Witness defends law on touching at adult clubs

Owners say the law is
hurting business.

CLEVELAND (AP) — Ohio’s new law banning dancers at adult clubs from touching patrons and each other is needed because such businesses can contribute to higher crime rates and lower property values, a witness for the state testified Friday.

Richard McCleary, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, testified before U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. on a challenge to the law by Ohio’s adult entertainment industry.

The lawsuit asked the judge to rule the law an unconstitutional violation of free speech and expression and block its enforcement. The judge expects to rule after final legal briefs are submitted.

The state, which is defending the law on behalf of dozens of communities named as defendants, called McCleary to challenge testimony last week by Daniel Linz, a communications and law and society professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Linz said dozens of studies across the country that concluded restrictions on adult entertainment can prevent an increase in crime were unscientific. But McCleary repeatedly disputed the analysis by Linz as poorly done and sometimes wrong.

It is a “scientific fact” that adult entertainment businesses can create a negative secondary impact like higher crime, McCleary testified.

McCleary cited one finding by Linz — that higher crime statistics around an adult bookstore can be attributed to increased police patrols that arrest more criminals and not necessarily to the business. But sometimes the opposite might be true, with an increased police presence chasing criminals elsewhere, McCleary said.

The statewide crackdown on sexually oriented businesses, pushed by a conservative Christian group and adopted by the Republican-controlled state Legislature in May, was allowed to become law by Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland without his signature.

The law also halts nude dancing in strip clubs after midnight and prohibits adult bookstores and theaters from remaining open between midnight and 6 a.m. Business owners, who say the law is hurting business, sued after it took effect this fall.

The lawsuit is the latest attempt by strip club owners to block the law. In October, opponents failed to gather enough signatures to force a referendum asking voters to overturn it.