Gary E. Vaughn, the proprietor of an adult-oriented business called Bodies in Motion, argues in a federal lawsuit filed this week that Hollidaysburg Borough has violated his constitutional rights by issuing cease and desist orders to adult cabaret shows at D’Ottavio’s Italian House on Allegheny Street in the downtown area.

Vaughn filed his civil rights lawsuit with the District Court in Johnstown on the heels of a decision by Senior Judge Pamela Reust of Centre County, who in December issued a preliminary injunction affirming the cease and desist orders as a proper enforcement of the borough’s zoning code.

According to the judge’s ruling, adult cabaret is restricted under the ordinance to a rural area along Scotch Valley Road.

Vaughn, a Portage businessman, disagrees.

His petition in the federal court asks that the zoning ordinances restricting where sexually oriented businesses can operate be declared unenforceable as violative of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution.

He is requesting damages of $12 million, representing $1 million in damages from each of the 12 named defendants in his lawsuit.

The defendants include the borough mayor, Joseph R. Dodson, the manager, Ethan Imhoff, seven members of the council, the police chief, the codes enforcement officer and the borough itself.

“The 12 named defendants are violating First and Fourteenth Amendment rights to freedom of expression, by enacting and strictly enforcing an overbroad, discriminatory, and vague ordinance, which also violates the Equal Protection Clause (of the Constitution),” the petition stated.

The lawsuit against Hollidaysburg is similar to one filed by Vaughn who, acting as his own attorney, last year challenged ordinances in his hometown of Portage, which restricted the viewing of adult motion pictures by adults in the privacy of their homes, the ability of adults to share obscene materials with other adults, and — with respect to his business — any live performance which depicts “nudity, sexual excitement, sexual conduct or sadomasochistic abuse.”

Portage did not have a zoning code and the borough was attempting to restrict Vaughn and his dancers from performing shows in a local bottle club.

He charged in his lawsuit that the Portage codes “fly in the face of the First Amendment.”

After months of wrangling, Vaughn and the borough came to an out-of-court settlement.

Vaughn, upon filing his present lawsuit, noted that while the issues and situations are similar, there are differences.

He explained that Portage didn’t have a zoning code and attempted to restrict adult entertainment in other ways.

Hollidaysburg, he explained, does have a zoning code, which attempts to restrict adult shows to one area, the I-2 zoning district.

That area is “off the beaten path,” in a rural area of the borough, he pointed out.

He said his dancers were going monthly to D’Ottavio’s Italian House/Gran Sasso on Allegheny Street.

When the borough began issuing cease and desist orders to the business, the owner could have challenged them and taken the issue before the zoning board, but when the notices were not appealed on a timely basis, the borough sought an injunction to put a stop to the restaurant from hosting the adult cabaret shows.

Vaughn claims that, while the zoning code restricts adult entertainment in its districts, it also grants “facially overbroad, discriminatory and vague exceptions.”

It allows people to appear nude “in a modeling class,” operated by schools or colleges.

It allows nudity in a structure “which has no sign visible from the exterior of the structure and no other advertising that a nude person is available for viewing.”

It allows nudity in certain classes, noting a student must enroll at least three days in advance of the class, and it allows nudity where “no more than one nude model is on the premises at any one time.”

The Hollidaysburg ordinance classifies a nude modeling studio as a sexually oriented business, he contended in his lawsuit.

Vaughn concluded his argument by stating that “Bodies in Motion also fits the definition of a sexually oriented business.”

Vaugh said he employs 25 dancers, two DJs and other staff who travel to locations within two hours of Portage.

His cabaret show periodically makes appearances locally at Dilly’s Bar and Grill in Claysburg and Funky Claud’s in Altoona.

The show travels to areas like Somerset, Lewistown, Elk County and Pittsburgh.

The lawsuit has been assigned to District Judge Stephanie L. Haines in Johnstown.