The Vault Restaurant and Cabaret is hoping to receive a review of its pending suspension while challenging a commissioner’s role in liquor licensing.
Last September, the Vault took up an offer from Mantra Entertainment’s GGW “Back to School” producers, who proceeded to tape nearly 20 minutes of content, according to a court filing.
And, as typified by previous GGW episodes, the crowd became hysterical when cameras rolled, the filing said. At one point a man on stage ordered one of the women to take off another woman’s clothes, put whip cream on her nipples and genitals and lick them off.
According to the filing, the woman did it in full view of employees and customers. The tape ended with the participants stating their names, age and giving GGW permission to use the footage.
Plainclothes St. Louis police officers and state liquor-control agents witnessed alleged underage drinking and lewd conduct, then promptly stopped the show.
Authorities arrested the club’s manager Ahmed Jakupovic and two of the women who exposed themselves.
Shortly afterwards, St. Louis Excise Commissioner Robert Kraiberg suspended the club's liquor license for 70 days starting in December, but the suspension was put on hold during an appeal.
Last month, St. Louis Circuit Judge Lisa Van Amburg agreed that the GGW shoot at the bar was considered “lewd and indecent,” but upheld another delay in the suspension.
Now, fighting for its commercial venue’s life, the Vault has targeted the city, its excise division and Excise Commissioner Robert Kraiberg, challenging Kraiberg’s role in liquor licensing.
The suspension would force it out of business, becoming a “death knell,” its attorney Patrick Mehan said in court documents.
The Vault’s suit questions Kraiberg’s power to act as both prosecutor and judge in administrating liquor licensing: “in so vesting in one official such omnipotency, ad [sic] combining functions in one person responsibilities and duties that must be reposed in separate individuals, this ordinance violates due process.”
Mehan said that the Vault wants the suspension nullified and the city’s liquor control ordinance declared unconstitutional.