AUBURN – Nearly a year after undercover police busted him for having topless bartenders at his Park Street nightclub, Augustine Russo refuses to give up his fight against the city.
The bar – formerly Augustine’s, then Boondoggles – has been shut down for months, and Augustine has left the city and moved back to Boston.
Still, he made a special trip back to the area Monday to ask Superior Court Justice Thomas E. Delahanty II to overturn the city’s decision to yank his entertainment license.
“I’m not going away,” Russo said after the hearing at Androscoggin County Superior Court. “I’m going to be a thorn in the side of the city from now until the end of time.”
Russo’s problems with the city started last April 13, when two undercover police officers went into the bar and witnessed two female bartenders without shirts.
The women were topless, save for small dabs of liquid latex hardened over their nipples.
Russo was issued a summons the following day and ultimately fined $100.
The fine, however, wasn’t the problem.
As a result of the citation, the Lewiston City Council took away Russo’s license to provide any entertainment at his downtown club. That meant no disc jockey, no dance floor, no pool tournaments, no compact-disc player.
Russo immediately filed an appeal of the city’s decision in court, arguing that he didn’t violate the law because the city’s ordinance simply bans nude entertainment, not nudity in general.
Then he tried several tactics to keep Boondoggles open.
First, he went before Justice Delahanty and asked that his license be reinstated, pending a decision on the appeal. Delahanty refused.
Then Russo offered chem-free nights on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays for people under 21. Music was allowed since he wasn’t serving alcohol, but the underage crowd simply didn’t generate enough revenue.
Finally, Russo tried transferring ownership of the bar to one of his employees. His former security manager, Mark Judd, filed an application to open Cushy Lounge, a nightclub he promised would be quieter and more classy than Boondoggles.
Skeptical, the City Council shot Judd down, citing omissions in his application and the fact that Russo had not yet legally sold the business to Judd.
Russo said he eventually had no choice but to break his lease, shut down and wait for the court to act.
His lawyer, Justin Leary, did all the talking at Monday’s hearing.
“It’s hard to imagine why all of those entertainment words were used (in the ordinance) if the intent was to ban all nude activity,” Leary argued.
The female employees were simply doing their jobs, mixing and serving drinks. They were not dancing or stripping, Leary said.
The city’s attorney, David Bertoni, argued that the employees may not have been dancing but they were certainly providing entertainment. He pointed out that Russo himself has said that the goal of having topless bartenders was to attract and amuse patrons.
“The ordinance applies to a wide variety of entertainment activity,” Bertoni said. “Entertainment doesn’t just mean nude dancing.”
Delahanty did not make a decision Monday. He told the lawyers he would issue a ruling as soon as possible.
Russo plans to wait for the ruling, then decide what he’ll do next.
He has accused city officials all along of using him as a scapegoat in their effort to clean up the city’s image.
“It is a matter of principle at this point,” he said. “My club was the cleanest and safest the city had.”
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