By WPRO News
The Foxy Lady is appealing a decision by the Providence Board of Licenses to revoke all licenses for the landmark strip club. The club is effectively shut down by the decision, which comes a week after three employees there were arrested on prostitution charges.
In filings with the state Supreme Court and the Department of Business Regulation, Foxy Lady’s lawyer Fausto Anguilla says the Providence Police provided no direct evidence of prostitution taking place at the club. The club is looking for a review and reversal of the entertainment license revocation, and asks for a stay of enforcement so it can reopen pending a formal ruling on the appeal.
Police called the strip club a “prostitution parlor” following the arrest of three dancers who they say propositioned undercover officers. They said they began investigating following a complaint filed by another dancer who said she was sexually assaulted inside a private room at the club.
Foxy Lady, which now has 200 plus employees out of work, said it’s been subject to “irreparable harm” by the closure, claiming just one previous infraction on gambling in 1993. A dancer at the club who spoke to WPRO’s Tara Granahan about the case on Thursday said she’s been in contact with one of the women who was arrested and said there’s likely more to the story.
“It’s obviously really terrible for them as well, their pictures being plastered everywhere, their information’s being given out. It’s a horrible situation for them… The stories that I’ve heard are a little bit more complicated than what is being reported in the news,” she said.
