GILROY
– With the Adult Forum Social Club close to making a deal with
the city on its 20 citations for operating a business without a
license, property owners at the club’s newest home are looking at
20 more next week – this time from the county.
GILROY – With the Adult Forum Social Club close to making a deal with the city on its 20 citations for operating a business without a license, property owners at the club’s newest home are looking at 20 more next week – this time from the county.
County Investigator Jim Lanz met this week with the attorney for Ilyas Absar, owner of the property at 2670 Dryden Ave., about “moving the process along.”
Lanz said he plans to talk with Absar’s attorney again today, and will set a time to give Absar 20 citations dating back to Dec. 6, when the county was first alerted of the sex club’s presence on Dryden Avenue.
The citations, unlike those given to the club in Gilroy, would be directed at the owners of the property. Penalties for the citations will be $100 for each count, plus administrative costs at 180 percent of each fine – meaning $180 for each of the 20 citations given. Additional offenses would rise to $200 and then to $550, plus the administration costs.
Absar, who did not return Dispatch phone calls, has reportedly begun the eviction process of Deena Luce’s club.
“I think he is,” County Supervisor Don Gage said. “At least that’s what he said. The problem is that he is in a long-term contract.”
Club owner Deena Luce has a three-year lease on the property, said Lanz, who is hopeful Absar will continue to cooperate with the county.
“I believe that the property owner will be along for the ride on this,” he said.
Meanwhile, Gage, Lanz and Santa Clara County Sheriff’s met with nearly 50 frustrated neighbors Monday night at the Family Worship Center in San Martin to hear their complaints and try to clear up any rumors.
“One of the things was there was a lot of misinformation,” Gage said. “All of them felt the county wasn’t doing anything. We are following the letter of the law. It protects both them and the club, to a degree.”
Neighbor complaints at the meeting included worries over the noise, drinking, fights and type of people the club was inviting into the neighborhood.
“I wanted to give them an opportunity to vent,” Gage said. “They are very upset and rightly so. They feel unsafe. That’s not the kind of thing they want to be exposed to; they feel harassed.”
But Gage also said that there was little way of speeding up the process of getting the club out of the property at Dryden Avenue.
“We can’t rush the process,” he said. “I know they want action immediately, but we can’t just go in there and boot them out.”
The Forum was ousted from its former home on Monterey Road in Gilroy inDecember. City officials and Luce seem to be close to settling the 20 citations from the city out-of-court.
Someone familiar with the negotiations said they were initiated at the request of the court and have hovered around a $1,500 fine, but are not final.
Deputy City Attorney Jolie Houston declined comment, saying attorneys are still discussing the matter and no conclusion had been reached.
“It’s still in litigation,” she said. “I can’t say we’ve settled or done anything.
“There are some options that are being explored, but I haven’t heard back from them (opposing attorneys). That’s where we are.”
The attorney representing the Forum in the case, Kevin Hutcheson, said Friday that “nothing has changed.”
A hearing is set for March 10 to schedule a trial date.
Luce and her associates have 20 charges of operating a business in Gilroy without a license while her sex club operated on Monterey Road for several months. Court proceedings have been grinding since October. Penalties for operating without a license are up to a $100 fine for a first offense, $200 for a second offense, $500 for a third offense, and a $1,000 fine and up to six months jail time for each offense after three.
Luce maintains the club has the legal right to meet.
“We have the right to do what we’re doing,” she said Friday.
Gage disagrees.
“They are in a non-conforming use and they have due process just like anyone else. If they were in proper zoning, it would be OK because it allows that kind of thing.”
The county’s commercial zoning district would be a more ideal place for Luce’s sex club, Gage said.
Gage did offer the residents at Dryden some assurance. He gave the neighbors cell phone numbers that will give them a direct link with county sheriff’s officers. Neighbors have complained that the officers don’t arrive in time to see offenses at the sex club, such as noise complaints. One neighbor said she thought someone at the club was monitoring the police with a scanner.
“If (officers) drive over there and don’t see anything, there’s nothing they can do,” Gage said. “They have to witness the crime.
“What we did was give them direct lines to their cell phones. It won’t go out on the scanner.”
Staff Writer Jonathan Jeisel contributed to this story.
