photo by: Rochelle Valverde

Allstars, 913 N. Second St., is pictured on Feb. 2, 2022.

The owner of a Lawrence night club that the City of Lawrence is seeking to shut down for operating as an illegal strip club is denying the city’s claims that the club has violated city code or been the site of frequent criminal infractions.

In a lawsuit filed Feb. 2 in Douglas County District Court, the City of Lawrence alleged that Allstars has been operating without the license required for a sexually oriented entertainment business, as the Journal-World previously reported. The city also claimed Allstars is ineligible to receive such a license, and requested the court to permanently prohibit Allstars’ owners from operating the strip club or any other sexually oriented entertainment business at its current location without a valid license.

City code includes various reasons why a business or business operator could be ineligible to receive such a license, and the city did not specify what made Allstars or Allstars’ operators ineligible. The city did allege as part of the lawsuit that Allstars had been the site of “serious and numerous criminal infractions,” including an incident in August when multiple weapons were reportedly fired on the premises and Allstars employees initially denied police entry to the building.

The lawsuit is filed against Lawrence Entertainment Inc., which is doing business as Lawrence Allstars The Gentleman’s Club. Topeka residents Karim V. Crim and Kenneth Troupe, the owners of Lawrence Entertainment, are named as defendants in the lawsuit, along with Riverfront Business Park, which the filing states owns the building.

In a response filed in Douglas County District Court last week, Crim denied the city’s claims, stating that Lawrence Entertainment has been operating as a “bar” at its current location in Douglas County since its inception in March 2000, has not been required to obtain a sexually oriented business license from the city to this date, “and therefore has not violated the City Code.” The response states that Lawrence Entertainment has remained compliant with all city codes known to it.

Crim’s response goes on to state that the defendants, who just recently purchased the business and completed an interior remodel during the pandemic, will suffer irreparable financial injury if the city is granted an injunction to stop the business from operating. He did not state which of the defendants recently purchased the business.

Crim’s response also addresses the city’s allegations of multiple criminal infractions and that officers were denied entry to the building. The response states that Lawrence Entertainment has no knowledge of officers being denied access to the premises by employees and was not notified by authorities that access was denied. The response also claims that Allstars has not had out of the ordinary criminal infractions.

“As with several bars located in the Douglas County there have been altercations which require police assistance, but Lawrence Entertainment Inc has not been a site for which an altercations (sic) has resulted in a fatality, bodily harm or arrest for discharging a firearm,” Crim’s response states.

Riverfront Business Park also filed a response, asking the court to dismiss the city’s lawsuit against Riverfront. The response states that the city did not make any allegations against Riverfront other that stating that Riverfront is the owner of the building. Riverfront’s response states that as the property owner, Riverfront does not operate Allstars and has no relationship with Allstars other than as a leaseholder.

A hearing in the case has not yet been scheduled.