel, inside a boarded up sports bar, business owners from Los Angeles have a new plan for nude dancing.
But Modesto's city attorney says it's too close to homes that could one day be built here.
He's denying the business license.
That has lawyers for the strip club company, called Sassafrass 821, suing the city of Modesto for denying their freedom of expression.
Part of the the lawsuit reads: "Said entertainment is not obscene and is protected by the First and Fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution."
The legal fight has people at a nearby Modesto boxing club taking sides.
"You can get into moralities or whatever you want to get into, but business is business, I mean if you don't want to go in, nobody's forcing anyone in there," Gene Fields of Bad 2 the Bonz Boxing said.
Modesto dad Rick Sosa says the proposed strip club is too close to family venues.
"I think the city knows what's best. For location of a business like that. And the location that they're picking as you can see I was just coming out of the theater with my family," Sosa said.
It's a business all about taking it off.
Now these hopeful strip club owners are taking on Modesto city hall..
