Post by _Code on May 11, 2006 11:07:37 GMT -5
Stripper says vice sting went too far
Video Report
09:54 PM PDT on Wednesday, May 10, 2006
LYNNWOOD - An exotic dancer is fighting a charge that she got too close to customers during an undercover sting at a strip club in south Snohomish County.
Twenty-six-year-old Charity Trees' attorney said deputies went undercover to bust strip clubs that violate the 4-foot distance that dancers must maintain from customers.
Trees said the officer allowed her to touch him enough to cause the officer to have a "physical reaction." She said she wasn't arrested until after that happened.
The police report on the incident said that the officer allowed Trees to touch his genitals.
Trees said the officer let her do that repeatedly.
"He let me do all these things to him and then he arrested me. Why didn't he arrest me in the beginning and say, 'hey, you're violating the four-foot law under our standards and here's your ticket'," she said.
Charity Dawn Trees
"He waited like 5 minutes until the whole dance was over and he got his happy ending," she said.
She was charged with a dance violation, which is a misdemeanor charge.
Trees' attorney, Philip Wakefield, said the practice was "more of the good ole boys club just having a good time."
Sheriff's spokesman Rich Niebusch said the deputy did nothing improper.
"What the deputy has done here is well within the operation's plan. Sometimes when you do vice operations there is touching to lend credibility to the operative," he said.
Trees works at Honey's strip club on Highway 99 in Snohomish County.
Wakefield plans to fight the charge in court next week.
Video Report
09:54 PM PDT on Wednesday, May 10, 2006
LYNNWOOD - An exotic dancer is fighting a charge that she got too close to customers during an undercover sting at a strip club in south Snohomish County.
Twenty-six-year-old Charity Trees' attorney said deputies went undercover to bust strip clubs that violate the 4-foot distance that dancers must maintain from customers.
Trees said the officer allowed her to touch him enough to cause the officer to have a "physical reaction." She said she wasn't arrested until after that happened.
The police report on the incident said that the officer allowed Trees to touch his genitals.
Trees said the officer let her do that repeatedly.
"He let me do all these things to him and then he arrested me. Why didn't he arrest me in the beginning and say, 'hey, you're violating the four-foot law under our standards and here's your ticket'," she said.
Charity Dawn Trees
"He waited like 5 minutes until the whole dance was over and he got his happy ending," she said.
She was charged with a dance violation, which is a misdemeanor charge.
Trees' attorney, Philip Wakefield, said the practice was "more of the good ole boys club just having a good time."
Sheriff's spokesman Rich Niebusch said the deputy did nothing improper.
"What the deputy has done here is well within the operation's plan. Sometimes when you do vice operations there is touching to lend credibility to the operative," he said.
Trees works at Honey's strip club on Highway 99 in Snohomish County.
Wakefield plans to fight the charge in court next week.
