LEWISTON – The owner of a downtown nightclub who got in trouble with the city for allowing his waitresses and bartenders to work topless lost his first court battle Wednesday.

A Superior Court judge denied Augustine Russo’s request to allow dancing at Boondoggles while the court considers his appeal of the city’s decision to yank the bar’s entertainment license.

The judge’s decision will make it difficult to keep Boondoggles open, Russo said after the hearing. But the Park Street bar owner isn’t ready to shut down yet.

“I’m down but not out,” he said.

The purpose of Wednesday’s court proceeding was simply to determine whether Russo can allow music and dancing while his appeal is pending. It may take a year before the court makes a final decision in the case.

Russo hopes to remain open until that happens.

“The city of Lewiston is just trying to put bars out of business. That’s obvious,” he said. “But I have no intention of being forced out.”

Without an entertainment license, Russo cannot have disc jockeys, bands or any form of dancing at his club. He claims that his profits have dropped from $4,000 to $200 a week since April 20.

That is the night when the Lewiston City Council voted to take away his license as punishment for allowing his female employees to wear nothing above their waists but a painted-on substance, called liquid latex, over their nipples.

The legal argument between Russo and the city has not focused on whether the women were naked or appropriately covered by the latex.

Instead, it has been based on contradicting interpretations of the city ordinance that bans nude entertainment.

Russo’s attorney, Justin Leary, attempted to convince Justice Thomas E. Delahanty II that Russo was not violating the city’s ordinance because the law prohibits nude entertainment, not nudity in general.

Since the female employees were simply doing their jobs, mixing and serving drinks, they were not in violation, Leary said.

The city’s attorney, David Bertoni, argued that the employees may not have been dancing but they were certainly providing entertainment.

“I have yet to hear anything that the near-nude service contributed anything to their job performance,” Bertoni said. “I have heard nothing to suggest that anything but entertainment value was intended by this state of undress.”

Delahanty agreed.

“The manner in which the employees were dressed – or undressed – at the time can reasonably be classified as entertainment,” he ruled. “I am not going to approve a stay (of the license).”

Russo has owned the Park Street club for five years. It was formerly called Augustine’s.

His problems with the city started April 13, when two undercover police officers went into the bar and witnessed two female employees without shirts. Russo was issued a summons the following day.

Formerly of Massachusetts, Russo accused city officials of using him as a scapegoat in their effort to clean up the city’s image.

“I have no faith in the laws set forth by the city of Lewiston,” he said.

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