Solicitor seeks closure of Platinum Plus

Solicitor Walt Wilkins asked a judge to shut down a Greenville strip club for six months and fine the business $280,000 for alleged violations of a consent order, according to a court document filed this week.

The state argued Platinum Plus willfully disobeyed the conditions of a 2015 court order almost immediately after reopening last fall. The consent order defined the state of undress allowed for exotic dancers at the strip club but also prohibited simulated sex acts and fondling.

The Solicitor's Office asked Judge Charles Simmons to consider criminal contempt sanctions against Elephant Inc., the parent company of Platinum Plus, and Gregory Kenwood Gaines, the owner of Elephant Inc.

The state filed its written argument this week in continuation of a civil hearing on June 14. Simmons will decide if the consent order was violated and whether any punishments will be levied.

If Simmons doesn't close Platinum Plus on criminal contempt, the state asked that the business be closed on civil contempt for six months. The state also asked for the judge to consider imprisonment of no less than 120 days for Gaines.

"While the solicitor recognizes such penalties are strong, lesser penalties have previously failed and the challenges to this court's authority by the defendants have been serial and substantial," the Solicitor's Office said in a court document filed Monday.

Tommy Goldstein, the attorney for the defendants, said his clients did not knowingly or intentionally violate the settlement agreement. Goldstein, in a memo to the court, asked that the cases against his clients be dismissed.

The state has alleged the defendants did not do enough to prevent or stop prohibited behavior at Platinum Plus.

"There is not a scintilla of evidence that either defendant knew about the alleged violations, and even without knowing the solicitor's intent, the defendants terminated the relationship with the two dancers who the state alleges were the worst violators," Goldstein said in his court filing, adding that warnings were given to others.

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If the Solicitor's Office has its way, Platinum Plus would incur a six-month shutdown for the second time since May 2015.

In 2014, the Sheriff's Office started a yearlong, undercover investigation into Platinum Plus after receiving numerous tips about prostitution at the club. The investigation resulted in charges against dancers, hostesses and a manager. In April 2015, Wilkins filed a lawsuit that sought to close Platinum Plus under a nuisance statute.

In June 2015, the sides agreed to close the strip club for six months and the lawsuit never went to trial. Wilkins proclaimed Platinum Plus would no longer be a sexually-oriented business and would have to adhere to terms of the consent order.

In the settlement, the sides agreed to allow "independent monitors" (undercover officers) into the nightclub as a way for the Solicitor's Office to know if Platinum Plus was complying with the agreement. The court order also gave the Solicitor's Office the ability to request video from inside of the nightclub at any time, without a warrant.

The nightclub reopened in November, and the Solicitor's Office said the violations of the consent order started as early as Nov. 20, a week after the club opened.

At the hearing earlier this month, the state provided evidence of 28 violations of the consent order — 13 "state of nudity" infractions and 15 instances of simulated sex acts or fondling, the Solicitor's Office said in its written closing argument.

"Importantly, these numbers reflect only what the two independent monitors observed, together, on the three randomly chosen nights when the state audited Platinum Plus's compliance efforts," the Solicitor's Office said in writing. "Defendants (implausibly) suggest what the independent monitors witnessed on the three randomly selected nights merely constituted isolated instances of only a few exotic dancers."

If the six-month closure is granted through civil contempt, the state asked the court to institute another six-month monitoring program.