Town to enforce closing of embattled strip club

The Town of Babylon is hoping a federal court will help it enforce a settlement reached five years ago with a West Babylon strip club in which the club agreed to shut down last year.

The Long Island Café Gentleman's Club is still in operation nine months after it was supposed to end its adult use, town officials said. The club maintains the settlement is invalid because the town has not gone after other adult businesses and forced them to close.

The settlement was a result of a consolidated lawsuit filed by Long Island Café and another adult club, Crystal Café in East Farmingdale, against the town over its zoning laws. The town tightened regulations in 2005, pushing adult businesses away from houses and into industrial zones.

The 2005 settlement required both businesses to cease adult operations by November 2009 and January 2010, respectively, the town said. The Crystal Café is no longer an adult business, town officials said, while the Long Island Café continues to operate as a topless bar and even has posted a hiring sign outside. In December the town filed a motion to have U.S. District Court Judge Joanna Seybert enforce the settlement she sanctioned.

"They agreed to it and this is a clear violation of the agreement," Supervisor Steve Bellone said. "What they're banking on is this is a First Amendment issue and things take a very long time in federal court and so, 'maybe we can keep operating indefinitely while this is tied up in the courts.' "

According to documents filed in December by Long Island Café lawyer Daniel Silver of New Britain, Conn., other adult businesses continue to operate in the town. Enforcing the agreement "would be inequitable," the documents state.

"We feel they're picking on us because we're the ones who instituted the lawsuit," Silver said in an interview. "There are other illegal establishments there which have been open all this time even when the five years was pending and the town didn't do anything about it. These people got a free ride. . . . That's not right."

Bellone said the town has aggressively gone after other adult businesses, citing an ongoing State Supreme Court case against Sneek A Peek adult store in West Babylon. However, he said, "Until we get settlement on just one case and get some clarity . . . it would be a waste of staff time to be pursuing the exact same kind of case."

Bellone said the town has issued summonses to Long Island Café but has opted not to forcibly shut down the business, instead looking to the federal court to enforce the settlement.

Tom McKevitt, a municipal law expert and state assemblyman from East Meadow, said that approach is probably Babylon's quickest route to resolution. McKevitt said seeking an injunction could result in another challenge from the club, forcing the town to "start the case from scratch."

Babylon officials also said a federal-court decision would validate the town's zoning laws. "If we can't shut this down, with an agreement in hand, then what does our zoning code mean?" Bellone said. "It has no teeth then."