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I guess there really are show bars

shadowcat

Atlanta suburb

SPRINGFIELD — The ShowBar, a downtown strip club, is faced with police allegations that it employed a 17-year-old girl as a dancer earlier this year.

The girl's job came to an end when her mother found out and paid a visit to the club, police said.

The Springfield License Commission has a pre-hearing conference scheduled Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall to receive a list of alleged violations against the ShowBar, including one count of posing/exhibiting a child in a state of nudity.

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According to a police report, officers were sent to the club at 240 Chestnut St. on Feb. 17 to assist a woman who claimed her 17-year-old daughter "is on scene stripping and refusing to leave with her."


Daniel Kelly, a lawyer representing the club, said the ownership will request a formal hearing before the License Commission at a future date to answer the allegations.

"We dispute the city's version of events," Kelly said. "We have a lot of witnesses to call on our side."

Kelly declined further comment.

The names of the girl, her mother and another relative who went to the ShowBar on that night were blacked out in police reports obtained by The Republican.

According to a police report, the manager of record, Caterina Amsden, admitted the girl was an employee but claimed that the girl used fake identification that belonged to a 24-year-old cousin.

Police Commissioner John Barbieri, in a report filed with the License Commission in March, said the police investigators found that the 17-year-old "stripper" did use the identification of the 24-year-old "but was receiving paychecks in her actual name, not the name of the cousin on the ID."

"The underage female also admitted to drug use and is currently in a rehabilitation program," Barbieri said in the March report.

In addition, Barbieri said police learned that a social worker from the state Department of Children and Families had talked to the girl, and that the girl said bartenders knew she was underage.

As of March, police said the alleged employment of the girl was being investigated by the police department, the state attorney general's office and DCF.

The ShowBar also faces one count each of: permitting a person under 18 to work in a place where intoxicating/alcoholic liquors are sold; delivering/selling alcohol to a person under 21; distribution of narcotics; no manager of record on scene; violation of security plan — failure to maintain a zero tolerance policy for under age 21 entrance; and violation of security plan — failure to use Chestnut Street entrance, according to the notice of pre-hearing conference.

The time period of the alleged "occurrence(s)" is listed as January 2016 to Feb. 17, 2016.

The ownership is listed as Buddy's Pub LLC, doing business as ShowBar. Buddy''s Pub LLC lists Ronald Eckman as resident agent and Michael Brisbois as manager/owner.