Strip Club Raids Lead To $1.5 Million Settlement

SAN DIEGO (AP) — San Diego will pay nearly $1.5 million to settle lawsuits filed by more than a dozen exotic dancers who claimed police violated their rights during strip club raids.

The City Council on Tuesday approved settlements for two suits filed by 17 dancers.

The dancers said they were held against their will on threat of arrest and subjected to humiliating searches when police raided Expose and Cheetah's Gentlemen's Club in 2013 and 2014. Police showed up in bulletproof vests.

The suit said the women were subjected to demeaning comments, ordered to expose body parts and had their tattoos photographed.

In March, a federal judge ruled that the city's Municipal Code violates the First Amendment because it doesn't limit the power of police to use inspections to harass adult entertainment businesses.