GILROY
– As the county continues to step up the pressure on owners of
the property housing The Adult Forum Social Club, neighbors on
Dryden Avenue have started to take the matter into their own
hands.
GILROY – As the county continues to step up the pressure on owners of the property housing The Adult Forum Social Club, neighbors on Dryden Avenue have started to take the matter into their own hands.
County Investigator Jim Lanz met with Ilyas Absar and Muhammed Irfan, the owners of the property at 2670 Dryden Ave., last week, and Lanz said they knew a sex club had been operating. However, Lanz told them it better not be running for long – or they would be paying the consequences from their own wallets.
“I met with Ilyas and Muhammed, and apparently I guess Muhammed is still a part owner of the property,” said Lanz, who had been trying to locate the property owners since early December. “They’re stuck. They can’t make this OK. I told them to take the proper legal action to make (the sex club) go away.”
The Forum, a partner-swapping sex club, left south Gilroy for the Dryden address Nov. 8 after receiving numerous city citations for operating a business without a license and being handed a temporary injunction in October. Sex Club Owner Deena Luce is scheduled to appear in court Jan. 27 for the 20 citations the club received. The Forum is open from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday nights and charges $40 to $60 for entrance.
Lanz told Absar and Irfan to get an attorney to start the eviction process. The Forum signed a three-year lease on the property, Lanz said.
Lanz spoke with the owners’ attorney a few days after the meeting, but was told they would be switching to a different attorney with more experience with county land-use issues.
“From my perspective, that’s the position he’s in,” Lanz said. “He is really exposed, and he needs to do something. I want to hear from him … no, I want to hear from his attorneys that something is happening. I want to see his attorneys initiate some action.”
Absar refused comment on the issue.
Lanz said he does not plan to initiate citations at this point. Absar could be subject to $280 in fines per day based on two ongoing infractions, one for operating a private sex club on land zoned for agriculture and residential and another for a trailer without permits that apparently serves as a second or third dwelling unit.
“As long as it is reasonable progress, I’ll go with it,” Lanz said. “I am still trying to avoid legal action.”
Representatives from different county departments plan to meet next month to share information about what is going on with the sex club.
“It sounds like they are planning a meeting with the county people and the neighbors for some time during the first week of February,” Lanz said. “Everybody wants everybody else to know what is going on.”
Lanz added that he thinks neighbors at Dryden will be invited to the meeting.
“Basically, I see me sitting in front of a room of people asking ‘What is happening?’ ” he said. “And I will tell them that I am approaching it like I would any other land-use issue.”
While some neighbors may be waiting to hear from the county to get information about the sex club, others are looking for it themselves.
“We’ve been bugging the sheriff and the DA to get them out,” said Mike Dausend, who lives in the neighborhood near the club. “They said, ‘Whatever you do, just make it legal. If we break the law it could jeopardize what happens (with the county investigation).’ ”
For the past several weeks, Dausend and other neighbors started investigating and trying to deter the patrons of Luce’s club.
“We’ve been out videotaping people coming and going,” Dausend said. “We’re documenting how many people are on our country street.”
The videotaping hasn’t gone unnoticed by club members, some of whom stop at the end of Dryden Avenue to cover their license plates before driving past the cameras with their heads down or their faces covered, Dausend said. Others have been more aggressive, Dausend said.
“Some of them come out of their car and say they’re going to sue us for videotaping them on private property,” he said. “We have had people get pretty aggressive. One guy reached into my car and tried to grab my camera.”
Neighbor Linda Lee said she hopes the videotaping will discourage patrons from coming.
“The reason we’re doing this is to make them nervous,” she said. “If they don’t come, Deena’s not going to be making any money.”
Dausend said he doesn’t think a sex club should be in a neighborhood with families and young children, adding that neighbors are doing what they can – within the boundaries of the law.
“We are decent citizens; we didn’t do anything, and they showed up.” he said. “We want to stay within the law and will stay within the law. We’ve been trying to see what options we have.”
Lee said three Sheriff’s department officers have met with neighbors at Dryden to talk about what the group can and cannot do legally. Lee said that the officers understood their distress, but “their hands are tied.” However, they did offer a few options for making sure the neighborhood stays safe while the county works to get the sex club off the property.
“Where we can try and get these people is when they’re drunk and leaving at 2 or 3 in the morning,” Lee said. It also is illegal for the patrons of the club to cover their license plates or drive with their faces covered.
Lee said she simply wants to do her part to help the process of getting the sex club out of her neighborhood.
“We don’t want this stuff going on in our neighborhood,” Lee said. “Our neighbor has four daughters.”
“We’re not complainers. If people here have a loud party, it’s OK,” she said. “But this is every Friday and Saturday night. We’re just looking forward to them being out of here.”
