Manager, dancer at gentlemen’s club face nudity, drug charges
The manager and a dancer of a Houston County gentleman’s club face felony charges after they were arrested over the weekend.
Houston County Sheriff’s Capt. Antonio Gonzalez said deputies arrested Michael Gene Cox, 39, of Lynn Haven, Fla., late Saturday night and charged him with running a business that allowed too much nudity. Court records show detectives charged Cox with a felony violation of the anti-obscenity act. Records show Cox was charged with doing business at Secrets Gentleman’s Club on Friday and Saturday in the 14000 block of U.S. 231 South near Madrid.
Gonzalez said Cox served as the manager of the business.
Cox was released from the Houston County Jail after he posted a $2,500 bond. If convicted of the class C felony he faces one to 10 years in prison.
Gonzalez said detectives also charged one of the dancers, Cynthia Elaine Best, with a felony charged of possession of cocaine. Best, 33, of Cottondale, Fla., was also released after she posted a $2,500 bond.
The felony charges came as a result of a two-day undercover operation at the nightclub by Houston County Sheriff’s investigators.
Gonzalez said the business had been open a couple of weeks, and after they’d received notice of its business license they recently started checking in on it. Gonzalez said there was no alcohol being sold at the business, but there was alcohol inside.
“We checked it once and everything seemed fine, and within a week we started getting complaints,” Gonzalez said. “Our complaint was that there was nude dancing in there. We didn’t see complete nudity. We saw nudity from the waist up.”
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Reader Reactions
red rider you’re wrong , a search warrant is required for any property unless an officer of the law actually witnesses a crime being committed.The fact thats it is a business open to the public has no bearing on a search. Of course officers can say in their opinion they witnessed someone committing an offence of the law and in most minor instances no one will question their judgement call .In the event of a serious crime , an officer cant get away with this type fabrication. It all amounts to as if the crime is worth the cost to legally defend it.Bottom line is the law can do anything they want to do unless someone is willing to fund the neccessary cost to oppose them.
Thanks for the information and I am far from the grasp of Hew Haw H*ll, so the can just remain malcontent about my views. I think these whiners should take a vacation down to West palm and see first hand how a city should be run of the people by the people and for the people!
reelnrod, you better be careful, these Jesus people will get all riled up and threaten to beat you, or worse if you dare speak the truth.
They don’t like to get tole about theirselves…
They have the backing of the Lawd behind them so of course everything they believe is right and should be believed and followed by everyone.
If some of us believe differently, they feel like we should rot in you know where…
Personally, I feel the Civil War was a big waste of my ancestors blood sweat and tears, and we should have just let the confederacy GO…This place is just like a foreign country…they love foreigners that make cars so they don’t have to worry about unions…they threaten folks if they start talking about bringing a union to their work place…as far as most southerners are concerned, they are happy being led around by the rings in their noses to the slaughter by their cops and politicians as they still have the “slave”/“master” mentality…business owners don’t want to pay their employees a living wage, they want to pay them as little as they possibly can…It’s always gonna be a backwards “good ole boy” kinda place. They don’t know any different and they don’t want to know any different.
this is a spinoff business from country crossing . sonds like it has problems already
Red Rider
THIRDLY; I have said nothing about a search warrant and I know that such would not be required. Did you take the time to learn the ‘legal’ definition of patron? So what you are insinuating Red Rider? That these pillar of the community deputies were at the house of the devil of their own accord having a good time and then became offended? Who is the idiot? You, Mr. save the confederacy mentality person, you. These upstanding citizen deputies have filed a false report citing a citizen complaint as their reason for being there, contrary to what you allege. And if you really believe that a credible informed (meaning first hand knowledge) complaint was filed then I guess he will be on the witness stand to substantiate this ludicrous allegation. huh bubba
Reelnrod, you’re an idiot. A search warrant is not required when the business is open to the public, and complete nudity is not required in order for a crime to be committed. But hey, feel free to keep making stuff up.
First off Red Rider The law wasn’t “openly” being violated; that is you HAD TO BE A PATRON
(see: Blackslaw.com to define patron)that renders the investigation of such an establishment illegal. Secondly the woman WAS NOT NUDE. In order to get an eye-full; you had to be a patron and no ‘patron’ complained. I’ll bet you were right there with George C. Wallace standing in the door. So petty & closed minded!
Don’t you just love people who openly support crime! They don’t respect our democratic system. They don’t care that those laws are enacted by the people’s elected representatives. They just do whatever they feel like. Life is good.
EVERYONE in this area knows that the ONLY reason the sheriff’s department is interested in this establishment is because of it’s location in relation to Country Crossing. I support Country Crossing AND I support the right of consenting adults to see a breast or two every once in a while. The Morality police need to be investigating real crime, Lord knows there’s plenty of to be investigated.
The arrest seem to be part of an illegal investigation involving a made up complaint because the deputies witnessed the lady topless and therefore needed a viable reason to be there, in order to facilitate the arrest. Is that county Sheriff’s office accredited? Wouldn’t a made up complaint (this needs to be investigated) such as this be enough to overturn every conviction this sheriff’s office is responsible for? Maybe it is just me not realizing how backwards some southerners are but why would a patron of such an establishment file a complaint(if in fact they did)? I’ll bet this is one of those little hick towns that when you’re searched and the search turns up nothing, evidence gets planted.
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