The showdown on nude dancing in Austin’s downtown bars is Aug.

Saturday, July 29, 2000

The showdown on nude dancing in Austin’s downtown bars is Aug. 8. On that date, the City Council’s ordinance committee is scheduled to discuss "downtown bar issues."

The live entertainment has been the focus of recent discussion on problems related to prostitution in the city. The problem came to the forefront late last month when two St. Paul roofers were slain in their room at the Downtown Motel after one of the men supposedly flashed a large amount of cash in front of a hooker who he paid for sex. When the woman told her male companions about the sum, a robbery was planned. However, the crime went awry and the result was the shooting deaths of the two roofers. In the mean time, two women and three men stand charges in the crime.

Austin Police Chief Paul M. Philipp is adamant that nude dancing in two of Austin’s bars is served is linked to the city’s rise in prostitution arrests as well as other crimes.

He has said so publicly since the June 30 killings. In that crime, one of five men staying in Room 28 at the Downtown Motel went to a room occupied by two females and had sex for money.

The man showed the woman a stash of money he kept in a handkerchief that he wore. After the man left the women’s room and returned to Room 28, one of the women told male companions about the money and a robbery was planned.

The woman, accompanied by two male companions, went to Room 28. When they entered, the men demanded money and when the room’s occupants refused, they started shooting.

Two men were killed and another wounded.

The shooters, plus their getaway driver and the two females – allegedly working as prostitutes - left Austin and returned to the Twin Cities.

All were captured later by metro area police and held for court on charges of second-degree aiding and abetting murder and robbery.

The police chief immediately called for the Austin City Council to take action to deal with downtown bar issues.

Rise in prostitution

Austin and every other community its size has something in common: each boasts of its quality of life and constantly strives for the best image.

Austin and every other community its size has something else in common: crime.

But in one category, Austin has more – and that’s prostitution.

According to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Austin’s seven arrests last year put it in an unenviable class by itself.

South St. Paul had two prostitution arrests. Hastings had one prostitution arrest. So did Inver Grove Heights, Crystal, Hopkins and Shoreview.

When four Milwaukee, Wis., women were arrested for prostitution July 11 in Austin along with a man who accompanied them here, all were jailed. That brought the total of prostitutes being housed in the Mower County Jail to six.

The two females, both 18, being held in connection with the double homicide at the Downtown Motel told authorities they were brought to Austin for the purposes of prostitution by male friends from St. Paul. The two women, plus their three male companions, are awaiting the convening of a grand jury that will consider first-degree murder charges.

In the other case, Cecil Edward Thames Jr., 36 of Milwaukee, Wis. was sentenced to six months in jail and fined $1,000 after pleading guilty to gross misdemeanor soliciting prostitution. When he finishes his sentence in the Mower County Jail, he will be sent back to Milwaukee, where an outstanding felony warrant for Thames awaits him.

The four women who accompanied Thames to Austin on the weekend of the July 9-10 flooding are in jail, awaiting court appearances on charges of soliciting prostitution. The women range in age from 19 to 36.

Not the least curious about the arrests of Thames and the four women is that they solicited a man waiting in his car outside an Austin supermarket one afternoon two weeks ago.

Also, Thames and the women distributed business cards inviting prospective clients to visit "Nikki in Room 218 at the Super 8 Motel," according to Austin Police Department reports.

The broad daylight, middle-of-the-afternoon scenario is a far cry from the dark-of-the-night street-walking image of prostitutes.

Just as the words "murder" and "homicide" may be jarring to the sensibilities of area residents, "prostitution" also must conflict with citizens’ staid impressions of SPAMTOWN USA.

Warning: There will be more jarring and more conflict.

Two murder trials are scheduled in Mower County Third Judicial District Court this summer: the most recent double homicide and another homicide that took place in June 1999.

Both will be spectacles unto themselves.

So will the examination of the link between nude dancing in two bars in downtown Austin and prostitution and other illegal activities.

The show begins Aug. 8 when the Austin City Council’s ordinance committee meets at 5:30 p.m. to consider the so-called "downtown bar issues."

Crime problems

Austin has seen an influx of Hispanic immigrants recruited to Austin to work at Quality Pork Processors Inc.

The blending of the Hispanic culture has not been without the expected pitfalls of the immigrants’ unfamiliarity with the laws of the United States.

A routine traffic stop can lead to the discovery of a driver without a license or insurance and, sometimes, an illegal immigrant who must be held for deportation.

Gang activities lurk just beyond the spotlight placed on immigrant issues and the increasing illegal activities the police chief believes are linked to nude dancing in downtown bars.

The Austin Police Department is currently understaffed to its normal level years ago, when there was less crime – including prostitution. In addition, the department is now four officers short of its current staffing level of 28 .

"I believe there is a connection between the bars allowing nude dancing and the recent prostitution and other illegal activities that usually accompany these activities," Philipp said.

But Austin’s history does not show itself to be supportive of the police chief and other’s calls for dealing with the problem. Even Philipp acknowledges that.

A ban on nude dancing?

When attempts were made to ban nude dancing in 1989, former Mower County Attorney Nancy Evans ruled such bans were "unenforceable" and the matter was dropped.

The bars in question are the Brown Derby, owned by Marv and Karen Peters, and Hey! Rube!, owned by Tammy Nelson. Both advertise nude dancing and both liquor license holders have been praised by the police chief for cooperating with law enforcement to prohibit women from soliciting their customers in the bars for prostitution on the premises of the establishments.

