Sheriff’s deputies enforcing new law on adult businesses

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September 1, 2010

By Susan Redden news@joplinglobe.com The Joplin Globe Wed Sep 01, 2010, 08:01 PM CDT

The Jasper County Sheriff’s Department has started enforcing a new state law that requires sexually oriented businesses to close at midnight.

“Some of it doesn’t go into effect for 180 days, but we started enforcing everything else last night,” sheriff’s Capt. Derek Walrod said Wednesday.

The law — which got support from local residents and lawmakers — was passed in the 2010 legislative session and went into effect Saturday. It requires 1,000-foot setbacks between new adult businesses and homes, schools, churches, parks and other sexually oriented businesses.

It also bans full nudity, alcohol, and touching between employees and patrons. And it requires the businesses to close by midnight.

Within 180 days, adult bookstores and video arcades must comply with a requirement that floor plans be reconfigured to ensure a manager’s visibility of viewing booths and other parts of the operation.

The law is being challenged in court, but a Missouri appeals court panel on Wednesday refused to halt the measure.

A Cole County judge on Friday denied a request to issue a temporary restraining order against the law. A coalition of store owners and erotic dancers then asked the Western District Missouri Court of Appeals to order the judge to block the law.

The appeals court decision means the law will remain in effect while a lawsuit challenging it continues in Cole County Circuit Court.

“We started enforcing the closing hours, and the alcohol ban is something we would do anyway,” said Walrod. “Most of the requirements are geared toward strip clubs, which Jasper County doesn’t have.”

He said enforcement started after the department got advice from Dean Dankelson, county prosecutor, and after staff meetings earlier in the week.

He said he expects additional recommendations from Dankelson, who is attending a prosecutors’ meeting at which new state laws are being discussed.

Walrod said deputies’ enforcement is focused on the five sexually oriented businesses in the county: two off Interstate 44 at the Sarcoxie exit; one on County Road 100 off I-44; one north of 32nd Street and east of Joplin; and one on Seventh Street west of Joplin.

Walrod said it’s his understanding that most of the businesses were 24-hour operations before the new law took effect.

The Globe attempted to check with several of the businesses, but spokesmen were reluctant to discuss the new requirements or their impact on the operations.

Most workers would not identify themselves or discuss the law. One worker at Vegas Video on County Road 100 said the operation previously was open round-the-clock but has started closing at midnight.

The Vegas Video operation prompted a local group to organize in opposition to the outlet and other such businesses in the county. Several members of the group contacted local lawmakers on the issue and testified at legislative hearings when the new law was being drafted.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Local ordinance

Vegas Video originally was advertised as an adult cabaret, and the Jasper County Commission adopted an ordinance regulating those operations. The commissioners at the time said they would prefer statewide laws regulating adult businesses.

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Sheriff’s deputies enforcing new law on adult businesses

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