In its zeal to prohibit fully nude dance clubs, South Salt Lake City appears poised to clone an Erie, Pa., ordinance that was recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
South Salt Lake City Attorney Craig Hall said he has sought advice from Erie officials about how to craft anti-nudity legislation, but he would not confirm whether the final product would be a virtual duplicate.Hall made it clear, however, that South Salt Lake can best protect itself from expected lawsuits by mimicking Erie.
"Any time I can get six Supreme Court justices on my side, I'll take it," Hall said, referring to the high court's 6-3 vote on March 29.
Emulating the Erie ordinance would require all nude dancers in South Salt Lake to wear pasties and G-strings and would effectively shut down three completely nude clubs by next year. Four establishments that showcase partially nude dancers in South Salt Lake would not be affected.
More than 100 years of experience with adult dance clubs has taught Erie officials that "certain lewd, immoral activities carried on in public places for profit are highly detrimental to the public health, safety and welfare, and lead to the debasement of both women and men, promote violence, public intoxication, prostitution and other serious criminal activity," as stated in the city's ordinance.
But are South Salt Lake's all-nude dance clubs causing these secondary criminal effects, as many politicians and residents allege?
"We know that illicit sexual activity does occur in there," said South Salt Lake Police Chief Drew Long, noting that he has sent undercover officers into some of the all-nude clubs for private dancing sessions. "We're fairly sure that occurs on a regular basis."
Recent crime stats in the areas surrounding the nude clubs -- American Bush, Paradise and Leather & Lace -- seem to send mixed signals.
Forty-two crimes (17 of them burglaries or thefts) were reported in a three-block radius surrounding Paradise from April 1999 through April 20 of this year, compared to only 16 for an identically zoned area of the city that has no nude clubs, according to statistics by the South Salt Lake Police Department.
The immediate vicinity near Leather & Lace, also in an industrial area, had 27 criminal incidents.
But in the case of American Bush, there were 36 crimes reported in the area -- 18 fewer than a similarly zoned area with no nude clubs, according to police figures.
There were no arrests for prostitution or sexual assault in the three all-nude dance club areas, although there were four murders versus one in a nude-free zone. And Long said crime near partially nude dance clubs and all-nude ones is almost the same.
Andrew McCullough, attorney for the trio of all-nude dance clubs, was unavailable for comment.
Because of the Supreme Court decision, South Salt Lake is "pretty well shielded under federal law" from losing a lawsuit, said Paul Bender, a professor at Arizona State University's College of Law.
But Bender noted that South Salt Lake could "still (be) vulnerable under state law, possibly." In fact, Erie's ordinance was shot down unanimously by Pennsylvania's Supreme Court before the nation's high court's ruling. But Hall says South Salt Lake likes its chances.
"They've got their opportunity to have their day in court," he said of the all-nude clubs. "I think it's two strikes and we've got a mean curveball coming down the plate. I think the momentum has swung" to us.
You can reach Frank Curreri by e-mail at fcurreri@desnews.com