FEW TAKERS ON NEW ADULT LICENSE IN CITY

Cape Girardeau has few takers for an adult business license.

So far, a Cape Girardeau video store is the only business to apply for an adult license under a new city law.

A strip-tease bar, Regina's House of Dolls, didn't apply by the July 1 deadline.

Police are investigating the business even as the lawyer for the bar at 805 Enterprise continues to challenge the constitutionality of the city law.

Police are documenting alleged violations at Regina's, including failure to file for an adult business license, and will submit a written report to the city attorney's office.

The city attorney or assistant city attorney will decide whether to file charges.

The city tries to work with businesses to see that they comply with municipal laws, Capt. Steve Strong of the Cape Girardeau Police Department said.

"It is not our general method of operation to go into a business and lock up a manager because they didn't have a license," he said.

The new city ordinance became law April 13, but its provisions regarding licensing only took effect Saturday.

Adult businesses were supposed to apply for licenses by that date.

The ordinance also licenses managers, servers and entertainers involved with such businesses.

The fee is $40 a year for adult businesses, and $20 each for a manager, server and entertainer.

City Collector Mary Thompson said Broadway Video has applied for an adult business license and its manager has applied for a manager's license.

But police said it isn't clear if Broadway Video even has to apply for a license.

"It is a new ordinance and we will have to work our way through it," Strong said.

Cape Girardeau doesn't have adult video stores and peep shows that large cities do, he added.

A server's license has been issued to an employee of Regina's even though the establishment itself hasn't applied for a business license.

City officials don't know how many businesses and individuals would come under the licensing requirements.

But officials from City Hall to the police station insist that the city's only strip-tease bar, Regina's, is required to obtain a license.

Strong said another bar, The Alibi Club, doesn't need a license because it no longer has strip-tease dancers.

David Rosener, the lawyer for Regina's, said the strip-tease club remains in operation even though it doesn't have a license.

"All I know is that the women are still dancing," he said.

Rosener said the business hasn't received any application forms from the city.

He said all of the club's dancers have been told that the city requires them to obtain licenses.

What they do is up to them, he said. Rosener said the dancers are "independent contractors."

He has maintained from the beginning that the city's adult business ordinance is unconstitutional.

The city already has taken Regina's to court.

In May, dancer Christel Dawn Grimes, 21, of Dexter was charged with receiving a monetary tip directly from a customer and dancing within 10 feet of customers.

The law requires that customers place any tip for an adult entertainer in a box at least 10 feet from the stage.

Grimes pleaded innocent on the grounds that the city law was unconstitutional. On June 20, Judge Edward Calvin found her guilty on both charges and ordered her to pay $140 in fines and court costs.

Grimes had earlier been arrested after she failed to appear in Municipal Court to answer the charges.

Rosener said the woman was simply scared. "This woman has kids and was supporting her family," he said.

"Her name was blasted in the newspapers and on television," he added. Grimes subsequently quit her job.

Paul Eubanks, the club's 28-year-old manager, was charged in May with failing to keep dancers at least 10 feet from the customers.

Rosener said Eubanks will enter a not-guilty plea in Municipal Court Tuesday.

He expects the judge to find Eubanks guilty, after which the defense will ask for a jury trial in circuit court.

"We are not going to put on evidence in city court. We think it would be futile and a waste of time," he said.