Lawmakers look to address nude dancing loophole

DES MOINES – The outcome of a court case involving nude dancing at a western Iowa strip club may have dropped a new issue into state lawmakers' laps this session.

The Iowa Court of Appeals this month dismissed the state's request to review a district judge's 2008 decision that the state's public indecent exposure law was not violated when a 17-year-old girl stripped on stage at a Hamburg club in Fremont County.

According to court documents, Clarence Gene Judy, then-owner of Shotgun Geniez, was charged with three counts of public indecent exposure for “permitting a minor to dance fully nude” at the establishment.

A district judge agreed to dismiss the charges after the defense argued successfully that the establishment qualified as a theater exempted under Iowa's public decency statute.

The appeals court denied a review request because Judy can't be retried due to double jeopardy rules. The Iowa Attorney General's Office has asked the Iowa Supreme Court for a "definitive legal interpretation" of the law and the Iowa County Attorneys Association had language inserted into a bill that now awaits Senate debate to close the loophole as it relates to minors.

Senate File 2361 includes a provision that a person would be deemed to have committed a serious misdemeanor for permitting public indecent exposure in a theater, concert hall, art center, museum or similar establishment which is primarily devoted to the arts if he or she allows a minor to engage in a live act “intended to arouse or satisfy the sexual desires or appeal to the prurient interests of patrons.”

Mary Tabor of the Iowa Attorney General's Office would like to see lawmakers go further in better defining a theater by clarifying that “the mere presence of a raised stage and seats facing it” would not bring a strip club under the artistic exemption.

Sen. Keith Kreiman, D-Bloomfield, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which passed the bill to the debate calendar, said he believed most senators were committed to solving the problem yet this year.

Sen. Brad Zaun, R-Urbandale, said he was contacted by outraged constituents who heard about the case on a cable television news network.

“We've got a problem with our Iowa law,” Zaun said.

“The fact of the matter is we've got to do something about this,” he added. “To let this happen in the state of Iowa is downright wrong and disgusting. We've got to figure out an avenue to stop this from happening.”

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