Undercover strip club sting involving lap dance from underage dancer questioned by club's attorney

SEX & THE CITY: Strip clubs who have made a deal with the City of Houston In 2013, Houston reached an agreement that allowed 16 strip clubs to operate outside the provisions of the sexually oriented business ordinance (SOB) in exchange for a combined $1 million annual donation to a human trafficking abatement fund. That fund was also used to create a 12-person HPD unit tasked with investigating human trafficking. Five clubs have since been added to the list. A lawyer for Fantasy Plaza has now filed a federal lawsuit claiming it has been treated unfairly by the city after it was not included in a 2013 settlement involving 16 other strip clubs. See which strip clubs are part of a settlement with the City of Houston ... less SEX & THE CITY: Strip clubs who have made a deal with the City of Houston In 2013, Houston reached an agreement that allowed 16 strip clubs to operate outside the provisions of the sexually oriented business ... more Photo: Metro Video Photo: Metro Video Image 1 of / 35 Caption Close Undercover strip club sting involving lap dance from underage dancer questioned by club's attorney 1 / 35 Back to Gallery

An attorney now suing the city on behalf of a Houston strip club called Fantasy Plaza has questioned the propriety of tactics used by undercover vice officers in arguing unfair treatment of the club by city officials.

The club, off of North Freeway, was ordered to close temporarily on Monday by Judge Fredericka Phillips, who ruled in favor of a petition filed by assistant county attorney Rosemarie Donnelly in December. The petition cited more than 30 arrests made at the club since 2014, according to court documents.

In 2017 alone, more than four dancers were arrested for prostitution, with one offering to have sex with an undercover officer in exchange for $500, according to court documents. There have also been numerous shootings at or near the club, including one on March 14 in a parking lot behind it that resulted in one death, court documents state.

RELATED: Judge orders Houston strip club shut down for alleged prostitution, employment of minors

Days before Judge Phillips' order shuttering the club, Fantasy Plaza's attorney, Albert Van Huff, filed a federal lawsuit Feb. 1 alleging that the club has been treated unfairly because it is not part of a 2013 settlement that allows 16 other clubs to operate outside a strict city code regulating sexually oriented businesses in exchange for payments into the city's human-trafficking abatement fund.

The vice tactics questioned by Van Huff involve an incident in June 2017, when three Houston vice officers went to the club after receiving information about a missing juvenile working there as a dancer. The officers had been given three photos of the girl provided by her mother, according to a police report on the incident. The photographs showed a mole under her collarbone.

One of the officers saw a girl "consistent with the photographs" but wrote in the incident report that he remained "unsure" if she was the runaway. He then paid her $40 for a lap dance, during which she pressed her bare breasts against his face and straddled the officer, simulating sexual intercourse, according to the report.

As she leaned back, the officer wrote, he was "able to observe a small mole on her upper middle chest area below her collar bone which was consistent with the photographs officers had been provided." The girl was then detained by police and taken to the Juvenile Division.

In the days following the apprehension of the runaway girl, an HPD officer returned to the strip club, questioned the manager, and later arrested him and two other strip club employees for sexually-oriented business ordinance violations and harmful employment of a minor. According to the HPD report, managers told police the girl had used a fake ID to get hired at the club.

Of the three men arrested at Fantasy Plaza in June, two have had their cases dismissed, according to court documents.

Van Huff expressed outrage in an interview that the officer paid for a lap dance before the runaway 16-year-old was taken into custody. The dance was unnecessary in making the identification, he said.

Donnelly, the assistant county attorney, said any suggestion that the officer's conduct was unwarranted is incorrect, given the nature of the operation.

"I think HPD officers we work with in the past have the highest integrity and ethics. The implication that they did something wrong is something I strongly disagree with," said Donnelly. Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said he unequivocally backed the conduct of his officers in identifying the runaway and taking her into custody.

"They didn't do anything inappropriate," Acevedo said. "I'm just happy we were able to get her and get her the hell out of there."

Alan Bernstein, director of communications for Mayor Sylvester Turner, declined to comment on the June undercover operation.

Michael Shively, a senior associate at Abt Associates, aBoston-based public policy research firm that deals in part with issues of criminal justice, said he has never heard of a police officer receiving a lap dance from a minor in order to identify a missing runaway. Shively added that it "seems unnecessary simply to make an ID on that person."

"I would guess the face in the photos would make her recognizable in person, so I am not sure why the mole is so critical to observe in order to make an ID," Shively said in an email.

"One would hope the officer could have arranged the private dance, then made a sufficient ID from her face and height, weight, skin tone, etc obtained from the mother and photos. Once alone and if she seemed a likely match, the officer could have simply asked to see her for her identification, and if refused taken her into custody and sorted it out at the station," Shively said.

Lawrence Karson, an assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of Houston-Downtown and former supervisor of federal law enforcement officers, shared similar sentiments. Karson called the officer's behavior in June "morally repugnant."

"Further, the sexual sampling – having contact with sex workers under investigation for prostitution – is not a morally acceptable technique when dealing with minors which the police are ultimately responsible for protecting. She is a victim re-victimized by the very police sent to protect her. Any officer who seeks to justify these actions needs to take a hard look at their own moral compass. In simple terms, what if it was their own daughter?" Karson added over email.

The federal lawsuit filed by Van Huff claims that the city unfairly favors the club's competition who have agreed to the city's settlement terms and pay into the trafficking abatement fund by allowing entertainers to "perform topless dancing without having to adhere to the 'no touch' and 'three foot' rules required by city law."