Keep your hands to yourself isn’t just a phrase for strippers any longer. Now, it’s the rallying cry for the owners of Heaven Mini Theater, who believe they are the victims of unfair and selective enforcement because of their unwillingness to bribe police.
In a sworn deposition, club owner Peter Lambertson wrote that “on several occasions patrons identifying themselves as off-duty (police) officers have asked to be ‘comped’ for ‘extras’,” an industry euphemism for sex.
Police call such accusations preposterous, claiming the allegations are no more than the desperate gambit of a beleaguered man trying to keep his crooked business a float.
Heaven is certainly not the law abiding poster child they make themselves out to be. They have ignored cease and desist orders from the Planning Department, and failed to show up for a number of hearings.
Whether victims of corruption, or corrupt themselves, I think Matt Dorsey, spokesperson for the City Attorney’s office said it best:
“If Heaven’s owners have actual evidence of bribery, the city attorney would welcome the opportunity to see it. But even if they do, it still wouldn’t give them license to run an illicit brothel in violation of a raft of state and local laws.”
