Stormy Daniels was arrested in Columbus, OH while performing in a strip club, for violation of the Community Defense Act, a law proposed by Cincinnati religious conservatives and passed in 2007. It states that it is illegal for a performer who is “nude or seminude” at a sexually oriented business to be touched by a patron or to touch a patron, with the exception of an immediate family member. Depending on what body part is touched, the charge can be a first- or fourth-degree misdemeanor. Washington Post:
During her 11:30 p.m. performance, the police report says, people in the audience began throwing dollar bills at Daniels. While topless and wearing a G-string, she allegedly began “forcing the faces of the patrons into her chest and using her bare breasts to smack the patrons.” She is also accused of fondling the breasts of women in the audience, according to the report.
Two police detectives and an officer in the club noticed what Daniels was doing and approached the stage. As she performed in front of one detective, the report states, Daniels leaned over, grabbed the detective’s head and “began smacking her face with her bare breasts and holding her face between her breasts against her chest.”
She then allegedly performed the same acts on a male detective and a third officer, according to the report, and began “fondling” that officer’s buttock and breasts.
Her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, says that her arrest was a politically motivated “sting operation.”
He said his client was “performing the same performance that she has conducted at over a hundred strip clubs around the country.”
“This is ridiculous that law enforcement resources were used to conduct this sting operation,” he said. “There has to be a better purpose for such resources.”
“It reeks of desperation,” Avenatti tweeted. “We will fight all bogus charges.”
One fact supporting Avenatti’s contention is that the law has been on the books since 2007 and a sheriff’s department spokesperson could cite no incident of the law ever having been enforced until now. In any event, Avenatti has hopes that if the District Attorney chooses to prosecute that Daniels will be found not guilty.
Update: Avenatti tweeted that the charges have been dropped.
I am pleased to report that the charges against my client @stormydaniels have been dismissed in their entirety (below motion was just granted). I want to thank Joe Gibson & his colleagues at the prosecutors ofc for their professionalism starting with our first call early this am. pic.twitter.com/xHPSWsyqM2
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) July 12, 2018
