How do you tell a 14-year old stripper from a 22-year old stripper?
From the Houston Chroncicle:
A strip club that hired a 14-year-old as an exotic dancer is now suing the girl, saying the seventh-grader swindled them into breaking state law.
The San Antonio teen allegedly exposed her breasts while working at Cheetah Club in Corpus Christi, a violation of state law.
Alan Yaffe, the club’s attorney, said the club didn’t know the girl was a minor.
“She came (into the club) with 6-inch stiletto heels and a miniskirt and looked just like a model from a Miss America’s contest,” Yaffe said.
Yaffe also disputed the sequence of events that authorities say brought the 14-year-old girl to Club Cheetah, where she exposed her breasts — a violation of state law.
Police say Leslie Campbell, 48, kidnapped the teenager in San Antonio in March, took her to Corpus Christi, sexually assaulted her over the course of a week, gave her a false identification card and forced her to strip at the club.
Police say the girl, who has not been identified, escaped from Campbell’s home and has been reunited with her parents in San Antonio.
Campbell was arrested and remains in Nueces County Jail on charges of aggravated sexual assault and aggravated kidnapping.
Seeking damages
RJL Entertainment Inc., — which is doing business as “Cheetah Club,” according to tax records — filed the lawsuit last week.
The suit seeks unspecified damages from Campbell, the girl and her parents, as well as a declaration from a judge that it did not intend to hire a minor.
“We’re the victims here,” Yaffe said.
Authorities also arrested Jeffery Shawn Martinez, a manager at the club, on charges of employment harmful to a minor and sexual performance of a child. He was released on bail.
Martinez’s attorney, Fred Jimenez, said his client is not guilty.
“The minor walked in there with a fake ID and presented herself to be 22 years old,” Jimenez said. “She looks very mature.”
Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission Sgt. John Mann disagreed.
“I’ve seen this young lady’s picture, and I assure you she is a 14-year-old seventh-grader,” Mann said. “I personally think any reasonable and prudent person could tell you that is an underage girl.”
Mann said he expects his agency to take legal action against the club.
Have I become so desensitized to the exploitation and sexualization of children that I thought the most alarming thing about this entire article was that this poor girl was 14-years old and still in the 7th grade?
I’m not so sure that returning this kid to her parents is the best idea either…as this poor young girl didn’t just “happen” into a strip club on her own.
Fourteen isn’t necessarily the wrong age for a seventh grader, but it most certainly is for a stripper.
My God, how people can use and abuse others is just disgusting.
Even if this girl was of age, I still have a problem with girls that strip for a living. Low self-esteem and abusive relationships, especially with parents, is basically a resume for this type of work.
I understand rape is a state charge, but isn’t kidnapping and forcing into slavey a federal charge? Where are the feds in this case?
No, the girl should not be returned to her parents. They obviously had lost control of her in the first place. Or were these liberal parents who placed no restrictions on her movements that facilitated her kidnapping in the first place? Lots of questions; few answers.
This girl is going to need massive counseling.
This “strip” club should be shut down. If they can’t confirm the ages of the women who strip there, their license should be revolked, permantely.
Since they sell booze in these places, they check IDs all the time and should be aware of false driver’s licenses, etc. But of course, she doesn’t even have a license but an “identification card” — what ever that is. It could be issued by the state or could not. If it is a state ID card, similar to a driver’s license, it is easy to check and see if counterfeit. If it is not, it is not acceptable ID.
No, she didn’t just happen to walk into a strip club. The allegation was that she was kidnapped, raped, and pimped out. Obviously, she is not the smartest kid which makes her even more easily manipulated.
If the parents reported her missing, and there are no allegations of child abuse or negligence parenting, why blame them?
Just an FYI, It is very easy to make a fake ID that can pass any visual inspection. The physical appearance is not difficult to mimic, It is the embedded code that can be scanned that is next to impossible. I’ve seen ID’s that could be handed to a police officer and him not be able to identify the fraud.
I agree, that if this girl was kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery, Why then are the Feds not getting involved?
Where I live, if you go into a bar and order a drink, they scan your driver’s license with one of those scanners. Why this strip club didn’t have one or make some effort to check this minor’s ID is inexcusable.
The fed’s are not involved because there was no crossing of state lines and state law more than adequately handles kidnapping and pimping charges.