"There's no legal reason for an officer to purchase multiple dances from the
same person if she commits a violation on the first dance," said Gil Levy, an
attorney who represents many of the dancers at Rick's, a club on Lake City Way.
"Otherwise, it would simply be a case of partying on the public dollar."
That's not happening, said Lt. Eric Sano, who supervises the Police
Department's vice unit.
Lt. Eric Sano, head of the vice unit, says he has concerns with a couple of the
30 arrest reports reviewed by the P-I.
"This is not a bunch of guys going in thinking this is my chance to get a free
feel or a free peek," he said. "That's not the case at all."
But police reports stemming from two recent major vice operations, leading to
the arrests of 22 dancers, raise concerns about overzealous police work. The
raids, which had officers buying 36 lap dances at $20 to $40 apiece, occurred
Dec. 13 at Rick's and March 2 at Déjà Vu Showgirls on First Avenue across from
Pike Place Market.
In a dozen of the 30 reports reviewed by the P-I, officers described how they
allowed their hands to be placed on the dancers' breasts or buttocks. In 11
reports, dancers fondled the officers' genitals through their clothing while
performing.
In seven cases, at least two officers bought lap dances from the same woman on
the same night.
It's impossible to say how many lap dances individual officers have purchased
because their names are redacted from their reports to protect their
identities. In 2005, a Seattle police detective said he had purchased 300 lap
dances during a five-year tenure in vice in a report to the City Council on
strip-club enforcement.
Police say that they're trying to crack down on increasing prostitution inside
clubs' dim VIP lounges and that, as dances get dirtier, officers are forced to
play along to protect their cover.
If a dancer initiates some touching or fondling, the officer may not be able to
avoid it. But officers are prohibited from engaging in sexual acts such as
intercourse or kissing and fondling dancers' breasts, Sano said.
"If you just sit there with your hands tucked at your sides, they're going to
know you're a cop," Sano said.
But they shouldn't actively "be reaching up and grabbing those parts of the
body that are deemed to be private," he said.
The vice unit borrows officers from other units for incognito work in strip
clubs because many dancers already know regular vice detectives. Volunteers
come from the department's narcotics unit, anti-crime teams and patrol, as long
as they've completed undercover training.
After being questioned by the P-I, Sano reviewed some of the stripper-related
arrest reports and said he had concerns with a couple of them.
One officer, who Sano said was inexperienced in undercover work, said in his
report that he grabbed one dancer's breasts several times. With another dancer,
he wrote in his report, "I grabbed her buttocks with both hands and kept them
there throughout the dance."
A second officer, also not a regular vice cop, said he undid his belt, enabling
the dancer to unzip his pants and rub his genitals through his underwear. She
then grabbed his penis under his shorts before he could stop her hand,
according to his report.
Both officers' conduct appears to go too far, but taken into context of what
they're investigating, might not be as bad as it sounds. However, other vice
supervisors will be notified to ensure no excessive conduct happens in the
future, Sano said.
Sano said the detective who bought four lap dances from the same suspect was
justified because after the first two, he thought the suspect might offer sex
for money because she was talking "dirty," although she ultimately declined his
proposition. That officer is a veteran vice officer, he said.
Assistant Chief Nick Metz, who oversees the Investigations Bureau, said the
department would review its undercover policies and training -- especially for
vice officers on loan from other units -- to ensure they know exactly how far
they should go without compromising integrity.
"Honestly, I don't feel that there were any inappropriate actions on the
officers' parts," Metz said. "They were forthcoming about what they were doing
and very detailed in their descriptions ... and I certainly don't feel the
officers tried to hide anything," he said.
Guidelines vary between police departments nationwide with regular strip-club
enforcement. Houston police can allow some "physical contact" without
intercourse, while city police in Tampa, Fla., can disrobe but not touch
private parts.
Seattle officers don't expose themselves in vice cases, unless the deputy chief
approves it as part of a larger investigation. But street prostitutes often ask
an undercover officer to expose himself to prove he's not a cop, Sano said.
In a number of the police reports reviewed by the P-I, undercover officers said
they avoided sexual contact.
But some strippers say police no longer show what used to be their most common
tell.
"You used to be able to pick them out because they were the ones who wouldn't
touch you or look at you," said Lindsey, a six-year veteran dancer who was at
Rick's during the December raid but wasn't arrested. "Now, it's harder. ...
They'll sit there and grab hold of your boobs and they'll take you to jail
whether you knock their hands away or not."
Rick's was the site of the largest recent raid, in which 13 dancers and one
manager were hauled off to jail, mostly for minor violations of the adult
entertainment ordinance. Three were charged with prostitution.
Police frequently cite Rick's as a den of illicit sex, where condoms litter the
men's restroom. The club's owner, Frank Colacurcio Sr., and his son, Frank Jr.,
were at the center of the "Strippergate" scandal and have long been targets of
law enforcement.
Dancers working as police informants say customers increasingly expect sex and
that clubs encourage the behavior by building private booths and VIP lounges,
according to detectives' reports.
Levy, who is Rick's attorney, thought December's raid was heavy-handed. Police
used seven undercover officers and shut down the club for three hours. He said
he found the timing suspect, given that weeks earlier voters had repealed a
controversial "4-foot" rule regulating distances between customers and the
entertainment.
Even without a 4-foot rule, lap dances in Seattle are legal only if the
stripper isn't touching the customer. An intimate frottage session or a dancer
flashing her breasts while off-stage is still illegal.
Officers are more credible in court if they can testify that something happened
directly to them, as opposed to having observed it, said Jon Gould, a professor
of law at Virginia's George Mason University.
But police should avoid appearing as active participants in illegal activity,
which could hurt their cases in court if a defendant argues entrapment, he
said.
"The other question," Gould said, "is what kind of standard do the people of
Seattle want to have their Police Department to be held to?"
In some of the strip-club cases, officers got lap dances from the same woman
because of miscommunication, Sano said. Officers are instructed to avoid
"double-dipping" because it wastes time and money, he said.
That happened in seven cases reviewed by the P-I, including one involving a
Déjà Vu dancer who was investigated by three undercover officers -- first by a
lone male officer and then by a female officer and male sergeant who bought a
lap dance while posing as "friends."
The vice unit aims for one strip-club sting operation a month, depending on
budgets and caseloads. Detectives also regularly inspect the clubs to ensure
all performers are licensed and of legal age, Sano said.
City Councilman Nick Licata, chairman of the city's public safety committee,
said he'd much rather see police focus on bigger problems, such as street
prostitution. He said he found some of the officers' reports gratuitous.
"I've said publicly I don't see any reason why any officer needs to get 300 lap
dances to get a feel for the place," Licata said. "I think it's a misuse of
resources."
Of 103 cases filed in Municipal Court since 2003, only eight resulted in
convictions, usually with a deferred jail term.
Only five exotic dancers have been charged with prostitution.
Most dancers are first-time offenders who enter a pretrial diversion program.
If they pay $75, perform community service and stay crime-free for three
months, the charges disappear.
A misdemeanor is punishable by up to 90 days in jail. Prostitution, a gross
misdemeanor, is punishable by up to a year in jail.
Sano said his priority since taking over the vice unit is focusing on pimps who
exploit juvenile prostitutes and not strip clubs. "That's what the vice unit
gets paid to do," he said. "We're here to enforce the civility ordinances of
the city of Seattle."
