The owner of a Richmond strip club faces a new legal challenge more than a year after law-enforcement agents raided his home and business in Shockoe Bottom.
Samuel J.T. Moore III, owner of Velvet at 3 S. 15th St., will appear at a hearing next month to defend himself against charges that could cost the club its state license to sell alcoholic beverages.
The Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control has charged the club and its owner with 11 violations of state law, including selling alcohol to minors and creating a haven for illegal activities.
"The place occupied by the licensee has become a meeting place or rendezvous for illegal users of narcotics, prostitutes, drunks, pimps, panderers or habitual law violators or has become a place where illegal drugs are regularly distributed," ABC cites from state law in one of the charges, which were issued last week and made public yesterday.
The ABC department has scheduled a hearing April 2 to consider the charges, which could result in disciplinary action against the club, including possible revocation of its license to sell alcohol.
"The charges made by the ABC Board are taken very seriously by Mr. Moore," said Michael Morchower, the club owner's attorney. "However, they are only accusations, and they will be challenged by Mr. Moore at the ABC hearing."
Morchower said the club is monitored closely by employees, and that Moore makes sure that anyone misbehaving is removed from the premises.
"I expect Mr. Moore to be exonerated at the ABC hearing," his attorney said.
The ABC department was among a group of state, federal and local law-enforcement agencies that searched the club and Moore's second-floor residence in the same building on Feb. 24, 2008. The agents were looking for evidence of possible prostitution, illicit sex, illegal public nudity and drug distribution at the club.
However, the only charges produced by the investigation alleged that Moore had sex with a minor and another woman and that he illegally filmed the acts. Moore accepted convictions on three misdemeanor charges without admitting guilt and spent 30 days of a 60-day sentence in jail, but he avoided trial on two felony charges that could have resulted in the loss of his ABC license.
Still, the ABC department charges that Moore violated his license by "being convicted of a felony or of any crime or offense involving moral turpitude." The agency also charged that someone at Velvet -- the license holder, employers or performers -- had been convicted of violating a Richmond public-nudity ordinance by conduct at the club.
Morchower said his client wasn't convicted of a felony or a crime of moral turpitude, which he said is defined under state law as lying, cheating or stealing.
Richmond Commonwealth's Attorney Michael N. Herring asked the ABC department to take action after ending the criminal prosecution last summer.
"I'm glad to hear that they're moving forward," Herring said yesterday.
Contact Michael Martz at (804) 649-6964 or mmartz@timesdispatch.com.
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