another columbus club goes dark

Court order closes Exotic Pearl for now, declares it a public nuisance


By Bruce Cadwallader and Kevin Mayhood
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH




An East Side strip club was shut down temporarily by a judge late yesterday after Columbus police said sex and drugs were sold by employees to undercover officers over a two-year span.
The city attorney's office and Columbus police obtained an emergency court order from Franklin County Environmental Judge Harland H. Hale to padlock the Exotic Pearl, 2194 S. Hamilton Rd., as a public nuisance.
They said they have documented undercover buys of sex acts from dancers and drug deals with marked city money dating to May 2006.
The business, near Hamilton and Groves roads, was previously called the Platinum Fox.
Undercover and uniformed police swarmed into the club about 8:15 p.m. and removed six patrons.
Eventually, about a dozen employees left; one dancer and a man who said he'd worked security said they'd seen no drugs and no prostitution at the club.
Police said criminal charges likely would be filed against the owners and some workers.
The civil order to close the club was granted against property owner Balgot Realty Corp. of Erie, Pa., and local managers Tracy Fields of Pickerington, David M. Fields of Pataskala, and Victoria Weber of Lewis Center, according to court documents.
A hearing on the closure will be scheduled in Municipal Court within two weeks.