Jennafir Cleary loves Greenville. She enjoys biking, shopping, day trips to Asheville, playing with her dog and spending time with close friends.

The 27-year-old had been a dancer for a Greenville strip club as a way to make extra income. It was a job, she said, not a lifestyle.

She had worked at Platinum Plus near Interstate 385 when the Greenville County Sheriff's Office announced an undercover prostitution sting in 2015.

Her life was forever changed.

Cleary was among the roughly 20 arrested in the investigation. Many of them were women charged with prostitution. But 14 months later, Cleary's charges — prostitution and exposure of body parts — were dropped.

Still, instead of being the ordinary 27-year-old she knew herself to be, Cleary said she was labeled as just one thing: a prostitute.

"It's just about as damaging a label as you can ever give someone," Joshua Kendrick, Cleary's attorney, said.

Cleary's criminal charges were expunged, but the damage had already been done, she said. She lost her fiancé, her home, her job and her reputation. She said she never prostituted herself or exposed herself beyond what was allowed by the First Amendment.

"I lost everything," she said. "I lost myself in that process. I wasn't prepared for that."

More:Ex-Platinum Plus dancer files lawsuit against Sheriff's Office

Cleary filed a lawsuit this month against the Sheriff's Office for malicious prosecution. For her pain and suffering, she is seeking actual and punitive damages.

"I was dragged through the mud," she told The Greenville News. "I feel like I have to stand up for myself."

The Sheriff's Office, which had spent $26,000 in drug seizure money to carry out the yearlong investigation, has declined to comment on the case.

According to Cleary's lawsuit, the undercover investigators consumed "significant amounts of alcohol" and purchased multiple private dances at the club during their investigation.

Cleary said she would have pushed for a jury trial had her charges not already been dropped.

More than 60 arrest warrants were issued in connection with the Platinum Plus investigation. But after plea deals, case dismissals and expungements, only about a dozen charges led to misdemeanor convictions.

Aimee Joy Harms, another former Platinum Plus employee, took her case to a jury trial where she was found not guilty on all charges.

Many of those who pleaded guilty to a single prostitution charge were sentenced to 30 days in jail or a $200 fine.

Kendrick said the Sheriff's Office didn't expect any push back from the defendants.

"They thought this was going to be easy picking," he said.

More:Platinum Plus Greenville investigation details divulged

More:Ex-Platinum Plus Greenville employee not guilty

"I grew up to survive"

Cleary grew up in foster care. She bounced between six to seven different families during her childhood before living on her own.

She was raised with a survival instinct. When someone introduced her to Platinum Plus, she saw it as an avenue to make money while working a receptionist job to ensure her stability.

“I never had a home to go back to. I had to work with what I have,” she said. "I grew up to survive."

Now she's trying to live her life with this behind her but is following through with her lawsuit to restore her image.

"I'm just like anyone else," she said.

Looking back, she wishes she hadn’t stepped foot in the strip club. It’s not a job she plans to return to, she said.

"The biggest thing is getting my name back," Cleary said.

Hoping to one day have her name searched online for something positive, Cleary said she is excited to see what her future holds. She said her close friends and family have been standing up for her even though few people knew about her prior employment with Platinum Plus.

"Life's been a journey since all of this happened," she said. "How do I take all of this and make it into something?"