Thirty strippers employed at Cheetahs Gentlemen’s Club and Club Expose filed suit this past week against the city of San Diego and Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman. As detailed in this article, the suit alleges violations of the strippers’ rights and seeks an unspecified amount in damages for emotional distress and pain.
As part of the requirement that nude establishments maintain a permit, police make routine inspections to deter illegal activity. Workers are required to show their ID cards and according to police spokesman Lt. Kevin Mayer, photographs taken, such of those to illustrate workers’ tattoos, are routine. “The San Diego code mandates we make these inspections. This is not a criminal matter, this is a regulatory matter,” Lt. Mayer.
The suit alleges that during inspections that took place in 2013 and 2014, vice squad officers took photographs of nearly nude strippers and made demeaning remarks to them, intimidating and detaining the workers for an unnecessary amount of time. Attorney for the strippers, Dan Gilleon stated, “Either the officers acted maliciously, knowing they were violating claimants’ civil rights or SDPD’s failure to train the officers amounted to deliberate indifference to the the claimants’ rights.”
If you or someone you know thinks their civil rights have been violated, the team at Radford & Keebaugh can help. Contact us by phone at (678) 369-3609 or use our contact form.