TONOPAH, Nev. — Love Ranch brothel sex workers and support staff blasted Nye County’s Board of Commissioners at its biweekly meeting yesterday, urging the board to unrevoke Dennis Hof’s brothel license or face legal consequences.
Earlier this month commissioners cited repeated issues with Hof, including late payments of quarterly brothel fees, as the reason behind an action to not renew his license. The same day they decided on the action, commissioners ordered the sheriff to shut down the brothel.
At a raucous and rowdy public comment session before the board yesterday, several Love Ranch workers said that they are ready to file a class-action lawsuit against the county for putting them out of work at the brothel.
Dawn Duncan, a Love Ranch cashier for seven years, said that the brothel’s closure has been “crippling” and that she’s had to borrow money to get by.
“We will be filing a class-action lawsuit seeking unspecified damages for loss of income and mental anguish, depression and anxiety” because of the commissioners' actions, said Duncan, who noted that the board decided to revoke the licenses as a vendetta against Hof.
“We are real people with real bills like everybody else,” said Jennifer Mason, who has worked at the Love Ranch as a sex worker for four-and-a-half years. “Without Dennis having the licenses, we can’t work. Our hands are tied, and we want a conclusion.”
Jeanine Pinkerton, Love Ranch’s assistant general manager, told commissioners to remember her, “because you have not only affected me, you have affected every other employee that works at Love Ranch.”
Heidi Fleiss, a former Hollywood madam and 12-year Pahrump resident, asked the board whether there was any way to address the situation without litigation.
“Can we find middle ground here?” Fleiss asked. “Would you rather have the lawsuits?
“There are other ways of doing this than closing down the business where a lot of people are affected,” Fleiss said. “He’s invested $3 million in this business.”
The status of the licenses will be addressed today in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas. Hof, through his lawyer, industry attorney Marc Randazza, is seeking a preliminary injunction to allow the brothel to reopen.
Yesterday, Hof scored an initial victory at federal court. U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware ordered early discovery in the case in support of a temporary restraining order.
Boulware ordered the board to provide one year of records for brothels in the county, including license renewal payments.
