Sep 22, 2006  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR.  | COMMENTS     

Board took action against Edge-Wet over the alleged activity under “D.C. Official Code 22-3001 (2001) and D.C. Official Code 25-823 (4) (2002).”

Parson told the Blade that the dancer in question was dancing nude on a platform next to a dance floor used by customers and invited a male customer to join him on the platform. According to Parson, the dancer positioned himself behind the customer, who was fully clothed, and began thrusting his genitals against the customer’s buttocks in what Person called a performance of simulated anal intercourse.

“Simulating anal intercourse on a stage — that’s just over the top,” said Parson.

Parson said he responded by seeking out a manager to direct the dancer and customer to stop what they were doing. By the time the manger arrived, the dancer and customer had stopped their interaction on their own, Parson said.

The manager’s absence from the club during the time Parson observed the alleged sexual activity prompted the ABC Board to charge Edge-Wet with yet another violation — the failure to have a licensed manager on duty on the premises during the hours such an establishment is open.

Parson said that due to recent changes in the city’s laws and regulations pertaining to nude dance performances at establishments licensed to serve liquor, he was uncertain about which statutes the dancer and customer may have violated. He said he responded by submitting a report about the incident to the ABC Board.

“I decided to let the board decide how to handle it,” he said. “If they bumped it back to me, I would have decided how to deal with it. But they kept it, so I assume they had legal jurisdiction,” Parson said.

Enforcing morality?

Jeff Coudriet, operations manager for the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration, which has jurisdiction over the ABC Board, said the D.C. Council removed ABRA and the ABC Board’s jurisdiction over enforcing all aspects of sexual performances, including simulated sexual acts, in establishments that serve liquor. Coudriet said new regulations removing ABRA and the board from regulating sexual performances took effect Sept. 30, 2004.

The Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance and civil liberties and theater advocacy groups had called on the Council to make the change, saying restrictions on dance performances violated First Amendment rights of freedom of expression.

“The job of the ABC Board is to regulate the sale of alcohol, not enforce their own code of morality,” Bob Summersgill, GLAA treasurer, said in testimony before the Council on Nov. 19, 2003.

At the time the Council approved the changes, city officials said it would be up to the D.C. police department to use its discretion to enforce other existing laws, such as those that ban lewd or obscene acts, in cases of alleged sexual activity at bars or nightclubs.

Coudriet said the ABC Board appears to have cited Edge-Wet for the alleged sexual act re