It's 10 p.m. and no one is in the audience, so the dancers at La Habra's only strip club hunker down for a game of poker.
The music doesn't stop, though, because at any moment, someone could walk through the door. These days, it could be a customer eager to plunk down cash for a lap dance, or an undercover police officer trying to catch a dancer doing just that.
Owner Bill Gammoh is convinced he knows why the place is empty. "It's the city, man. They think they can just drive me out of business."
The city of La Habra, he says, continues to harass his business even though he has won the last few rounds in court. Gammoh, sitting in an office whose walls are covered by court exhibits of blueprints and neighborhood maps, says layer upon layer of regulations has been imposed to make it difficult to operate.
City officials, however, say they are prosecuting and citing someone who chronically breaks the rules, including allowing lap dancing with patrons and failing to get a permit to install plumbing for "shower dances" in the spacious former bank building on Imperial Highway.
For five years, the city and the nude juice bar have fought it out in council chambers, behind picket lines and in the courts.
During this election year, Gammoh, a 37-year-old former gas station owner, passed out fliers, attended City Council meetings and candidate forums, and questioned why the city was spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to shut him down.
"They're totally abusing the system," Gammoh said. "I used to have 150 customers a day."
City Atty. Richard D. Jones said the city has indeed spent more than $400,000 fighting the Pelican Theater but that most of it has been covered by insurance.
Two years ago, Gammoh opened the Pelican after the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the city couldn't ban a club just because it offered nude dancing. Instead, the city has hired undercover police officers from neighboring Anaheim and Fullerton to spot illegal activity and dispatched building inspectors who have hit the owner with fines and more.
Gammoh has filed for bankruptcy and is feuding with his former partners. The courts still seem to be on his side, though. A judge recently denied the city's bid to force Gammoh to pay $117,000 in attorney fees.
"They lost in the court," said the Jordanian-born businessman who sold three gas stations to get into the adult-entertainment business, figuring he could rake in at least $50,000 a month.