But, Philipp has not backed down from his call for attention to the problems. How serious are they? If a double homicide linked to prostitution isn’t enough or the broad daylight outside a supermarket solicitation isn’t ample proof, all one has to do is visit the downtown bar areas on any given night, but particularly Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

Frequently, three police cars cruise the downtown plaza lot, drive along Main Street North, Fourth Avenue NE, First and Second Streets NE and other nearby areas. They are, of course, establishing a presence in the downtown area and there to interdict any illegal activities coming at bar-closing time.

Philipp said the time has come to take action.

"I don’t want people to think this is a kind of knee-jerk reaction to the homicides," he said. "It’s not something that just happened here suddenly. This has been going on for some time now.

"I would like to see the City Council take some action. People come here from the Twin Cities and Milwaukee and other places to dance. They go back and tell others about what a great place Austin is to dance on hook on the side. That’s what is happening."

Three options

If there is legal action to take, what action would that be?

David Hoversten, Austin’s city attorney, says the City Council has three options.

"Number one, they could restrict zoning or where these bars are allowed to do business," Hoversten said.

"Secondly, they could attempt to do it through licensing nude dancing either by prohibiting it entirely or establishing some specific ground rules.

"Lastly," Hoversten said, "they could also attempt to do it through liquor licensing such as prohibiting nude dancing in places where liquor is sold."

Hoversten said first city officials must identify the problem.

"They need to consider or evaluate just what the problem is and what they hope to accomplish," he said. "Maybe, it’s a matter of enforcement. Maybe, it is something that would require an ordinance change or rezoning."

County Attorney Patrick A. Oman mentioned the same options for dealing with the downtown bar issues.

"Zoning is an option," Oman said. "You could create something like the ‘war zone’ they have in Boston, Mass., where all the adult entertainment businesses are in one place. Municipal government units also have tried to regulate this through liquor licenses.

"But, are they enforceable? Are the zoning or other changes you make enforceable in a court of law? Those are the questions that have to be considered."

The county attorney also said that while the numbers show prostitution arrests in Austin increasing, the direct connection to drug dealing and other illegal activities has to be established.

"Maybe, prostitution is linked to drug dealing or, maybe, drug dealing is linked to prostitution," he said. "There may or may not be a direct connection between both and how you deal with one may or may not impact on the other."

Not a new problem

Oman believes prostitution in Austin is cyclical.

Like so many others in Austin, he has heard the stories about how prostitutions proliferated in the city during the National Barrow Show each September, when single men or husbands on their own came to the city.

"There was a time when the girls we processed through court all came from Milwaukee," Oman said. "They would stay at the Sterling Motel and meet their clients there. Then, we had the period when the girls would come here for literally one-night stands and the next morning they went back to the Twin Cities.

"There was a circuit they followed in the old days and now, once again, we are seeing an influx from Milwaukee.

"The problem is, none of the four prostitutes arrested most recently were tied to the Brown Derby bar or Hey! Rube! bar," he said. "They may have been in those bars, but, I know Marv and Karen Peters don’t allow that kind of activity to go own in their bar (the Brown Derby).

"They (prostitutes) may try to get into that place, but if they see anything happening, they will throw them out. The bar owners don’t want any of the headaches that go with that sort of stuff," he said.

But Oman, like so many others, is concerned about the apparent increase in prostitution activity in Austin.

"Yes, it does cause a lot of concern," he said. "The fact that they (prostitutes and their managers) have apparently identified a client-base exists here in Austin as well as the fact that there are a number of people who will patronize prostitutions concerns me."

On the extremely sensitive subject that a large number of the new immigrants are single adult males as well as the number of roofing crews in Austin repairing homes damaged by a summertime hailstorm also has, at least, temporarily increased the number of single adults, Oman offers a different perspective.

"That the victims may have been a minority in Austin and that the perpetrators of the double homicide were another minority, I don’t believe can be considered the sole reasons for the increase in prostitution," he said.

"Because of their color may, by itself, make these crimes more noticeable to the rest of Austin, but that doesn’t mean prostitution is limited to people of color," he said.

Oman, in fact, said he believes the increased crime activity is more "cyclical" than anything else.

Oman himself said the key to stemming the apparent tide of prostitution and other possible related illegal activities is deterrence and that local law enforcement is doing its best to deter the criminal activities from growing.

"Deterrence absolutely has an impact," he said. "They know they will be arrested if they come to Austin and try to commit illegal activities. They know they are going to get popped."

The county attorney also believes the larger picture includes educating the public, victims and offenders, that "it’s not a victimless crime."

"Just think," he said, "if the prostitute doesn’t practice safe sex and no condoms are used. Just think about the sexually transmitted diseases that could be carried home by a man.

"You also have to consider the possibility of the HIV virus and AIDS. Who’s the victim when both sex partners aren’t protected?" he asked.

Time to act

The city of Austin has plans for more downtown redevelopment. The vast majority of the tenants at the upscale Courtyard Apartments and its sister complex under construction now are retired and elderly.

They live downtown only two blocks from the motel where a double homicide occurred this summer and prostitutes are said to have stayed there.

The Paramount Theatre is still undergoing a restoration in hopes it can become a fine arts center and contribute to the city’s cultural good tastes.

It is two blocks from the downtown bar area.

Retail merchants in the downtown business district have to be concerned what effect illegal activities so close to their legitimate businesses may have on their stores if left unchecked. Surely, the Austin Area Chamber of Commerce will be mandated to take a stand, but that hasn’t happened yet, according to Sandy Forstner, executive director of the business organization. The inflection in his voice came when he pronounced the word "yet."

Police Chief Philipp has said: "I don’t think people really know what goes on in downtown Austin. They just don’t understand."

When the Austin City Council’s ordinance committee convenes Aug. 8, that could change as the downtown bar issues come to a public arena for debate.