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The proprietor of a bottle club on Main Street in Portage Borough, named Bodies in Motion, said Wednesday he intends to file a federal lawsuit against officials who are violating his First Amendment right to free expression by enforcing ordinances that ban nude or exotic dancing.
Gary Vaughn Jr., a Portage resident, said the Borough Council in 1999 passed a Code of Ordinances that placed restrictions on "certain activities and businesses."
He claimed the restrictions ban the viewing of adult motion pictures in the privacy of the home and restrict the ability of adults to share or give away obscene materials to other adults.
And, he said, the code restricts adults from "admitting any other person to a premises whereon there is exhibited a motion picture show, a live performance or any other presentation which, in whole or in part, depicts nudity, sexual excitement, sexual conduct or sadomasochistic abuse."
He explained the ordinances even ban massage parlors where clients are massaged by persons of the opposite sex.
Vaughn called the ordinances "absurd," "archaic" and "barbaric."
Earlier this year, Vaughn opened the Bodies in Motion club in an abandoned building at 631 Main St., Portage.
On Thursdays, his club features a traveling female exotic dance company.
Vaughn also takes dancers to presentations at other locations during the week.
After an investigation that lasted several months, Portage Borough police served a search warrant on the business and confiscated cash and other items.
It was revealed at the time that the business is also under investigation by the State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement.
State court records show Vaughn faces charges of furnishing a minor with alcohol.
Vaughn said he is not guilty of the offense, noting that he does not have a liquor license and customers bring their own beer to the club.
He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Jan. 9.
Vaughn has now prepared a federal lawsuit challenging the Borough's Code of Ordinances that he says are restricting his business.
His lawsuit states that the restrictions imposed by the borough code "fly in the face of the First Amendment."
Portage does not have a zoning ordinance that restricts certain activities by allowing them in defined areas of the borough.
"Portage Borough is not zoned and does not have the ability to restrict businesses," stated Vaughn.
He claims in his lawsuit that the borough was negligent in adopting the code in the first place and he contends that as written the banning of adult oriented businesses "are clearly in violation of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution."
His lawsuit names as defendants Portage Borough, the mayor, the borough manager, five members of council, the police chief and two officers.
Vaughn is asking $11 million in damages.
Vaughn said he is being represented in the criminal charge by attorney Matthew R. Zatko of Somerset County.
However, Vaughn is acting as his own lawyer in the federal lawsuit.
Portage solicitor Michael Emerick could not be reached for comment.
When a rumor was circulated early last summer that the abandoned building on Main Street was to become a "strip club," many residents of the borough attended a council meeting in May to complain.
At the time, Mayor Robert Fox promised that council would do what is within its power to make sure no ordinances were violated.
During that May 1 meeting, Zatko said there was no truth to the rumors that a strip club was planned in the borough.
"Quite frankly, there's no plan (for the property) right now," Zatko said at the time, noting that Vaughn was cleaning out the building.
"He hasn't decided what he's going to do with it, but the notion that there's going to be a strip bar or some kind of public establishment that offers nudity is not correct," Zatko said to those gathered at the meeting.
Zatko also told the group that he and Vaughn were aware of the borough's ordinances.
"We are certainly aware of the existing ordinances in Portage," Zatko said. "If and when a decision is made about the future of the property, certainly those ordinances will be taken into consideration."
While Vaughn attended the May meeting, he did not publicly comment about his plans for the building.